Tip: When is 421 not 421?

I’m about to go to bed but before I do I wanted to share a diabetes management tip with you.  I tested Arden’s BG at 10:23 pm this evening and it was 421!  But was it?  No, this is a phantom reading that happens a few time a week. 

Here’s what happens. I got messed up today because Arden napped 2 hours into a Novolog injection.  She was 138 at 3:00 pm (two hours into the shot and past the peak).  Which is great!  She clearly “feels” the peak because she frequently asks for food after it’s over, low or not.  I can usually get her to eat something low in carbs at that point which preserves the reading.  Today was no different and she ate some Smartfood popcorn.  Popcorn is a great snack because she can eat a ton of it without taking in too many carbs and it doesn’t spike her BG like say a pretzel would.  

So it’s 3:05 pm and we’re in great shape for the afternoon. She’ll trend down about 20-30 points more over the next hour (maybe a bit less due to the popcorn) and be good, and stable going into dinner... Unless.....

Unless she falls asleep... and she does, on the ride home from visiting a friends house.  She proceeds to sleeps on the couch for an hour (see picture above).  I can’t put her in bed because I need to keep an eye on her... Why?  As I said before, Arden’s plummets during her afternoon nap.  

When I wake her up at 4:30 her BG is not around 100 as it would have been without the nap, it’s 71.  Thankfully, she isn’t altered and asks for a cookie when she wakes up.  This 71 isn’t as much of a crisis as the one in the “Arden goes low” video because the Novolog is gone.  So I’m not fighting the clock.

This is the spot where I still have to gather some more courage.  Because she scarfs down three vanilla Oreos.  That’s about 25 carbs.  Then she asks for a juice (8 carbs).  I should be giving her Novolog to cover the food but I still freeze up a bit after a low.  Which is the WRONG thing to do because then she gets high and seesawing is no good either.  So I make dinner and then she gets a shot.  I know I’m doing the wrong thing but I still haven’t figured out how to ignore the low and trust myself in that spot. So I’ve lost tight control of her BG for the evening.

Time to get back to the 421...  It’s now 10:20 pm, Cole is getting into bed (we stayed up a bit to finish watching a movie).  Arden’s Nov is gone and it’s been 12 hours since the Levemir went in so the insulin is pretty much gone.  Perfect world scenario she is just north of 200, I give her a half of Lev and she’s good till morning.  But instead she’s 421... Now a less savvy diabetes manager would be giving her Novolog to get her down because she obviously can’t be 400+ overnight and the Lev won’t drag her down more then 100 points on it’s own.  Right?  

Wrong...  I’m giving her the Lev now and putting her to bed.  I’ll check her again before I go to sleep.  The 421 isn’t real, well it is for the moment but it’s going to drop precipitously on it’s own.  Why?  Two words... Ice pop.  Cole wanted an Ice pop (all of 6g of carbs) at around 9 PM and Arden had one too.  Simple sugar remember spikes but then retreats.  A year ago I’d have given her Nov and tested her in an hour and 40 minutes where I would have found her quickly heading to a seizure.  It’s just that easy... Good Night!

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The following are archived comments from this post. You can post new comments below.

kevin t

It seems difficult for parents of children without diabetes to understand what you go through on an hourly basis. Reading your blog makes us all humble to how tough being a parent can be. Everyday we should thank God for what we have, because life can change on a dime. Arden is luck to have parents like Scott and Kelly.

God Bless

Wednesday, August 29, 2007 - 10:37 PM