Another endo appointment

We piled in the car Friday and set out for our 3-hour drive to Riley’s endo. On the way there, Michael and I made wagers again to see what we thought Riley’s A1C might be. His guess: 7.4, mine: 7.1. We were both wrong.

We got there and did the whole height and weight thing. Riley’s grown in inches, but not pounds. Then, she did the A1C test.

While we were waiting for the test, we went over the normal things, any recent illnesses, etc. We touched on school for a bit. She asked some things about the school. She assured me that since Holden had been there for 12 years and I used to go there and there are other kids there with D, we shouldn’t have a problem. I hope she’s right.

I wasn’t as antsy this time as last. I hadn’t really made as much effort to lower his A1C as I had at last visit. I was perfectly happy with 7.2. That’s about what I expected this time too.

Boy, was I in for a surprise.

She doesn’t like to look at my log of Riley’s sugars until she sees what his A1C is. She went into the other room where the machine was and came back in with a smile on her face.

“So, what do you think it is?”

“I really don’t want to guess, just in case I’m wrong”, I said.

“How does 6.6 sound?”

I nearly fell off my chair. I looked at Michael and said, “Did you hear that?” He was just sitting there with his mouth open. He couldn’t believe it either.

“Now, don’t get too excited”, she said. “I haven’t made up my mind if it’s good or not yet.”

Then, she poured over Riley’s sugar records. She always looks and makes adjustments if needed. But, this time, she took a good while just looking at them.

“I can’t find anything wrong”, she said. “I was really looking to see where you might be letting him run too low, but I just don’t see it.”

I told her he had an occasional low, and about 2 weeks before he had 3 or 4 days of lows, but I pulled back on his basals and things evened out. I then noted that his last low had been a 56 exactly one week prior.

“But, 6.6 isn’t too low is it?” Now, I started to wonder if I was damaging my child by letting his sugars be too low.

“Well, 6.6 is very low for a child his age. But, I really think he’s doing fine.”

“I’ve looked at his sugars and I think what’s helping is that when he’s high, you go on and give him insulin and get it to come on down. He doesn’t run high for very long. And, the fact that you test about a billion times a day, helps too.” She said the last part with a grin on her face.

So, we went out and celebrated Friday night. I broke my diet and ate a very delicious steak. Michael and Holden went to see 300 and Riley and I went to see Meet the Robinsons. If you haven’t seen it, you should. It’s a great movie.

I had a couple of days after the appointment where I kept second-guessing myself. Was I letting him run too low? But, then, I snapped out of it.

Like Dr. M said, we test often. Plus, Riley is very good at reporting low sugars. Even if he does go low, he doesn’t stay that way very long. And, well, darn it, I’m just glad that the sugars are like that now, because when he gets older and hits the teen years, who know what it will be?

But, right now it’s 6.6 and I couldn’t be happier.