My mom called yesterday to let me know Riley's sugar was high.
She knew I would tell her to recheck it, so she already had. I always recheck when the result is in the 300s and there's no real explanation. For example, he had pasta or he's been running high all day.
But, the last few days his sugars have been great and the 343 that registered just didn't make sense. So, she checked it again and got 302. Yes, different, but still high.
He had a chicken sandwich and apple sauce for lunch (a very common meal for him) So, it was one of those "What the heck?" moments.
I told my mom to bolus for the 302 and to recheck in one hour. Whenever I bolus for a abnormally high sugar, I recheck in an hour to make sure it's coming down. That way I know it's probably not his set causing the high.
My mom called me an hour later. Riley's sugar was 50. Yes, 50 and he still had an awful lot of insulin on board.
He got fruit snacks and some (uncovered) cookies. Somehow he miraculously never rebounded.
So, my question is this: What in the heck happened? It's just so frustrating.
His sugar was checked twice, fingers wiped both times, using different fingers on a different hand. So, the high reading should have been correct. And, the low reading was correct.
He hadn't been any more active than usual. So how in the world did he drop 252 points in one freaking hour? Don't have an answer? Me either.
Just another example of why you can never just get comfortable with this disease.
8 comments:
Very weird, that steep drop from 300 to 50, not to mention frightening. Lucky you checked! Usually it takes us a while to come down from 300 (she's more insulin resistant when higher). I do have a solution I would like to share regarding pasta. Quinoa.corp.com makes a Quinoa pasta, made from corn flour and other things. Totally gluten-free and absolutely no more high blood sugars while it digests. No combo or square wave bolus is needed for this pasta. The rotini (squiggles) tastes EXACTLY like the real thing. Small shells, I can taste the difference a bit, she can't once sauce is on them. It appears to taste a bit different based on shape of pasta. Have not tried the linguine yet. The tri-colored "garden pagodas" she did not like. I hear she passed the garden pagodas around the lunch table and other kids concurred! Highly recommend the rotini, though. It comes in a turquoise box and can be bought at most health food stores. Note, though, there are companies online that sell it for a very, very high price. Quinoa.com is very reasonable. "Northern.Quinoa.com" pricey. We were having such a hard time with pasta, and the combo bolus either did not work, did not work reliably, or worked way too well, dropping her. She can now eat all the pasta she wants.
Thank you for the advice anonymous!
Ugh! I know. It's like, "come on, Diabetes, at least give us a fighting chance to understand you."
I get tired of guessing, but I wonder if he had an absorption issue with earlier insulin. Perhaps it took a super long time for breakfast or morning snack insulin to completely kick in and make it into the blood stream.
Who knows. Just a guess. Because quite often guessing is all we have.
Did Riley have any insulin from his lunch bolus still on board when he got his correction? (We always have stacking issues if Joseph is running high and we correct on top of a bolus still in his system.)
Also, was he any more active earlier in the day than usual (that could explain a sudden increase in insulin sensitivity).
Heck-- was it suddenly warmer outside than in previous days? (Joseph's insulin sensitivity seems to increase when the temperatures rise... ).
So many possibilities...
Hmmm, indeed.
Sandra,
This sugar check came about 3 hours after his lunch bolus. So, if he had any insulin on board, it wasn't much. (I don't know how much, my mom was who gave him the bolus.)
No, no increase in activity and no warmer weather.
It's just one of those things that doesn't have an answer. But, it makes me wary when I correct now. You never know when his sugar might nose dive.
And, what's even scarier is that he didn't feel the 50. If my mom had not have checked him when she did, who knows how low he would have gone with all the insulin he had on board.
It scares me to even think about it.
Wow. Scary.
Can you check the meter/strips with some control solution? Maybe there was something funny going on there?
Another thought I had was to scale back on his correction doses when he's like that. It would make the explainable highs harder to bring down, but might give you guys some peace of mind?
A good friend of mine once said "There is no 'equals' sign in diabetes". So true.
Scott,
That's a good suggestion. And, one I might try. His corrections don't usually bring him down like that. But, from now on, when he has an "out of the blue" high like that, I might pull back on his correction a little and see what happens.
Another thing I would highly recommend is for him to wash his hands (or at least wipe the finger to be used) before testing. Its really amazing, but residual foods, or even things we pick up with our hands can occasionally influence a test result. If it looks suspicious, I always recommend re-testing.
Post a Comment