Flu season already ?

Canada Day face painting.

I'm not sure if it's because summer simply decided to not come to our part of the world this year, but it seems like we've fast-forwarded directly into flu season. Playing the Type 1 game is always alot of work, most pleasant when the body cooperates and very difficult when it doesn't. Without warning Adele woke up with the flu and a fever on Saturday morning. Since it started very quickly, my thinking was that it would also end very quickly. It must be something she picked up at daycare. After all, that's what kids do right... they carry and transmit viruses all the while building up their immune system. Being successful while playing the Type 1 game depends on consistency and predictibility. For a Type 1 gamer a simple flu is often the equivalent of someone shoving a crowbar into your bicycle spokes when you're flying down a hill... It ain't good.

Adele's sugars didn't seem to be affected a lot when the symptoms started. Her sugars had a tendancy to go up (they usually do when a Type 1 diabetic gets sick), but I was still managing to keep them in check with the occasional correction. Sunday afternoon this all changed. All of the scales that I had been using to calculate insulin doses were no longer enough. It was the equivalent of putting in countless hours on a project and losing ALL your work in a matter of minutes. I had absolutely no idea how much insulin she now needed to avoid these highs. Her appetite was not good. She had diarrhea and naussea. Because of the high sugars, she also had ketones in her bloodstream. If this is not dealt with it can progress to a serious complication called diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) which can lead to coma or death if not treated. Obviously we'd be heading to the hospital well before then, but I just mentioned that to show the seriousness of DKA.

Here are some highlights from the past few days...

Saturday, July 4th

9:45 pm -> 8.7
10:23 pm -> 17.4 (way too high and climbing way too fast, gave 1.3 units insulin)
11:30 pm -> 14.0 (still too high, but at least going down, gave another 0.1 units insulin)

Sunday, July 5th

4:55 am -> 21.3 (alarm clock did not wake us at 1 am as planned, I woke up by myself and had a feeling she was high, I was correct, ketones -> 1.3, unlike sugar ketones should be zero, gave 1.0 units insulin)
6:00 am -> 20.2 (still way too high, gave another 0.5 units insulin)
8:00 am -> 10.5 (better, but still too high before breakfast)
10:00 am -> 10.6 (still highish)
11:34 am -> 9.8 (still highish before lunch)
2:25 pm -> 15.5 (way too high before snack, gave 1.4 units insulin to cover snack and hopefully correct this high)
3:30 pm -> 22.8 (way too high, the scales are no longer working, gave 1.7 units insulin)
4:50 pm -> 14.5 (going down, but still too high, gave another 0.5 units insulin)
5:45 pm -> 12.4 (still too high before supper)
7:10 pm -> 17.3 (way too high, gave another 1.0 units insulin)
9:40 pm -> 13.8 (still too high, gave 1.0 units insulin)
11:00 pm -> 20.3 (still way too high, ketones -> 0.8, gave another 1.8 units insulin)

Monday, July 6th

12:15 am -> 14.7 (at least it's going down now)
1:30 am -> 7.8 (going down too fast?, turned pump off for 1 hour to try to avoid low)
2:00 am -> 7.4 (low avoided)
3:05 am -> 5.8 (gave her 3 gummies to avoid low)
5:00 am -> 10.9
6:55 am -> 19.1 (way too high, here we go again, gave 1.2 units insulin, Adele was nauseous, no breakfast)
8:05 am -> 13.1 (still high, gave another 0.6 units insulin)
9:05 am -> 8.3 (finally a good number)
10:15 am -> 12.5 (going up again, gave 0.3 units insulin)
11:25 am -> 11.2
1:30 pm -> 16.8 (too high, insulin scales are still not enough, gave 1.3 units insulin)
2:45 pm -> 9.3 (going down)
4:00 pm -> 5.2 (turned pump off for half an hour to avoid low)
5:00 pm -> 6.1 (low avoided, good number before supper)
7:10 pm -> 15.0 (too high again, corrected with 0.9 units of insulin)

The purpose of this post (and entire blog) is not to get anyone's pity, it's simply to explain what we go through dealing with a seamingly simple flu virus. Keep this in mind the next time you encounter someone else playing the Type 1 game who seems tired. It's an earned fatigue.

Why so many blood glucose tests last night?
1 - I was giving insulin boluses blindly. What I mean by this is that I had absolutely no idea how much insulin Adele's body needed and how it was going to react. A few days ago, all this insulin would have surely put her in a diabetic coma or killed her and I couldn't help but be nervous giving her so much insulin and then trying to sleep. Testing often is necessary during times like these.
2 - I really, really wanted to try to avoid DKA which means a hospital stay.

As I'm writing this she seems to be getting better. She's eating a bit and her sugars are floating around 8 - 9 right now with the additional insulin that I've been giving.
Thanks for reading...