Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Looming in the Distance

My heart is heavy tonight.  I've been taking a blog break, but I knew that writing to the wonderful D-Moms would help to lift my spirits.

I have a black cloud A.K.A. Diabetes, showing its ugly face this evening.

As most of you know, Andrew has been controlling his diabetes so far with diet.  He's still free of insulin at this point and experiencing lows.

My husbands birthday was today and we decided to celebrate at P.F. Chang's since they offer gluten free options for Andrew.  When we got there, I had Andrew test and he was at 80.  Beautiful!  He ordered the gluten free chicken, broccoli and rice.  I always feed him brown rice because white rice has an extremely high glycemic load, but I thought I'd let him "cheat" a little.  I portion his rice at home to no more than 1/2 cup per serving.

Then things started to escalate...

  • Mistake 1: The waitress delivers his food and they put the sauce all over the chicken and broccoli after I requested it to be on the side.  It happens, but it really puts a monkey wrench in the plan with a diabetic.  
  • Mistake 2:  She takes the food away and leaves the white rice in front of him.  Being at 80 and dropping, hunger is setting in and he starts to pick away at the rice.  I asked him to only eat 1/2 of the rice bowl.  Before I knew it, the rice was GONE! 
  •  Mistake 3:  His new chicken and broccoli show up and he DOESN'T LIKE THE CHICKEN! UGGHHH!!!  
Oh my goodness, this is not good.  He has way tooooo much white rice in his system and no protein to balance it out.  I think fast and ask them if they could kindly cook him some gluten free eggs since they use them in the fried rice.  They quickly whipped some up for him and thankfully Andrew was a happy camper!

When dinner was over, I tested and he was at 131.  I'm thinking, "Wow, this is good".  

Since Andrew was diagnosed with celiac disease, I haven't had birthday cake in the house because it's just too much a temptation for Andrew.  I wanted to make gluten free brownies, but didn't have time so we decided that we would stop for ice cream later in the evening.  Andrew likes to get the no sugar added dilly bars.  They are gluten free!!!

OK, everyone is scurrying around getting ready to go and BAM! Andrew yells, we can't go!  "Why not?, I asked.  "I'm at 196!", he yelled.  Oh boy!  Now what do I do?  What all I could think of is EXERCISE!  I remember a D-mom (I believe it was Diapeepees) posting a picture of her little ones running around the house due to a high blood sugar reading.  I sent them all out to the backyard to run around.

After an hour, I decide to pull him back in to test again.  You will not even believe what I saw....71!  Yes 71!  This is a type 1 diabetic off of insulin pulling a 71.  How does this happen?????  I'm so confused.  Actually the doctors are too.

Anyway, we decide that we better get to the DQ before they close.  After we get our ice cream, Andrew starts saying, "I feel weird and shaky".  Oh my goodness!!! I left the testing bag at home.  Thankfully we only live a couple of minutes away.  He just keeps saying that he feels weird.  This is a child that does not get many symptoms when he's low.  When we arrive home and test, he reads 67.  I felt better knowing that he wasn't ready to pass out, but I was so mad that diabetes completely messed with us ALL evening!

I know the inevitable is staring me in the face, but for now I just want to stay in our non-insulin bubble.  I'm scared to death of something that I know will eventually save my son's life - insulin.  The honeymoon period is soooo unpredictable.  I think, what if I would have given him a correction tonight for the 196 reading?  That 71 blood glucose reading 1-1/2 hours later could have been a disaster!

Thank you so much DOC for your stories and experiences!  When you feel that you're writing to the "invisible" blogosphere, please know that there are people on the other side of your computer reading your blogs and finding comfort, support, wisdom, information and guidance from your words.








9 comments:

  1. ((hugs)) you will do what you have to when the time comes...the honeymoon phase is not all it's cut out to be. I hate seeing those high numbers but things are much more predictable now that her pancreas isn't trying to do it's job some of the time. I keep a meter in my purse (most endo's get samples that they can give you with a bottle of about 10 test strips too) for times when we don't feel like lugging the who D-bag with us. I am glad it turned out ok and that he got to enjoy his dad's birthday!

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  2. Ugh, that is so scary! I agree with Heidi, that in a way, it is a total relief to be done with the honeymoon period, because at least you know...okay - eat=insulin. It's still unpredictable, but not nearly as unpredictable as the honeymoon time.

    ((hugs)) to you! I'm sure this is incredibly stressful.

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  3. Oh, my friend.

    We didn't have much of a honeymoon. There's so much about the experience you describe here that I can't relate to.

    But I can assure you that you will be able to manage insulin when the time comes.

    You're doing a great job...and that will never change!

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  4. Never a dull moment with D in the picture, eh? Sorry it seemed to ruin your evening. Hang in there! =)

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  5. Like Wendy we never had a honeymoon. So I dont know much about controlling with diet or the random lows. I can only image your frustration. Have you thought of a cgm? Insulin or not it would be agreat tool!

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  6. Hi Alexis,
    I asked our old endo. about a cgm awhile ago, but she didn't want to use one at that time. As things progress, we might have to. Thank you for your suggestion!!! I will definitely bring that up with our new endo.

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  7. What a roller coaster! Bean had a bit of a honeymoon and honestly it was more frustrating than anything. It's hard enough to calculate things with D, but add in a pancreas that kinda wants to work sometimes and it can be maddening!
    Like all of us, we do what we have to do when we have to do it and like it or not it's what we do! Sure, it stinks and we'd trade anything in the world to not have to, but we do! With God's grace, we do!

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  8. Hi Nikki!!!! I was so happy to open up my Google Reader and see you had posted; but then I read the words and tears came to my eyes. Nothing is ever simple and carefree anymore when autoimmune disease joins the family :(.

    I have to comment on the exercise, though. When Ellie has a high bs and no ketones, I send her out to the trampoline, or to ride her bike or to jumprope. I am always AMAZED at how quickly her numbers will fly down. She has ofetn dropped 150 points in 30 minutes (sometimes less) and this is teh reason we so not do insulin corrections for highs . . . . right now. Once she is on the pump we may, but not in conjunction with exercise!

    I asked out CDE about it and she said some kiddos are just sensitive to exercise and agreed it was a good plan for us as long as we don't let her go too long.

    Just yesterday we went to the pool for the first time this season (and with D) and she got in the water at 237. Within 50 minutes she was at 55. Thank goodness I took the advice of Amy over at Diapeepees and Heidi at D-tales and purchased a couple of water proof bags. I loaded it up with her testing supplies, glucose tabs and juice boxes. We ended up needing all of it!

    Hang in there, sweet Mama. Pray for the loving arms of our lord to wrap you in confindence and l-o-v-e!!!!

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  9. i really feel for you re the uncertainness of the honeymoon. how can you possibly understand and quantify what a normal pancreas is doing inside your little ones body. its just a gamble. when my son was honeymooning we never knew when his blood sugar would plunge or spike. generally over night it would be spluttering along making its own insulin. scary stuff. as he came out of the honeymoon, things have gotten a little easier because we manage the insulin. diabetes sucks all round, i guess i wanted to say you are not alone and BIG HUGS>xx

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