Wednesday, September 26, 2012

He's cured! (But just at lunchtime, apparently...)

Arrrgghhhegghhehhe.

We have been battling lows. CONSTANTLY for the past 3 weeks or so. I kept thinking they would go away, but I finally started changing some things and he's still been going low.

I suppose there is one constant thing about diabetes. It is never constant.

No matter how hard you try.

I had Adam having perfectly wonderful numbers for the first month of school. The second month? Poor kid is low every single afternoon. While this may mean his A1c will be fantastic in December, I do not like all of the lows that have contributed to it.

He started out the school year with an insulin to carb ratio of 1:19 for lunchtime. That's what worked this summer. Over the past 3 weeks, I have decreased it every few days, and tonight, after another 64 this afternoon at school (causing him to miss PE again because after 15 minutes he was 61...) I changed his I:C ratio for lunch to 1:27. If that doesn't do it....well then I give.

I GIVE.

He's also on a completely different basal pattern. During the school day he was getting about .40 units per hour. Now? I have him at .25 units per hour.

I have people every single day ask me, "Why does this happen?" Why? Why is he going low?

And I'm at a loss for words. I don't even know how to begin to explain it, so I just don't. I just say that diabetes is unpredictable. But that kind of makes me feel like a failure, that I can't "fix" my kid like it seems like everyone wants to.

If I hear the phrase, "Is he stable now?" I think I may scream. I know you all know what I mean. 

We have only had one small issue this year so far. With the increasing amount of lows (that I am desperately trying to get under control), he has been waiting in class while feeling low because he doesn't want to interrupt his teacher.

Now, I LOVE and adore his teacher. As does Adam.  I respect her immensely and I hand-picked her to be Adam's teacher.  He is super comfortable with her! But there are quite a few...uh..."troublemakers" in Adam's class and he seems to feel this responsibility to NOT bother his teacher. She has repeatedly told him that it is FINE to interrupt her, but that is just not his in his character, no matter how much I drill into him that he must go to the nurse if he feels low. As a result, he's ended up in the health office with some lows in the 40's.

Our wonderful nurse has brought it up to me a few times that Adam will say that he doesn't want to interrupt, so she suggested that we develop a special "signal" with the teacher vs. just having Adam hold up his hand while she is teaching.

We ended up having Adam decorate 3 green cards with his favorite Ninjago stickers that I laminated. When he is feeling low during class time, all he has to do is raise his card in the air and his teacher will automatically send him and his buddy to the health office. Also, this will help when she is speaking to another adult (he won't interrupt) so all he has to do is hand her the card and she will immediately know that he needs to go to the nurse immediately.

He is happy with this arrangement, so I hope it helps! I've realized that despite the fact that we've already had one school year under our belt, each year will be very different, and we'll need to find new strategies to make diabetes run as smooth as possible.

Now, if we could just figure out these afternoon lows, I'd be a happy camper!




10 comments:

  1. Oh yeah...I hear ya. Here we are...year SIX...and we are off to our worst year, numbers-wise, yet. I cannot get a grip on mornings...into lunch...and after school. Us too, with major, unrelenting, lows. I GIVE!!!

    Great idea, with the card btw.

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  2. Oh my...we had this exact same thing last spring with Natalie going low after lunch. Kept decreasing and still low and even had to decrease lantus in half too. It was so weird, I started to think maybe she was being cured! It lasted a couple weeks I think and then went back to normal. She never got sick. I love the card idea...sweet boy not wanting to interrupt.

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  3. "stabilized yet". Gah! Makes my whole body tense up and takes every ounce of my being not to pounce!

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  4. Oh WOW are we living the same exact life right now! I just said yesterday to my hubby that I am convinced Emma's pancreas is working in the late morning/lunch time every day.....and then it must get tired and decide it's done it's job for the rest of the day. Lows lows lows every single day at lunch and it is making me lose my marbles. UGH! Just wanted to say I hear ya and thank you for posting this and making me feel less alone in this problem lately! HUGS to you!

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  5. Bean's been having some after-lunch-lows, too! Thought I had things stabilized (HA) but they are creeping up again.

    We used a card system last year. Bean had a teacher that wasn't very keen on interruptions and Bean was a bit scared to interrupt for her lows. The card worked great...hope it does for you, too!

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  6. I have had a lot of the stable comments lately. I know that a lot of people don't know about the disease but those comments still get under my skin and make me want to scream!

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  7. Love the card idea! We just started using Blue Loop software (know he might not be ready)..MC checks herself, then posts it so the teacher, nurse, and I all get a text/email. Then she has a chart so she knows what to do. Love! He's too sweet to interrupt. You have a sweetie!!
    We get asked if she's had any *problems* with diabetes or if it's hard. Umm..how do you answer something like that..when you only have a minute or two? Ha.
    Hope it gets better. MC only has a 1:26 carb ratio for her lunch, and she's over 80 lbs. But, she gets about .55/hour for basal. I'll be praying for you to get it figured out!! : )

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  8. oh i love that card idea! hope it's been helping!

    also this: "If I hear the phrase, "Is he stable now?" I think I may scream. I know you all know what I mean."

    YES! i know what you mean. i'm screaming along with you!

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  9. The cards are BRILLIANT!
    And ditto - I hear you. Insulin + lunch + recess = hell on numbers. Fingers crossed it gets better! We're fighting that battle, too.

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