It's all new, but still all the same

Last Saturday (November 14th) was World Diabetes Day. Our whole family including my parents, sister's family and in-laws attended the Famille Arseneault benefit concert at the Capitol theater. It was a great evening that raised money for JDRF as well as brought awareness to our cause.

I'm not sure how it is for other Type 1 gamers, but Adele's insulin needs and patterns are very, very different during the week compared to weekends. After some pretty good numbers on Thursday and Friday, things got a little out of control during the weekend. Adele's sugar seemed to be either high (above 10) or she needed to take in extra snacks to avoid a low. I'm not sure why she suddenly became very, very sensitive to insulin after lunch? On Saturday, I thought it was due to swimming, but the same pattern also happened on Sunday without any swimming. Our bodies are soooo complex, a fact that becomes very evident when playing the Type 1 game.

Here are the highlights of the past few days:

Saturday, November 14th, 2009

7:15 am -> 2.6 (sensor indicated 4.5 before calibration, ate 35.9g carbs for breakfast, 1.6 units insulin)
9:30 am -> 5.4 (ate 40g carbs, 1.0 units insulin)
11:00 am -> 5.5 (ate 47.3g carbs, 0.5 units insulin)
12:00 pm -> 7.7 (before swimming, 8g carbs, no bolus, removed pump since it can't be worn in the water so now she is getting no insulin)
1:25 pm -> 9.7 (a bit high, 68g carbs - it was a birthday party, 1.6 units insulin)
2:30 pm -> 4.9 (going down, 23g carbs, no insulin)
3:15 pm -> 2.9 (way too low, 35g carbs, no insulin)
5:00 pm -> 7.9 (30g carbs for supper, 1.0 units insulin)
9:30 pm -> 11.0 (too high, 20g carbs before bed, 0.7 units insulin)
11:10 pm -> 12.4 (still too high, 0.4 units insulin)



Sunday, November 15th, 2009

2:00 am -> 6.6 (turned pump off for 1 hour)
8:15 am -> 4.5 (sensor indicated 6.3 before calibration, ate 33g carbs for breakfast, 1.3 units insulin)
9:45 am -> 8.1 (before snack, ate 20g carbs, bolused with 0.8 units insulin)
10:45 am -> 4.5 with one arrow down (not low yet, but she will be soon if she doesn't eat, ate 42g carbs, gave a very small bolus of 0.3 units insulin)
11:45 am -> 4.3 (ate 69g carbs for lunch, 1.5 units insulin)
12:50 pm -> 3.9 (before going over to her friend's house, ate 40g carbs, no insulin)
2:00 pm -> 4.3 (at her friend's house, parents do not understand Type 1 so lows in this case are very dangerous, ate another 23g carbs, no insulin)
2:40 pm -> 4.2 (she's home now, but still seems to be going down, ate 18g carbs, no insulin)
4:30 pm -> 10.7 (now she's too high, we overcorrected to avoid lows, 1.0 units insulin)
5:30 pm -> 14.9 (still going up before supper, ate 55g carbs, 1.7 units insulin)
8:10 pm -> 11.5 (still high, ate 24g carbs, 1.1 units insulin)
9:45 pm -> 14.3 (still too high, 0.8 units insulin)
11:20 pm -> 9.2 (going down)


So 58g of extra carbs on Saturday and 81g of extra carbs on Sunday to treat lows. I don't like that very much, so I've made corrections in Adele's scales which translate into less insulin after lunch and more after supper. So far, these changes seem to be working. But then again, her insulin needs during the week are quite different than on weekends... One day at a time. You can't look too far ahead while playing the Type 1 game.