Day Two: 8:34 am Arden wakes up & wants to swim

Well I sure won that bet.  You’ll remember that I was afraid to give Arden Levemir at 1 am because she was 183 and I assumed she go up a bit overnight but not too much.  Well I got that wrong.  Arden was 415 when she woke up.  I quickly gave her Levemir and enough Novolog to cover the high.  Since I wasn’t sure if, when or how much she would eat I decided to hope (how messed up is that? “I decided to hope”) she ate before the Nov peaked and then test her after the peak and re-evaluate.  

We’re going for a swim... Heat and activity what fun...  She was 314 two hours after the 8:34 am shots so I gave her another half of Novolog.  Let’s sidetrack to explain why.  After the two hour mark if she is still over 300 it tells me that what she ate fought off the peak.  She won’t be much lower an hour from now so I need to get some more insulin on board.  Factors I considered were 1. We were on our way to meet a friend for lunch at noon (in one hour) so she’d be eating again before the half unit peaks.  2. We were going swimming after lunch so I didn’t give her as much as I would have normally because I was shooting for her to be 250 at pool time to cover the heat and activity.

Pool time...  Arden was 259 at 1:28 pm.  That’s 2 hours and 30 minutes after the half and an hour after lunch... Pure diabetes managing nirvana!  259 before hot weather and swimming sets me up for a sweet 170 test after the swim.Perfect!

Or not... 2:32 pm swim is over and Arden is hungry... both sure signs I got her in the mid to low 100’s.  I test her to be certain (and to revel in my masterful call).  Lance, blood, strip, 1979 looking spinning graphic on the meter annnnnnddddddd 278.  2 moth********* 78?!?!?!   She went up.  Fluke I proclaim to all who will listen, “she’ll be 150 in and hour”.

50 Minutes later...  Vindication time.  Now she’s 301.  Another tried and true “diabetes fact” lets me down.  Heat and activity didn’t equal a low it sent her up.  Now I have a different problem.  Arden needs insulin now but she’s tired and she drops when she naps (but only in the mid afternoon mind you, naps at any other time are fairly stable).  A mid-afternoon nap coupled with Novolog plus a heat/activity still looming. I give her another half and try to find something to do where she won’t sleep.

6:00 pm...  101! Woooooooo I’m the back in the game!  101! Nothing can stop me now. It’s clear sailing to bed time nothing can go wrong....

Who brought the soft pretzels???  The thing we found to do to keep Arden awake was to visit family.  They had soft pretzels.  If you’re reading this and don’t know someone with diabetes you may not know that nothing launches a blood sugar and keeps it up like a soft pretzel. 

7:09 pm and 3 pretzel nuggets later... Arden’s BG is 345.  It’s insulin time.  At this time of day getting her insulin wrong is magnified.  For one if she goes low in two hours she’ll likely be asleep.  And there is no greater joy in life then waking up a 3 year old with low BG to tell her it’s time to eat.  The next reason to get this one right is that I’d like to sleep a little once in a while too and I can’t go to bed until I know she is okay.  Fingers crossed...

Home stretch...  Tested Arden after the peak and she is 164... Nice!  I let her drink a little juice before we leave for home because I need her to be over 200 so I can give her a half of Levemir to avoid another 415 again in the morning.  She ends up at 204, I give her the half and then post this update to the site.  It’s 12:33 am now.  Arden will be up in about 8 hours.

Day Two: 1:11 am

I just finished working on this site and I was going to give Arden a half of a unit of Levemir and go to bed but I just checked her and she is 183.  If I give her a half I’m afraid she go low overnight and giving her less then a half of the Lev seems to have no effect on her.  Decisions...

I’m not giving her any more insulin until morning... See you then..  I bet she is high when she wakes up... Over 280 I’ll wager.  Ahhhh... Good Night.

Day One: This Site

I’m very happy with how it went today regarding the chronicling of Arden’s Day online.  Today was a pretty average day.  Some days her BG is high and I can’t figure out why or get it down quick enough... That’s called riding high.  Some days she rides low and I hardly give her any insulin.  But today was pretty average.  I kept her in range for the most part and had one high and one low test.  Having to give Arden “sugar” to get her up quickly is thankfully not the norm.  It happens maybe 2 times a month which is an amazing improvement over last year when it seemed to happen non-stop.  

