Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Rebounds (and I'm not talking about basketball )

Turns out last night when I posted that Riley hadn't had any lows, he was probably in the middle of one right then and I didn't even know it. Holden had practice last night. His practice is at my husband's school (45 minutes away). It would make no sense for Michael to come get Holden, so I took him to practice. All went well. He ran around a little. I decreased his basals and all seemed to be well. The kids wanted to ride home with Michael. He stopped on the way home and checked Riley's sugar. It was 123. It was 127 before supper, so I was pleased that at least maybe his carb coverage was right. An hour after Michael checked it, I checked it again because it was time for his bedtime snack. It was 281. He didn't have much protein for supper, or fat. Nothing that would make his sugar go up like that 3 1/2 hours after a meal. As soon as I saw the number, I knew we were in the midst of a rebound. And, I was right. He spiked up to 365 (at midnight). This time I did think to increase his basal for a while. He woke up with a 151. Not too terrible. I really expected it to be higher.

But, the thing is. That just scares me. I mean, we had just checked his sugar an hour earlier. And in that hour, he went low enough to cause his sugar to rebound. Plus, he was playing a game with Michael during this time. ( A sit down game,not a run around game) He never showed any signs of being low. I thought that since he had high sugars for a while, he might start to feel the lows, but no such luck. What really gets me is there is nothing I can do about it. I can't check his sugar every 30 minutes. His little brain is developing. It needs sugar for that. It just terrifies me. I have no idea how low his sugar actually went.

His sugars have been good today. He was 104 at supper, so I'm sure I'll check his sugar a little too much the rest of the night, to try to catch the low, before it gets too low, if it goes low. Who knows? That's the problem, no one knows. This disease is so uncertain. Most diseases, you take the same dose same time every day. With this disease, your medicine dosage changes from one hour to the next and you get to try and guess what dose you might need. Does he need less? Does he need more? Does he need a little less and then a little more? Maybe a little more and then a little less, but not too much less. You get the picture? OK.....deep breathe. At least there is medicine for his disease. At least he has access to healthcare and insulin. At least I still have a son to worry about.


2 comments:

bingsy said...

Is it typical to have an adjustment period like this? Do other parents that you talk with go through this? Does it eventually even out?

I guess to me it makes a difference if you can see an end to this constant not knowing what his levels will be from one minute to the next - to know that after a ___(fill in the blank with a period of time) his body will adjust to it all. I have such a time comprehending what his little body is going through. I wish I knew more about medicine and science.

Penny Ratzlaff said...

From what I understand, no it doesn't "even out". Maybe someone who has been through it longer will comment.

That's why I have such a difficult time with this. There is no end in site. There is no, well in 2 months we'll have it all figured out and we'll be OK.