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Entries in TipsNTricks (7)

Thursday
Oct312013

Fool proof tips for handling Halloween with Diabetes

Every year, just before Halloween, I receive a few inquiries about writing a freelance piece about 'How to handle Halloween with Diabetes' and every year I politely decline to write about that topic. Why... because I think it adds unnecessarily, to the hysteria that exists online surrounding this non-issue. However today I'm feeling kinda giddy... So without any further ado, here are the tried and true ways that we handle Halloween in our house, you may want to write them down so you don't forget. 

  • We count carbs and cover them with insulin.
  • Due to the nature of how some simple sugars react to the insulin, we test more frequently.
  • Walking can decrease a BG so you'll need to carry some sugar... hey wait a second.

 

Seriously, that's all we do though having a DexCom CGM does help. Tell you what, just so you don't feel ripped off for clicking on this blog entry, here's the stuff I would have written if I excepted those writing jobs. 

  • Trust yourself, you know what you're doing.
  • Practice moderation.
  • Test a little extra.
  • Get home with enough time to allow active insulin to finish before bed.
  • Check on your little ghoul a few times after they go to bed to make sure there's no crazy drop in BG.
  • Relax and eat your kid's candy so you don't have to deal with this crap tomorrow.

 

Okay, well, that's it, except to say this to my freelance suitors... aren't you glad you didn't pay for that!?

Happy Halloween and don't forget to log your BGs and exercise with The Big Blue Test!

Thursday
Oct312013

Pound the (OmniPod) Alarm

From: System Documentation: New OmniPod PDM Model UST400

Have you ever experianced an OmniPod alarm that wouldn't stop? Have you gone online to find out how to save yourself from the incessant squeal and receive tips like: You can open the pod and take out the batteries, put it in the freezer, hit it with a hammer, or my favorite... I put it in the driveway and ran it over with my car.

While I have to admit that a few of those tips sound like a great stress reliever, you don't really have to go to all of that trouble. All you need actually, is a paper clip. The new smaller OmniPod has a manual shut-off port (Just like the first generation did) for stopping that annoying alarm! If you'll refer to the diagram above that I borrowed from page 131 of the system documentation for the new OmniPod PDM Manual (Model UST400), you'll see where the port resides.

Just follow the instructions and don't forget to give the paper clip a firm push (It has to break through a thin layer of plastic) and the alarm will be no more. Best part? You won't slip with a kitchen knife as you try to crack the shell open and cut your finger off.

Wednesday
Feb272013

Pre-Bolus

 

Original art by Mike Lawson - Check out Mike's YouTube page by clicking on the image

This story begins in 2006 just moments after I asked Arden's nurse practitioner if she was "nuts".

NP: <blank stare>

Me: <incredulous gaze>

Only moments before our staring contest began Arden's NP became the first person to suggest that I give Arden her mealtime insulin before she started to eat. I can't be sure if she referred to the practice as pre-bolusing, probably not as we were MDI, but she definitely wanted me to inject before Arden ate.

"Are you nuts?"

I responded emphatically that I could never give Arden insulin before she ate. Arden was two years old and there was no way to be certain of how much food that she would finish. The NP repeated her very reasonable request but I could not wrap my head around this new idea. Pre-Bolusing, bah, Arden would be safer if I left her alone at the mall with money pinned to her shirt.

I was 100% correct on that day. There was absolutely no way to be sure of Arden's appetite. However the inability to guess how much she would eat wasn't the only reason I didn't want to inject before meals. Arden weighed maybe nineteen pounds at the time and Novolog had a way of peaking intensely in her body. She had already experienced a seizure from an insulin miscalculation that I made. That mistakes lesson was still very fresh in my mind and with that bad memory still looming over me, I just couldn't bring myself to administer insulin that wasn't already covered by food or a high BG.

