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