Sunday, September 19, 2010

Battling lows...

Let me preface that I will be calling our endo in the morning, but I thought I'd pose the question here since I'm wide awake, and judging by today's numbers, I will be for quite awhile.

We made quite a few changes in Adam's insulin during the first few weeks, and for this past week, we've ended up on a carb ratio of 1:15 for breakfast and 1:25 the rest of the day, then 4 units of Levemir in the evening. That has worked well for this week - his numbers have been great - no huge highs and no low lows.

Yesterday was the first day we've battled lows. Granted, he had his flag football game in the morning, and it felt like we were chasing his sugars all day long after that to keep them up.

Today, he started out with a blood sugar of 118, had a good breakfast and my husband gave him 4.5 units of Novolog.

And that's the last Novolog we've given him today. I checked him around 10ish and was shocked to see 53 flash back at me, so I gave him some juice and he popped back up.

He's been grazing all day...not really eating much, but I had to keep giving him some snacks to keep that blood sugar up. He didn't eat dinner, but we still gave him his nighttime Levemir. Was that a mistake? Is this that "honeymooning" I keep hearing about?

I just checked him and he was 63 at 10pm. I'm going to check him again in about a half an hour and see if I need to give him some juice or something. I'm nervous.

8 comments:

  1. (((hugs to you!!!!)))

    As a rule around here, we treat with 4 oz of juice whenever Sugar is less than 70. I give 2 oz if she's 70 - 100, and sometimes she'll need a little more.

    That being said, I think you should go ahead and give him 4 oz of juice.

    This very well could be honeymooning....or a rebound effect from football...or just a liver depleted of it's glucose stores after trying to maintain an even blood sugar in competition with the Levemir -- or ALL OF IT!!!!!!!!

    This disease makes up rules as it goes and never sends a memo to let you know they've changed :(

    Let us know how the night goes....and keep us posted!!!

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  2. I, too, am up dealing with lows. At night, we give something anytime he is under 120. Especially if he was extra active at any time during the day. I always feel it is better to be on the high side at night. Hope your night doesn't last too long. Best of luck!!

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  3. Could definitely be honeymooning,the football, the stars aren't in alignment...all of it...none of the above. UGH.

    We usually give Joe 12g of carbs for 50s-60s at night. 8 grams for 70s-100. And 4 grams for 100-110s (depending on his day and what has been going on).

    I hope this helps!

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  4. Wendy has the best way of explaining it...diabetes keeps changing the rules on us all and never bothers to send memos! It's a roller coaster ride, no matter what you do! Lily always has days like that, where we can't keep her blood sugars up, no matter what we do. It's usually right before a growth spurt, but being really active can bring it on too.

    I saw a blog a while back called "Your Diabetes Will Vary". Love that title! It's something no one ever bothers to mention to the newly diagnosed families. They give you guidelines, but you have to find what works for you and your diabetic. When Lily's low, we give her 1 gram of carbs for every 10 points we want her to go up. It'll work perfectly until she hits another growth spurt and then we'll have to figure it all out again.

    Hang in there, Stephanie! I hope you had a better rest of the night!

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  5. Hope it worked out. We find that if the boys have a hard day of exercise, than they are lower at night. See if this continues...only make changes if you see a pattern. For 2 or 3 days...battling lows. When we make a change, we wait a few days to see the full effect. Good luck!

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  6. Oh my goodness, we are dealing with a lot of lows here too, just can't seem to get rid of them. We are on a roller coaster. After I correct her and give her some carbs to bring her back up, Lovebug goes sky high then drops again. It is a never ending battle. I hope that today was better for you. ((hugs))

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  7. When we treat a low (70 or under) we do 4oz of juice or 2 rolls of Smarties and a small balanced snack (some carb/fat/protein). The snack will help them stay up. Does your little guy like peanut butter? Here is a great small snack that is easy to get down in the middle of the night. Good carbs/fat/protein.

    Peanut Butter Balls
    1 cup peanut butter
    2/3 cup lowfat powdered milk or pow soy milk
    3 Tbsp wheat germ
    3 Tbsp ground flax seed
    2 Tbsp honey
    3 Tbsp mini chocolate chips
    2 Tbsp graham cracker crumbs

    Mix all ingredients except graham cracker crumbs in a bowl until well mixed. Separate ball of dough into 4 equal pieces. Each piece will divide into 6 one inch balls, 24 balls total. Roll little balls in graham cracker crumbs and store in tupperware in the fridge.

    Each ball is 7 carbs of yummy! They are a bit like peanut butter cookie dough but healthy, balanced and delicious! We are not health nuts at all but now my kids want little tastes of the flax and wheat germ while I'm making these.

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  8. Exercise definitely affects Jack, too. We always treat if he's below 100 at night. Like Wendy, we start with 4oz of juice. If he's sleeping, we might give him 12-15g of rolled up gummy worms, because he'll eat those in his sleep without waking up. If he's hovering in the low 100s, we watch him like a hawk to see whether he dips too low or goes up and whether we need to treat.

    That peanut butter ball recipe looks delish! We have a similar recipe that we make, but ours has more carbs. I'm going to try Gene's recipe. Thanks, Gene!

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