Well, the field trip was a success!!! He came home at a decent blood glucose level, so we know that exercise is a good thing! Bounce u was "fun" according to Jimmy - so descriptive, right?... The counselor said that he sang with the other kids on the bus ride and was so excited and happy! So glad it went well. He fell asleep at about 5:30 yesterday evening, so I know it wore him out!
On another note, the novalog pen (that delivers his mealtime shots) had a malfunction the other day - First, the cap mysteriously disappeared. Still yet to be found (but we put another cap on from our back up...) Then, the screw mechanism somehow became too low to push up the insulin - he had been too high a couple times in a row, so I think it may have been malfunctioning for a few shots. ugh... It's hard enough to get his levels in range when he is getting the correct insulin!!
I was able to fix it without a problem, but I have no idea why it happened... So now I'll be checking the pen with every shot, too. Just one more step.
Someone asked me what it was like to have to try to get his blood glucose levels in check. I thought about it for a minute, and described it as:
1/2 calculations and 1/2 guess work.
It's 3 math problems at every meal - calculate the amount of carbs he eats first (if you ever need to know how many carbs are in a slice of pizza, a banana or a dunkin donut with strawberry frosting and sprinkles, just ask me). Then the amount of carbs he eats gets divided by either 40 or 50 depending on the meal. Then add that answer to his current blood glucose level minus his target number of 150 then divided by 180 - that's the correction bolus number.
Good thing I'm good at math.
Then, the guess work comes in... if he's supposed to get between 1 and 1 1/2 units of insulin, I have to think of what he's going to be doing... if it's a rainy day and he's going to be chilling out, I give him a higher dose. But, if I know he's going to be running around or in the pool all day, then I have to go with the lower number... Guess work. Then I have to allow for the fact that a carb is not a carb... 30 carbs of a banana is not the same as 30 carbs in juice. The carbs in the juice is instant, where the banana carbs will not absorb as quickly. If he has pancakes and bacon, the fat in the bacon will slow down the absorption of the carbs, so that could result in a high later in the day. guess work...
Even when I have days where we've done everything perfectly, there are some glucose levels that come back high... I don't know why, and that's frustrating.
It's constant. Evidently, every high and every low leaves a mark. It's important for him to be within range consistently, and it's hard to do that with all of the guess work.
Jimmy is a seemingly happy healthy kid, and Jim and I will do all we can to keep it that way. Math problem by math problem, one day at a time.
Peace,
June
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