Undefeated and Defeated

Spring soccer will not defeat me!


He hates it when his hair looks like that
-I couldn't resist

It started with me laying in bed this morning. It always starts that way. "Riley don't take any insulin with your breakfast," I say. He says, "Dad told me to do just one unit." (half of his normal dosage) "No, none" I reply.

8:15 am before the game 86 mg/dL
He played the entire first game, 90 minutes. And scored a goal. His team actually won this game, first and only win of the 6 week season.

10 am just before the second game grudgingly tested  253 mg/dL
I turned to my spouse and said something like woo that's high BUT that number is a dropping as we speak.

11:30 am - tested before eating lunch  149 mg/dL 
The second 90 minute game dropped his blood glucose by more than 100. He had a salad and two large slices of pizza with one unit of insulin.  BTW, his team lost that game in similar fashion to every other Saturday morning these past six weeks, except Riley had another goal.

1 pm - heading to the shower, laughing and yelling and possibly dancing around ridiculously. Spouse and I looked at each other and then I ran down to get his kit. Riley said NOOOOOO! and jumped in the shower. I set up the lancet poker thingy (and while cleaning out the kit, poked my finger with a stray lancet, but can't complain right...once every 4 months I injure myself with a lancet or sharp somehow, not eight times a day minimum like he has to)
When he got out of the shower  68 mg/dL 

Diabetes Blog Week

May 14 -20 is Diabetes Blog Week
Join in the fun this week. Come on, everybody's doin it!

Karen at Bitter Sweet is hosting her 3rd Annual D-Blog Week. Everyone participating will blog each day about a set diabetes related topic. Everyday for a week (thus the title). Her blog shows the list of everyone in the DOC - Diabetes Online Community who is signed up to participate. So readers can gain all kinds of insight and great stories from a whole slew of people blogging their experiences having diabetes or caring for a child with diabetes, etc...

Sibling

Riley's sibling, Reid was in the car with four other girls her age heading to a special choir practice about 30 minutes away from home. She was looking through the camoflauge bag I keep in the car with snacks, glucose tabs and juice boxes (just in case). I heard her say, "I wish I could taste a glucose tab." This caught my attention. I watched her in the rear view mirror answer all the questions that were aroused by her comment. She explained that her brother's blood sugar might or could go low (another child interrupted asking "Is it supposed to be high?") She continued saying that if it went to a number like 67, he would need to eat something sweet like the glucose tabs and added that no, your blood glucose isn't supposed to be high either. I added that I bet those glucose tabs probably taste like Smarties. 

I was proud of her. The way she described what she sees of her brother's diabetes care and control was matter of fact. She knew the answers. It took me back to that first week after diagnosis. None of us thought we would emotionally make it through. Now look at us!

We interrupt your regularly sceduled programming...

Last night, when Riley was doing his slow-acting insulin (Lantus) injection before bed, he realized at the too-late moment that he injected his fast-acting insulin (Novolog) instead. He was distraught! We assured him everything would be just fine. We went straight to the notebook we compiled from 20 hours of Diabetes Education. I remember the lesson about insulin mistakes, ie forgettting to inject insulin, injecting low-acting instead of slow-acting, injecting the wrong amount. I said out-loud in class after hearing a description of one of the errors, "That's impossible." "No it's not!" our educator replied. Sho-nuf.

The notes say to eat enough carbs to cover the insulin. How bad can that be? Riley had a little cup of ice cream (15 g), a cookie (I assume 15g-threw away the packaging too soon) and we added a tablespoon of chocolate syrup (15 g) for good measure. We made him promise not to make this mistake on purpose next time!

The question remained. Do we give the regularly scheduled Lantus after this? The notes didn't cover this question. Spouse says he read somewhere not to mix insulins-we figure that an injection of Novolog followed by an injection of Lantus an hour later constituted a mixing of insulins. I thought wait until morning to give the Lantus injection. But today is the beginning of the 30 Hour Famine!

So, we skipped it all together. He woke up with a blood glucose of 104 mg/dL. He totally carb loaded for breakfast this morning. The four us went out breakfast before school to use a Denny's gift card Riley got as a joke for Christmas. What's the joke? We were in California last year and while my spouse was working, I wanted to take the kids to LegoLand. Denny's in CA had a coupon for getting a kid in free for every adult pass purchased. So we drove to San Diego one morning for breakfast. Riley ordered himself the Make Your Own Grand Slam with turkey bacon (two orders of it). It might have been the highlight of the week's vacation.

 



Disaster avoided. We think. We'll see how high his numbers are today with the long-acting insulin on board. Then to further muddy the water (or blood), the fasting. It should be interesting. Tune in next time...

30 Hour Famine fundraiser

This weekend is the 30 hour Famine fundraiser I mentioned last month. Riley waffled about actually doing it. As of today, he is in.

Starting after lunch today, he will be on a juice (how does a diabetic drink juice?) diet for the next, you guessed it, 30 hours.

