Tuesday, January 03, 2006

The only thing that doesn't change

Just a quick post to let you know that after I wrote my post yesterday about Riley not having a day where he is in range all day, he had a day where he was in range all day. He did not go too high or too low all day yesterday. Great, right? Well, today he's been high pretty much the entire day. One time getting up to 372! So, I guess the only thing that doesn't change about diabetes is that it is always changing.

Also, just found out today in "Pumping Insulin" that most kids of Riley's weight are on a about 8 units of insulin per day ( NovoLog and Lantus combined) Well, Riley is only on 2 units of insulin per day. I don't know if it's honeymoon or if he's just sensitive to insulin. Either way from trying to figure an estimate of what his basal would be on a pump, we would have to go with the Animas. But, the endo. doesn't really want to do the pump until Riley is on at least a whole unit of Lantus. So, we'll see after we go to our pumping class on Thursday.

8 comments:

Unknown said...

I would definetly recommend the pump. I'm glad your endo wants to get Riley on one asap.
The flexibility is wonderful. I especially love when Josh looks at me and says,"No, more shots,Mommy?", which in almost 2mos he has had probably a total of 5. And you are absolutely correct, Diabetes is a day to day adventure. The pump is great too, because it keeps a Daily Total of Insulin given. Which for Josh's median is about 15 and his basal is .2 an hour. Good Luck at your pump training class.

Nicole P said...

Good Luck at pump training, Penny. You are going to be great, I am sure. I've enjoyed reading your posts so far, and I look forward to reading more... I'll have to go through some of your older ones soon.

Thanks for your post at CuriousGirl. I have a great deal of respect and admiration for parents of children with diabetes -- who struggle through the rough stuff and keep in their minds that in the end, the difficult things will make their child's life healthier and happier.

Penny Ratzlaff said...

Your comment came at just the right time. After 2 days of high sugar I wasn't sure I could take it anymore. But, then your comment reminded me that I have to stay strong for Riley and do what is best for him. Thanks!

Nicole P said...

You're more than welcome, Penny. I wish Riley steadier in-range sugars to come!

Shannon said...

We had a similar incident with Brendon being consistent: 156, 160, 163, 162, and then 33! Too good to be true.

As for the amount of insulin Riley is on, it colud very well be because he's still honeymooning.

Anonymous said...

I'm curious why the pedi endo wants him on at least 1 unit of lantus a day before pumping? It seems like with the Animas pump you can set the basal to give him .025 and hour which is .6 every 24 hours. My son started pumping when he was 2 (he is almost 4 now) and uses Animas. His basal is generally around .175-.225 depending on time of day.

The other option might be to pump but still use lantus as the basal - with the pump only for boluses when he eats. (the "untethered" regime: http://www.childrenwithdiabetes.com/clinic/untethered.htm). That could make it more complicated than it would be already though. Good luck ;-)

Sandra Miller said...

Penny, I was just about to comment about how the Animas pump can accomodate a basal rate of less than a unit/day, but then I saw that Carol addresses this quite well above.

I will say that I found the book Smart Pumping by Howard Wolpert to be the most useful in calculating initial basal rates & insulin-to-carb ratios.

Good luck, and I'm anxious to hear how things went yesterday...

Penny Ratzlaff said...

I think she wants us to be able to choose any pump we want and not have to chose the Animas. Plus, she would like to get it where Riley's Lantus is at least 40% of his TDD. He has had an increase in his Lantus, though. It's been a rough few days. I'll write a post about it soon, but right now I'm tired and I'm going to bed. By the way, I don't really like the Animas. I prefer the Cozmo. I don't want to have to choose a certain pump just for what his basal may have to be for a couple of months. Thanks for everyone's comments.

Sandra, thanks to your recommendation I'm reading that book right now and have already figured out Riley's basal. I can't remember it off hand but it's 0.03something.