Happy Medium

Since Andrew has started back on insulin, things have been going smoothly for the most part.  Our challenge this week was swimming lessons.  He's been fine for the past 1-1/2 weeks, but yesterday and today he's been running low and it's affecting his performance.

I've been posting about morning spikes, particularly with eating cereal for breakfast.  As you know, we've been keeping him at only 2 servings of starch carbs per meal.  Everyday I would carefully measure out 1-1/2 cups of Rice Chex and top it with an equal amount of nice and cold milk.

One hour following his breakfast, he would spike into the 200's.  When I would switch his breakfast to    eggs and 2 pieces of toast, he would stay in the lower 100's.  I could not figure out what the heck the problem was.

My answer: MILK!!  I forgot that milk is considered a carb in the diabetic world.  I've been so conditioned over the years to count milk as a protein and not a carb. Andrew only uses milk in his cereal, so it wasn't interfering in our other meals.

So, when I thought I was giving him only 2 carb selections for breakfast, he was actually getting between 3 and 4. YIKES!  No wonder why his blood glucose numbers went running for the hills.

It's really not been a good idea to try and start insulin and swimming lessons all at the same time, but we really didn't have a choice.  His endo. has been an awesome help through this transition!

Before lessons yesterday, I tried only 1 cup cereal and 1 cup milk along with some eggs for breakfast with his normal insulin scale and he only rose to 121 one hour post meal.  He was tired towards the end and came in at 57.  Nothing a couple of packs of Smartie's couldn't fix.  The thing that still scares me to death is that he DOESN'T feel his lows.  I have to make a conscience effort to keep testing him while he's swimming.

Today, I made him a 2 egg and cheese toasted sandwich.  He only came in at 107 before lessons.  I should have probably fed him a little sugar, but the doctors keep telling me that his body will be ok.  I'm assuming that this is true ONLY because he's honeymooning and is just taking fast acting insulin at the moment.  With 10 minutes to go in his lesson, I whipped out the handy glucometer and a 62 was staring back at me.  I gave him some Smartie's, but he was just wiped out and starving!  He had no more energy to give and just wanted to sit out the rest of the lesson.  I had to yell to the instructor that he was LOW.  Of course he didn't hear me the first time around and I had to repeat it.  I'm sure by now the whole pool heard me.  Diabetes just makes me mad!

After class, one of the boys came up to me and asked why he had to sit out.  I explained that he had diabetes and his blood sugar went a little too low.  We just feed him some sugar to bring it back up and then he's good to go again.  He looked at me and said, "Oh, ok."  As the mother passed me, she told me that she had gestational diabetes and that her son was used to seeing her test her blood all the time.

The sad thing is that when I explained to Andrew what we were talking about, he said, "I know, gestational diabetes is something you get for a SHORT time and then it goes away."  My heart just sunk!   I knew exactly what he was thinking, "Why can't mine go away?"  The poor kid, double diabetes and celiac disease all at once!  God, please bless us with a cure!

We will hold our heads high and keep trucking.  God has us in His precious hands.  He gives us everything we need to endure the battle!

One thing's for sure, I think some cereal will be on our breakfast menu tomorrow as we wrap up our swimming lessons adventure!