Thank you guys for the well wishes. Riley is feeling better, but he's still home from school. If it wasn't for diabetes he probably would have gone to school today.
He's been having some crazy lows, lows that just refuse to come up. And, because he doesn't have much of an appetite it's hard to get him to eat or drink to bring them up.
Since he was diagnosed I have not been as scared as I was last night. He'd had a few sugars in the 70s and upper 60s at my mom's yesterday. They would come up with treatment but not much.
Holden had a basketball game last night. Riley was feeling pretty good and I didn't want to miss Holden's game. He only has a few left. We ate supper at the school. At supper Riley's sugar was 219. It was the highest it had been in a while. He still didn't have much of an appetite. He ate half of a cheeseburger and a cupcake. I put the carbs and sugar in the pump and gave him less insulin than what the pump suggested since he'd been going low so much.
An hour later he came to me and told me his sugar felt low. It was 49. He hasn't gone that low in a while. I got him to drink a juice box. I decreased his basal. And, I coaxed him to eat some chocolate chip cookies (because I knew he still had plenty of insulin on board from supper). He wouldn't eat all of the cookies because he didn't have much of an appetite.
20 minutes later he was 66. I suspended his pump and gave him another juice box. 20 minutes later, 77. I didn't give him anything else right then because I figured he would continue to rise a little bit from the two juices and cookies. 17 minutes later he said his sugar felt low again. (He had been lying down in the bleachers the whole time). His sugar was now 64. I didn't know what else to do except give him a 3rd juice box.
By this time he was beginning to complain of a full tummy. I'm sure all that juice sloshing around didn't feel so great. 15 minutes later he was 65. At this point it had been an hour since he was 49. All this time Holden's game was going on. I was barely able to pay attention to any of it.
I started to debate about using Glucagon but he wasn't too terribly low and I knew he wouldn't need a whole dose and I really didn't know how much to use. Plus, I didn't want to deplete his reserves in case he needed them later for a really, really low. So, I coaxed him to drink another juice box. Poor thing, it was all he could do to choke it down. I had to beg him to finish it.
15 minutes later he was 68. I know that's not a terrible sugar, but anything with an 8 in front of it would have made me feel better. He had been low for so long. I pulled out some fruit snacks. I got him to eat two of them before he started gagging and saying he felt like he was going to throw up.
I began to pray that he wouldn't throw up. I don't know what I would have done then.
20 minutes later he was 83. I finally started breathing again. He was able to keep everything down.
From the time he was 49 until he got up to 83 was exactly 1 hour and 34 minutes. He had consumed 76 g grams of carbs. He usually doesn't eat that many carbs in two meals combined. He had never ever come close to doing anything like that. I don't know what in the world happened.
I braced myself for the high that I knew was coming. I was thinking he'd most certainly reach the 300s and maybe even the 400s. The high never came.
30 minutes after the 84 he was 83. An hour later he was 162. I finally unsuspended his pump. 35 minutes later, before I tucked him into bed, he had dropped to 133. I decreased his basal. He ran at a decreased basal the majority of the night. He finally reached 233 at 4 o'clock this morning. I was actually glad to see it.
His sugar at breakfast was 145. 3 hours later it was 51. I had him drink yet another juice box. 20 minutes later he was 70. I made him lunch. For lunch he ate stew beef and rice and yogurt. He ate pretty well. But, fussed about having to eat all the yogurt. (He has to eat yogurt to try and combat the icky side effects he's having from the antibiotics he's taking.)
I put the carbs in the pump (45g) and put in a sugar of 60. I gave him less insulin than suggested by the pump.
As I was writing this I realized I should probably check him again. One hour after his insulin he's 65. What in the world is going on?!? He has .67 units of insulin on board. He's drinking another juice box and I've suspended his pump again.
I'm hoping we won't have another episode last night. Where has his liver been while all of this was going on?
(edit: 20 minutes after the 65 he was 63 and ate an Air Head. 25 minutes later he was 67. He is now munching on fruit snacks that he complained about having to eat. He usually loves fruit snacks. His pump is still suspended.)
9 comments:
Oh Penny! I'm so sorry for both Riley and the stress you have been through! We had this same situation when Maddison had vomiting back in November.
I guess they say since the stomache is sick it isn't digesting the carbs or absorbing them until the tummy is back to being well. Sounds like it could be awhile until Riley gets back to normal even though he feels okay! Scary! I was afraid to send Maddison back to school for days after she felt better!
((HUGS)) you did great catching the lows! I hope they stop!
{{{HUGS!!}}} A mom in our church had something similar happen after her daughter had the stomach bug. She ended up calling her endo after an enormous amount of carbs with little to no movement. The endo said something about the body becomes super sensitive to insulin after a stomach bug...or something like that....ugh..I wish I could remember the reason...but at any rate, I'm glad you were able to keep on top of it!!
Hi Penny,
My son Alex has the same thing going on. Lunch yesterday at school was almost exactly the same experience and his blood sugar never did go high after consuming three juice boxes, 2 glucose tabs and crackers! Today, we reduced his lunch insulin/carb ratios from 1/15 to 1/25. (we are not pumping)Two hours later he was 65. Not as bad but WOW! Alex had a similar stomach bug last year at this time and it took about two weeks to fully recover and absorb food normally again. Here's hoping Riley's appetite returns soon!
Beth
You must be exhausted, just reading about your mathematical gyrations was tiring. I think I'd be brain dead. I hope Riley starts feeling better very soon.
When my son is recovering from a tummy bug he is also very sensitive to insulin. What I do is give him his food and then wait an hour, check the sugar and see if he needs any insulin. Most of the time he does not. Also with corrections I take the correction down to 1/4 of the dose. This usually passes about 3-5 days after the tummy bug.
I am glad he is feeling better.
Wow - that's some crazy lowness going on! Scary stuff. I hope it passes and/or you can find some rhyme and reason for it and fix it.
That's a difficult situation. We've been through that with Tristan once and it wasn't fun. We were told to give him anything he wanted to eat, take him for ice cream anything but not correct. Being sick, he didn't want any ice cream or anything. We couldn't get him out of the 50's.
One thing that I was told in Florida (and I don't know if that's possible or not) was that we shouldn't hesitate to give them the gel or the tablets. The educator there told me that the juice one day may not do what it's suppose to. But I don't know...
Good luck :)
Wow! Very scary. Hope Riley is feeling better soon. E. has had some periods of unexpected crazyness, with basals drastically dropping to a little more than half her normal basals... first time it was prior to Hashimotos diagnosis when blood sugars go high, then drop and keep dropping. More recently there was no explanation. I allow myself to believe that it is evidence their beta cells still produce insulin (as some researchers think)... frustrating, but that thought makes me feel better. Hope that the low periods are evidence of this.
Hello, I do not agree with the previous commentator - not so simple
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