Easter gaming and support groups

Gaming this week had us dealing with some ups and downs. Adele's sugars were OK if I did an average. They were either on the highish side (9 and above) or borderline low (in the 4's right before bed). I couldn't seem to find patterns that enabled me to make changes to stabalise things...

Yesterday's highlights are:

1:25 am = 12.3 (high, gave 0.25 units of insulin)

7:45 am = 16.0 (way too high, I gave her 1.8 units of insulin and waited 1 whole hour before giving her breakfast thinking this would bring her sugar down)

8:45 am = 12.6 (still high, the 1.8 units should have brought her down more than that, she must be insulin resistant for some reason?, she ate breakfast and I gave her more insulin)

9:55 am = 11.4 (at least she's going in the right direction - down)

11:00 am = 6.3 (finally a normal value, she ate a snack and I bolused for it)

11:35 am = 1.9 (she came to see me and said she felt low, I saw she was pale but would not have guessed that she was that low! Values in the 1's and 2's really, really make me sick to my stomach and are dangerous... Adele immediately drank a juice and had a Dex4 glucose tablet)

11:55 am = 5.8 (OK, she's out of danger for now)

1:00 pm = 11.2 (right before Michele dropped her off at her friend's house, after the 1.9 that morning, I was very, very uneasy leaving her at her friends house - her dad does not know how to manage Adele's diabetes)

2:10 pm = 14.7 (too high, sugar seems to be climbing still, gave her 0.25 units of insulin - she's still at her friend's house so we can't be too agressive with insulin)

3:30 pm = 9.6 (ate her snack, bolused with 0.5 units of insulin, still at her friend's house)

5:20 pm = 4.0

The 1.9 was really unpredictable, her breakfast bolus was pretty much gone and she had eaten like a half hour before. Luckily she came to see me and told me she didn't feel good. I'm really not sure she would have done the same at her friend's house given that we weren't there. A simple visit to a friend's house for an 8 year old kid with Type 1 is often a VERY SCARY experience for her caregivers...

And now to the next topic for this post: Type 1 Support Groups. If you're newly diagnosed (or your child is newly diagnosed), I suggest that you join a support group. I didn't always feel this way. At first, I felt as if everyone else but us seemed to find playing the Type 1 game a piece of cake. This actually made me feel worse since I felt like I must be doing something wrong. Adele's sugars surely aren't perfect. I hate comparing numbers (and this is so easy to do with Type 1 Diabetes), but seeing real blood sugar values (including the ups and downs) along with success stories are what has helped me the most. That's why I don't sugar coat anything here. I don't care who you are, every single person playing the Type 1 game has his or her ups and downs which is why insulin is NOT a cure. Type 1 Diabetes was once a terminal disease, the discovery of insulin has just made it chronic instead of terminal. Once I realized that perfect numbers all of the time are just not possible no matter how good of a Type 1 gamer that you are and that we must rather aim for as good as possible, then I enjoyed conversing with others that really do 'GET IT'. Like Christiane said in her comment (April 3rd post), there is some comfort in this...