Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Where did THOSE numbers come from?

For the past few weeks Bean's numbers have been really pretty good.  Sure a random high and low, but for the most part in range-ish  and good daily averages.  I even had the audacity to say out loud 'we are rocking these daytime numbers!'  Nighttime has been a process for the past three weeks or so, but we're getting close to figure those numbers out, too.

Enter Tuesday....(and Wednesday)

Breakfast (7:30am), a fabulous 108.

Before recess (10:52am), a not terrible 233.  A little higher than she's been running, but whatever.

Before lunch (11:37am), 220.  Um, what?!  Only a 13 point drop?  Bean drops anywhere from 40-90 points at recess, depending on the activity level and temperature.  But never, never only 13!
 Of course her PDM (Personal Diabetes Manager) that controls her pod gives her a correction with her meal bolus, so all should be 'good' for the afternoon, right?  Wrong!

Snack, 299 (2:47pm).  Hello? Seriously?!  Again, correction with meal coverage.

Quick check to see how she's doing since she has a tendency to drop fast when she has a 'big' correction with her snack, (4:54pm), 290.  Odd, but it is time for a pod change, so maybe it's just done working!
Do the pod change...stupid thing alarms as soon as the cannula is inserted.  Lovely!  Insert screams and cries of 'I hate it when it does that' from Bean. (She tends towards the dramatic side anyway, increase that tons when she's high!)
Do another pod change...thank God, no alarm this time!

Before dinner (5:40pm) 306...OK so she's up a tab but that pod change was kinda stressful.  So yet another correction with her meal dose, plus an extra 0.75u that we do with every new pod...that's just what works for us.

Time to read and she's having trouble focusing...can we say 'high?'  Test (6:42pm), 397.  Oh Dear God!  Now, if you take a bit a look, that's only a 91 point jump and hour after dinner, so not too bad, but the NUMBER?!?  We 'do' nothing for a correction since it's only been an hour.

Off to bed and we test again just to see what's going on (7:42pm), 465. Crap, Crap, Crap! A few other choice words run through my head.  We go ahead and give her another correction because her PDM accounts for what's still on board and it's obviously not doing it's job at the moment!

Check at 9:15pm, 295....Thank You God!  It's about time that insulin kicked in!

My bedtime...or at least when I go upstairs! (10:40pm) 231.  Nice; I can handle that.  On a 'normal' night, I'd be loving that number....great place for her to be starting for the overnight slow drop.

I set the alarm to check her at 1:30, but Bug decides to wake up pissed about her stuffy nose shortly before 1, so while I was up I went ahead and checked Bean (12:59am), 172.  Again, on a normal night, I'd be loving that number....nice drop from the 10:30-11 check I usually do; still room to drop safely until breakfast.  (for example, over night Monday she was at 234 at 11, 170 at 2, then 108 at 7:30...nice numbers for us!)
Since she had had a significant amount of insulin I knew there was no way I could skip the 4am check.  So, alarm set and back to sleep for a bit.

4:02am, 65. ARGH!  What happened to that nice slow drop?  Why must her body 'store up' the insulin and then react to it hours later...or at least that's what it seems to do sometimes?  Bean's awake enough to want to know her number and then rattles off a buffet of food she'd like to have.  Um, no.  Five Wheat Thins, 2 oz milk will be just fine.  (Had she not been 'awake' I would have just gone with the milk since it doesn't spike her like juice does and I don't like to use juice at night unless she's super low.)

Back to bed and Ubergeek is awake...'where was she?'  A few choice words are utter sleepily and then he asks me to check her again in 15 minutes...something we generally don't do because she always comes up.
So, I start reading some blogs on my phone (gotta love those DOC friends in other time zones!) to fill the time.
Check at 4:27, 115.  I decide to cover her snack so she doesn't sky rocket, and extend it over 2 hours so she doesn't drop again.  Back to sleep for me.

Before breakfast (7:08am), 198. Yuck...that's not where she should be.  But, whatever!  At least it's a 'good' number that doesn't start with a 3 or 4!!

Before recess (10:55am), 124. OK?  Now, Bean knows that she's supposed to have her little bag of goldfish if she's below 120 before recess so she doesn't go low and we've had talks about when she's 'close' to that number to go ahead and eat them just to be on the safe side.  I've also had this conversation with those who help monitor her tests at school.  For whatever reason no goldfish were eaten.

Before lunch (11:38am), 55!  Why couldn't today be the day she only drops 13 points!?!?!?
  She tells me when I pick her up that she just dosed for lunch and went straight to her room to eat. (They eat in their classroom and hers is right across the hall from the nurse's office.)  Um, what?  It's well known and it's plainly written in the little cheat sheet that's in her PDM that if she's below 70 she needs an apple juice.  No frickin' idea what happened there.  (Trust me, I wanted to call the school as soon as I got home, but Ubergeek asked me to wait...I tend towards the dramatic, too, so probably a good call!)

Snack (3:46pm), 154.  Now THAT'S more like it!!


It just boggles my mind sometimes where Bean's numbers come from.  Nothing 'out of the ordinary' food-wise all day, truly the same breakfast and lunch she always has and a dinner that doesn't ever give her 'trouble'; no changes in the school schedule.  We've never had a pod act like that when it's ready to be changed and generally don't have one that needs so much help to kick in.  Just one of those days that makes you scratch your head and realize that for all of those days you got it 'right' there will always be days when it just doesn't work!

Maddening!!


Thanks for bearing with my log....just needed to get it all out so I could move past it!!

2 comments:

  1. Such a puzzle all the time! Better than crosswords for the brain...

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  2. Yep, agreed. We still have some "wonky" days and I am left scratching my head. AND....the beginning of this saga...with the uncorrectable highs would have sent me over the edge. There is nothing-nothing-nothing that drives me more crazy than an uncorrectable high...nothing. Did I say "nothing"? B/c there is nothing...LOL

    Have a great day.

    ReplyDelete

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