I do my best to see the times that diabetes goes bad as a learning opportunity. It may take a few days for the lesson to become clear but there almost always is something to be learned.
To say that this past week was like living through hell would be an understatement. I am still recovering from the nights of little sleep and the days of trying to keep my calm because Deacon’s erratic numbers were causing him to be very cranky. Oh so cranky…I am fortunate enough to know how his crankiness works and how long it will last once his numbers start regulating again. Deacon seems to be whiny, teary and wanting to have a tantrum for 24 hours after he starts to stay in the 100’s.
This week of illness started last Friday when Deacon developed a cold. At the time the only symptoms he had were a very runny nose and a sore throat. The cold symptoms went away over the weekend, but on Sunday afternoon I started seeing the highs. I changed out the site and started a brand new vial of insulin. He started going low, so I started a temp basal. When he woke up Monday morning with a 307, I thought the temp basal I had started that night contributed to the high.
Monday went from bad to worse within a matter of a few hours. Alex was upset and kept sighing at his breakfast (He wanted something else to eat.). I spent close to an hour at the store and still forgot something, I broke a plate while feeding the cats, and within ninety minutes of dropping off Deacon at school, the morning nurse called and said, “Deacon is 309 and has large ketones.”
At 9:45, Deacon and I walked through our back door, and I had to remind him that he could not play the Wii until the ketones had cleared. By 11:00 the ketones had become a trace and his number was in the low 200’s. I began to breathe a sigh of relief and started on my class work while Deacon rested. I thought that everything was going to be fine. Diabetes had other plans. At noon, Deacon was climbing back into the 300’s but still there were no ketones. I treated the high and got him to rest some more. At 1:30, I tested him and he was 595! Okay, I decide it is time to change out the site again. Does this work? Only temporarily. He came down for a little bit but only into the 200’s, and he still wanted to climb into the 400’s.
On Tuesday, I kept Deacon at home from school because of the endless highs. I tried a temp basal but the increments either kept him high or dropped him low. By the end of the day I felt my resolve and patience wearing. I was grateful when my parents agreed to take Deacon for the afternoon on Wednesday. After much imagined head banging, talking ideas over with other parents of CWD’s, and trying to gain some perspective, I chose to move Deacon’s site to his leg. I set my alarm for two hours later and went to sleep.
My alarm beeped and I tested Deacon to see that he was 54! I treated him with cake gel and sat down on my bed to find that my heart was racing. This wasn’t the “normal” heart race reaction to a middle of the night low. Through my fog I reached for the meter and tested myself. I am 71! (Not many people know this, but I have Type 2 diabetes. I am very well controlled and am not on medication anymore.) So, I started eating 4 glucose tabs and began to really feel the shakiness of a low. I went downstairs and made myself a pbj sandwich. It was close to 15 minutes later when I stopped feeling my low and I was above 100. I tested Deacon who was 85 but was feeling better. I gave him more cake gel and after that treatment he was 121. I stayed awake until 2:30 a.m. though. Coincidentally the last time I had a middle of the night low, Deacon and I were the same numbers we were for this latest hypo episode.
Wednesday morning I took Deacon to the doctor and she said that it looked as though he was coming out of a virus and his numbers should start settling down soon. That day he had some more lows and his highs went into the mid-200’s. I sent him to school on Thursday where his highs were in the low-200’s and he didn’t have any lows. Now he is more stable and has stayed in the 100’s since Friday.
The lesson I did learn through this illness is that there was a pattern to the wonky numbers. As the illness progressed, where the bg’s wanted to climb went from being dangerously high to moderately high and then there were no highs at all. I can see the numbers slowly go from being in the 500’s and 400’s to the 300’s, then the 200’s and slowly lower into range day by day. I am marking this down that way I can look for this again the next time Deacon gets sick.
It is now Saturday and I am feeling less tired and frazzled than I had on Wednesday and Thursday. Hopefully by Monday I will be back to being my own energetic self. Thank you to everyone who helped me, kept us in your prayers and listened to me vent.
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