Saturday, November 12, 2011

The Joys of Ketones

Last week was our first experience with ketones.  Yeah, go ahead and hate us for a minute.  OK, time's up!

Even when Bean was diagnosed, she only had trace ketones, so we would read stories of kids having stubbornly high BGS with moderate or high ketones and wouldn't 'get it.'  Sure, we know ketones are nothing to be flippant about, and they can cause some serious issues, but they were never an issue for us.  Bean could hang out in the 200-300s for the majority of the day and would finally respond to a correction and would have only trace, if any ketones.  Thankfully she doesn't do that often, but there are those days, as everyone knows!

That brings us to last week.

Last Wednesday, Bean was running pretty high.  Like 300s high.  And since Wilma (our dexcom 7+ CGM) was giving us the wonderful ??? we didn't know if those 300s were spikes or if Bean was running consistently that high. Each BG test showed high 200s and 300s; even the overnight checks, even after some pretty big corrections. When she woke up Thursday morning and she was still in the 300s, I knew we had a problem.

We did an early pod change (she was due that evening, so it wasn't that early) and a dexcom sensor change (again, due for one, and with those darn ??? I was more than happy to stick on a new one ~ Bean, not so much, but she dealt with it!).

Ubergeek suggested that I test Bean for ketones.  My response was less than cooperative for many reasons...1) it was morning; 2) Bean never has more than trace ketones, if any; 3) I had just done a pod and sensor change; 4) I was sick and didn't feel like being out of bed much less like going to work; and 5) it was morning...perhaps I mentioned that already.

So, he got out the meter and tested for ketones.  Can I just say that I LOVE our blood ketone meter!  And a 2.1 popped up.  Um, what?!?!  He had to do some googling to find the chart of what that reading meant since we haven't ever seen anything above 0.2.  Finding that 2.1 was not a good thing, Ubergeek insisted Bean stay home from school.  Since I had taken Wednesday off (kinda funny when they have to get a sub for a sub!) because I wanted to chop my head off because my throat hurt so much, there was really no way I could take Thursday off.  So, Ubergeek said he would stay home with her.

He pushed water, gave an additional unit of insulin by syringe (the FIRST Bean has had in over a year of using the Omnipod), and contacted our CDE to double check he was doing the right thing...he was. :)  By lunch, about 4 hours later, Bean was down to 117 and 0.2 ketones.  NICE!

After some thinking things through, we decided that it was most likely a combination of a 'bad' pod placement, filling said pod with the last of the vial, so it most likely was 'done,' and Bean had been fighting a bit of the same cold that was kicking me in the butt.

So thankful that our ketone experience was short and easy to resolve.  And very thankful that Ubergeek has the kind of job that allows him to work from home in situations like these...and that he is on top of D things and was the one to think of checking for ketones!

6 comments:

  1. Woohoo to Ubergeek for his AWESOME diabetes skills! Denise, I hope you start feeling better soon.

    Our situation is very similar to yours. Andrew finally had some large ketones this past month due to a stomach bug. We ended up in the ER. It scares the heck out of you!

    I'm glad that everything turned out ok.

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  2. Oy...first off, YAY on not having to deal with Ketones before this. You guys are amazing ... Give Uuubs a fist bump!

    Secondly, I hope you are feeling better.

    xo

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  3. It would be neat if that was the only time you had to deal with ketones. that would be nice.
    hope you feel better.

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  4. I am so glad to read this...because Adam is the same kind of kid and I was thinking there was something WRONG because he never has ketones! Seriously, people talk about it and I just don't ever see it. I even had to prove it to his school nurse. :) He's been HIGH for the last 2 days in the 300's and I keep testing using the blood ketone meter and...nothing. I'm sure it will happen someday, but until then, i'm glad we're not hte only one!

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  5. High fives to Ubergeek for kickin those ketones outta the park! I hope you and Bean are both feeling much better now too my friend!

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  6. Denise, that is great that this is the first time dealing with ketones! I seriously can't remember the last time we checked for ketones. Our daughter rarely has them too. She was dx 9-15-03. You guys are doing a great job! Hang in there!

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Hey, Thanks for sharing!! Your comments make me :)!!
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