I'll let you know next week how it goes.

Spring Soccer

Saturday, we attempted to do it all. We all got up early for Riley's spring soccer game at 8:30 am, he had to be there at 8:15. Everyone was dressed in their wedding attire for the wedding we would be attending an hour and a half south of our home at 11 am. 

We were rushing so Riley had a cereal bar, some fruit and chocolate almond milk on the way to the game along with his morning Novolog injection of 2 units. He played the entire game except for the last five minutes, we couldn't be late for a wedding! He jumped in the the 3rd row of seats so he could wash up and dress during the trip with some privacy.

We walked into the wedding with the program hander-outers right behind us and then the matron of honor right behind the hander-outers, then of course the bride, my aunt -who looked so wonderful walking next to her son dressed in his military uniform, I could barely stifle the tears.

I don't think the wedding was very long, but it started right on time. 11 am. The kids popped up as soon as the wedding was over to see cousins once or twice removed. Ten seconds later, Riley said, "I think I'm low...I'm dizzy."  Do you have your kit? Of course not! Not when we really need it. But when we arrived at the wedding, I grabbed the pack of Sprees my husband had bought right after dropping Riley and I off at the soccer game.  He also picked up a Gatorade for Riley to drink during half-time to keep his glucose from plummeting. Tim, spouse, ran to the car to get the glucose monitor ("the kit") and I gave Riley 7 Sprees. He was still shaky, so they headed down to find some additional food and test his bg. He was 65 mg/dL. I wondered if that was with some Spree sugar, had it been lower?

All sugared up

We're a little rusty with organized sports and diabetes. Riley was diagnosed during his school's fall soccer season. That was a Tuesday, he was back at practice on Friday. In the beginning, he was getting a lot of long-acting Lantus and way more fast acting Novolog (compared to now). The lows were tough. Each time, I was grateful that we were home together and could experience it together. We would learn how to handle them and be just fine.

We followed the under 70 mg/dL plan: test, 15 g fast acting carb, 15 minute wait, test again. Repeat if necessary. I'll never forget the first one. It was the first Saturday after being diagnosed. We were outside in the backyard kicking the soccer ball back and forth. When I kicked it out of his reach, I wouldn't let him run and get the ball (Our CDE's had a good laugh). I was so worried about how exercise would effect his glucose.  After ten minutes of playing and me asking how he felt ten times, Riley felt weird, sweaty and then hungry. So he tested. He was 45.

The second time was also very memorable. It was the following Friday. Riley had a game after school, then we all met at our favorite Mexican restaurant to celebrate something, I can't remember what. My husband's parents, my mom and brother. 8 of us squeezed into the round corner booth-my usual favorite spot. We stayed an hour after eating, just chatting. When we got home, Riley was running around wrestling with his uncle. Hootin and hollerin in his skivvies. About 5 minutes into this ridiculously funny moment, Riley said, "Woooo, I'm dizzy." My husband and I looked at each other. The light had already gone off. This is what LOW looks like. He laid on his bed and tested - 34 mg/dL. This was at the same moment one of the scariest and funniest moments of my life. Riley was talking to the dog (begging Reuben to bring him a snack), he was talking to his pancreas (congratulating it for producing some insulin), he was chewing Skittles. My husband was calling the CDE-triage number. We had been instructed to notify them anytime his number was below 50 in these first few weeks.

The lesson had been learned. He tested before each practice or game, ate a 15 g snack if his number was below 120. Then after the game (during, if necessary), he tested again. But the most important glucose test would always be about two hours after soccer. That was when his glucose would bottom out.

So...Spring soccer is requiring us to dust off our lessons learned. Decreasing his Novolog by a unit at breakfast is the first change we will make this Saturday for the double header soccer game. Additional testing between games, too. And Gatorade/snacks as needed.

Old Insulin

They say you can only keep the Novolog and Lantus pens a month.

We meticulously write dates on each pen as Riley goes through them. We regularly throw away 15-20 units because the four weeks is over but the insulin isn't. But last week, we just kept using the Lantus before bed time even though it was a week past due. His morning blood glucose number was a little low 86. I knew "they" were just trying to get us to buy more insulin, this stuff doesn't really get old. Then lunch rolled around, bg 168. Hmmm, that's odd. Maybe Riley had a pretzel rod in Math class for getting a 100 on your assignment. It is the last class before lunch and Mrs. Math Teacher really does give pretzel rod treats. At dinner, his bg was 172. I'm gonna have to think about that one. Then bedtime again, bg 251. Well, I guess the honeymoon is over...

Next day, we do it all over again. Before breakfast bg 113, lunch 202, dinner 122 and bedtime 234.

Then it hits me! It's the old Lantus.

Proceed with new Lantus.

Before breakfast bg119, lunch 97, dinner 88, bedtime 128.

Why would I think I knew more than "they"?