Saturday, July 4, 2009

Sometimes I'm not as smart as I think I am

So we've been doing this diabetes thing for almost 10 months now, and what surprises me is that I can still get surprised by wonky numbers.

Last night, we let Elise have her first taste of ice cream. Fred and I were out on date night, which Elise always comes with us on since we don't have anybody who can watch her, and the place we were eating dinner at served ice cream for dessert with the kid's meal. Since Elise had a pretty low-carb dinner (grilled chicken with asparagus and broccoli), I decided to put away the yogurt I had brought from home for her, and use up the rest of her allotted carbs by letting her have some ice cream.

The expression on her face was priceless. We gave her a little bit at first, since we weren't sure if she'd like it, but when she'd scarfed it down she asked, "mais ice cream?" (Elise speaks both English and Portuguese, and usually combines the two languages when she talks). We gave her mais and as she ate it, I cursed this stupid disease that doesn't allow my child to enjoy all the simple things in life that other kids do.

Anyway, onto the wonky numbers. I wasn't sure what the ice cream would do to her BG, but she was at 119 before her bath. We gave her a snack of 6g of carbs, I nursed her and then checked her before we put her to bed... 270. What? Her BG went up by 150 in less than an hour? We had given her the usual dose of 2 units of NPH, so I had no idea where she'd be sitting at in the morning.

When I went to check her this morning, I had the ketone meter in hand; fully expecting a BG over 250. I was floored when it came up as 70. The NPH NEVER drops her like that.

Is she still honeymooning? Was it the ice cream? I give up.

But I'm still going to let her have ice cream... that grin on her face was just too precious.

4 comments:

  1. You said:
    "Sometimes I'm not as smart as I think I am. So we've been doing this diabetes thing for almost 10 months now, and what surprises me is that I can still get surprised by wonky numbers."

    That's a valuable lesson. Be careful.

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  2. Hi there. I found your blog through another blog. I am also a mom of a T1 D mom. How long has your child had diabetes? My daughter was diagnosed 4 1/2 years ago. We still have crazy numbers despite doing what I think is the "right" thing. Just part of the disease! I look forward to "getting to know you". :)

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  3. Oops, I just noticed a typo...I am a mom of a T1 D child. Not a mom of a T1 D mom. Sorry!

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  4. Dr. Rob says, what was her 6g snack? Since her meal (chicken, veggies) had no real complex carbs and the ice cream was similar in content to the yogurt except with higher fat (assumably), it must have been the fat in the ice cream that caused the delayed spike to 270. But the low in the morning? Maybe her usual yogurt would've had more protein to get her through the night? Does she normally have a good BG after a very low-carb dinner? Aidan runs low in the morning if he doesn't have complex carbs + fat or protein at bedtime, unless he's high from dinner. Anyway, doesn't the whole thing remind you of jr high math sometimes?!? If Train A leaves Paris at 8:00am traveling 65 km/hr...

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