Taking care of Arden is the ultimate in OTJT (on the job training).  I’ve been disseminating Arden’s day how we experienced it in the beginning.  You get a crash course in what-is-what and then you dive in (actually it feels like you’re pushed in).  So today I pushed you into the pool that is caring for a child with Juvenile Diabetes.  Once you summon up the nerve to watch the video of me getting Arden’s BG back to good you’ve completed my one day online crash course in Type I.

 I sent the emails to you as things were happening today to give you the feeling of immediacy that the disease creates.  I won’t be sending the updates like that from here on out.  Over the next few days I’ll be adding more pages with different information.  I’ll share a few “scary” stories, a few funny stories and show you why there is hope for a cure.  I sincerely appreciate the time you’ve given to this so far...

Day One: After the Low

Arden’s BG was 167 when we left to get her hair cut.  She had a great time even though see was so tired.  

A Recap of her low BG...  Everyday I take some time to reflect back on the shots I’ve given Arden and the results they produced.  In hindsight I should have given Arden a quarter of a unit less at 1:30 pm.  I didn’t give the proper weight to two factors.  1. She has been a bit under the weather over the past couple of days and 2. She sometimes trends lower in the early afternoon.  Then again had I gotten to the food 10 minutes sooner none of this happens and her BG would have been near perfect when I checked her at the 2 hour mark.  So it goes...

The rest of the afternoon... Here are the rest of Arden’s BG for the day: 7:18 pm she was 348 after an ice cream cone.  I gave her a half of a unit then.  At 9:15 pm (2 hour mark) she was 220 and at 10:43 pm she was 199.  I’m going to let her rise up a bit over the next hour or so and then administer a half of a unit of Levemir around midnight.  She should wake up under 200, should.  We’ll see in the morning.  Good night.

**

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

mom

scott  after watching all the video i can only guess how much it affects
you. i thought i really knew all about diiabetes but watching the video i saw there is so much to learn

Friday, August 17, 2007 - 12:05 AM

Day One: 2:59 pm... Arrived at home with Lunch

We’re home and have lunch with us.  Arden was acting strange in the car so I’m going to check her BG before she eats.  By acting strange I mean she was getting upset about her haircut that we have scheduled for 4:30 today.  

2:59pm...  Arden’s BG was 75 right when the insulin was peaking.  What that means is the little bit of food she had in the car saved us from her being at 50.  At 75 I have about 5 minutes to get her BG up at least 20 points because the insulin is dragging her lower and at it’s quickest.  If I hadn't been aware of what was happening Arden would have seized in about 15 to 20 minutes.  All because I made a 20 minute unscheduled stop.  I thought that a juice she had on the way would buy me more time then it did.  

3:01pm... Arden was hungry and she was eating so I let her eat and hoped that it would be enough to keep her BG from dipping any lower.  I tested her again at 3:14 and she was 79.  The food held her but wasn’t bringing her up and the peak was here.  She told me she couldn’t eat anymore because her head was shaking (some times she says her face is wiggling), shaking head or wiggling face she’s tanking and I’m out of time so I ran through all of the foods with Arden that she could have but it’s too late...  She’s now upset and agitated and beyond reasoning with.  It’s time for Strawberry Syrup.  The syrup goes down easy and brings her up very fast!  But it’s going to be a struggle...

3:22...  Test again, she is 87... I’m winning.  Can’t get her to take any more syrup besides she say’s she is feeling better.  So I’ll wait a few minutes and test her again.

3:26... she is 100 and the peak is over.  We aren’t done yet but definitely out of trouble.  The insulin is still going to drag her down a bit (maybe 15-20 points) over the next hour.  Her hunger is back now that she isn’t low but now she doesn’t want the food she wanted before.  I have 20 minutes to get her to eat before we have to leave for her haircut.  

Arden is in good spirits and eating a donut... Which will undoubtedly send her BG too high.  

I set the video camera on a desk while I was getting Arden stable. Be warned it’s going to be shocking to anyone that has never seen a diabetic child go low. The video is at this link.