Of course everything that the NP said made total sense. I wanted to give Arden's insulin a head start, I dreamt of a moment when her food would begin to expel it's carbohydrates just as the insulin was pulling her BG lower. I could picture that perfect image in my mind, a tug-of-war with food on one side and insulin on the other. Both combatants pulling furiously without once moving the rope that is Arden's blood glucose value - the dream of a steady mealtime BG. I wanted very much for that to be our reality and so I promised myself that I would make the adjustment when the time was right.

Fear and poor timing stopped me from taking the NP's advice all those years ago. Eventually the day came when I found my footing with the idea and gave up on being scared... that's the day Arden's A1c began to decrease.

We haven't looked back.

The beginning of our trip down the road to pre-bolus freedom was littered with pot holes. The first bump took some time to traverse, we first had to wait until Arden was old enough to give thoughtful consideration to her hunger. After that hurdle was cleared we took the first step, bolusing ten minutes before a meal. Those next ten minutes were the most tense of my day, I would test and worry so much after the bolus that I barely had time to finish cooking. Initial results were less than stunning so I moved the pre-bolus to fifteen minutes before a meal. The extra five minutes increased the impact of the insulin and lessened Arden's post meal spikes, but I still wasn't seeing a huge return on our efforts. I wanted to take the process to another level but I couldn't, in good conscience, give Arden insulin farther from the beginning of her meal. If only I could see the insulin work, I needed a crystal ball...

... or a DexCom CGM

Arden's CGM turned pre-bolusing into the most valuable weapon in our arsenal. It's one thing to have a good idea of how long it takes insulin to begin working in the body. But when you are able to not only witness the movement of the BG, but also the speed with which your glucose level is rising or falling... it's the difference between rumor and fact... between guessing and knowing with reasonable certainty. The day that my eyes were opened to the benefits of wearing a CGM, that was the day that everything changed.

Arden was 149 before dinner last week. I bolused for the elevated BG and pre-bolused for 50 carbs, it was a significant amount of insulin for her. Before DexCom I would have panicked and served the food in less then ten minutes. Now I take my time finishing dinner while Arden and Cole do their homework and leisurely prepare their plates as I wait for the CGM to tell me when to serve.

I put dinner on the table when the arrow on Arden's DexCom G4 turned south, waiting until her BG was below 110. The amount of time between Arden's bolus and her BG decline can vary most days depending on a number of factors. Glucose monitoring grants the flexibility to wait, providing a level playing field for the insulin and those scrappy carbs to wage their battle on.

At least now it's a fair fight.

Don't forget what the bottom of the site says... Always consult your doctor before making changes to your health care. I am not a doctor.

 

 

More about the art: The art work displayed at the top of this post is an original piece from Mr. Mike Lawson. Mike is a tireless advocate for people with diabetes, a friend and extremely talented artist. You can find him working at TUdiabetes, on Twitter and through his fantastic YouTube channel.

Tuesday
Feb262013

Insulin to Carb Ratio

It doesn't matter if you infuse insulin with a pump or inject, you probably know how many units of insulin covers one carb. We use multiple Insulin to Carb Ratios (IC Ratio), in the morning Arden's IC is 1 to 16. One unit of insulin, for every sixteen carbs consumed. Her lunch, dinner and evening ratios are all slightly different. 

Two weeks ago Arden began experiencing unusual BG spikes after lunch, I'm happy that this happened, not because I want to see her BG high but because the anomaly caused me to draw a mental line between these new lunch spikes and a similar spike that I see too frequently after dinner. Post dinner spikes have been an ongoing issue for us this year. I was certain that they were happening due to bad carb counting but this new situation jarred something loose in my head and allowed me to see the problem from a different perspective.

I had become lulled into a false sense of calm by consistently good BGs from other times of day. Those triumphs clouded my ability to see simple issues that caused BG spikes, spikes that shouldn't have been difficult to diagnose. I made a mistake, focusing too much on the food in the equation and ignoring the insulin.

 

Diabetes: "Knock, Knock..."

Me: ("I'm just going to ignore that and see if he leaves")


I wonder now if I didn't subconsciously just need a break, maybe I didn't have enough energy to tackle another diabetes riddle. Whatever the reason, I figured it all out the other day... the answer ended up being so simple that I'm now annoying myself by retelling the story. 

Arden's insulin to carb ratios needed to be changed, one quick adjustment is all it took. I'm still fine tuning the dinner number and the breakfast ratio needs a little help from a temp basal but her BGs haven't been going above about 160 (CGM) after lunch or dinner since I made the adjustments. Everything has been so quiet around here for the last few days. No crazy highs, no panic inducing lows... it's almost too quiet, but I'll happily take that calm for as long as it lasts.

I'll be writing more this week about other simple adjustments that make a huge difference. Don't be afraid to make small changes, you can always put them back if they don't do what you expected. Please remember to record the old numbers before you make any changes in your pump.

 

Don't forget what the bottom of the site says... Always consult your doctor before making changes to your health care. I am not a doctor.

Monday
Feb042013

Basal Adjustments

I was asked on FaceBook to explain how I made the adjustment to Arden's overnight basal rates that resulted in the graph above. I'm sorry that it took me so long to write about my (less than technical) process. Here's how I did it...

Somewhere around the second week of overnight lows it became obvious to me that I was dealing with a trend and not an anomaly. Something had changed about her physiology and I was going to have to adjust - basal adjust.

I'm not going to lie, I didn't do any basal testing. I have the procedure around here somewhere, the page or so of directions from Arden's endo that explains how to do basal testing - but I tried a more, let's say, personal approach. Luckily CGM technology lends a distinct advantage and unless we are averting a low, Arden doesn't eat at this time of night so trend graphs are a perfect way to understand where we have too much basal insulin.

I broke out the stupid PC laptop that we had to buy, because the damn device manufacturers refuse to port their software over to OS X (Apple), then I downloaded Arden's DexCom data. It only took a moment to see what time of night that her blood glucose was drifting lower.

Arden's overnight basal rate was .30 per hour, all I did was dial it back to .20 starting one hour prior to when her BG was beginning to fall, not terribly scientific I know. The possibility that this adjustment would be too little or too much wasn't a huge concern, because let's face it, I'm awake anyway.

As you can see in the image above, the slow drift that was beginning around 4 am leveled off nicely. The picture you see here shows that there was room for a little more basal insulin. I waited two more nights to verify that this graph was accurate and then I moved the basal to .25 an hour. That adjustment caused a slight dip and so the next night I staggered the hourly rates .20, .25, .20, things have been golden since.

The reasons that I like handling basal adjustments myself are simple. Waiting until Arden's next endo appointment to discuss this doesn't feel like an option - too long. Continuing to live with lows would have not only taken the rest of the precious little energy that I have left, but also it would leave Arden in danger - not doing that. People living with diabetes will always need to make adjustments like this. Their bodies, like everyone else's, are constantly going through ebbs and flows. My pancreas doesn't secrete the exact same amount of insulin every hour and it makes sense that Arden's pump shouldn't either. Arden's body has needs, ever changing needs - I have to keep up with them.

We all have to be comfortable making decisions like this autonomously at some point. As parents we don't always have the time to call for an army of help and our children's bodies shouldn't have to wait days or weeks for balanced control. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't make a grand change to Arden's care without our doctor and I don't chase every night that doesn't go perfectly, but basal adjustments when they obviously are needed... We can do that!

If you are going to make basal adjustments please don't forget to write down your old numbers in case you have to switch back. Actually, if you don't already have that information recorded somewhere, take a moment to do that. Write down basal rates, IC ratios, alarm thresholds and all of the other personally inputted data that your pump and glucose monitors retain, just to be safe.

Later this week I'll be talking about Pre-Bolusing, Arden's latest A1c and more... stop back, like Arden's Day on FaceBook or follow the RSS feed to stay in the loop.

Good luck getting those basal rates where they need to be and then enjoy the huge difference in your BGs!