When dining out is dangerous

Okay, maybe not dangerous. But it was really, really... not good.

It happened recently at Romano's Macaroni Grill, Elise's favourite place to eat. Right after we sat down, I checked her BG.  It was 107 and holding steady on the dex. We ordered and as soon as the bread came, I bolused her for about half of what I thought she was going to eat. She always gets the same thing, but since it was pasta, I usually hold off and bolus her a bit later, sometimes extending it.

We ate some bread, and we waited.  Then we waited some more. We finished the bread and waited. I watched as the dex kept showing a steady arrow, but each update was lower than the last. We asked about our food.  And asked again. And waited. We played the "D" card. Nothing was done.

At one point, Fred went up front to talk to the manager. He received nothing but "I'm sorry" from the manager. Unfortunately there are zero carbs in apologies.

So far Elise had eaten less than half of the carbs I had bolused her for. And was showing 72 on the dex. I was about to break out the smarties when our food finally arrived... A full 50 minutes after we had ordered it.

Normally we love eating there, but I was appalled not only by how long it took to get our food, but also the total disregard when we explained WHY it was so important that we get our food ASAP.

They were not busy.  Our order was not difficult.  And we had actually asked that the kids' food come out with our appetizer (it came out about 35 minutes after we received the appetizer).  Maybe I shouldn't have bolused her ahead of time, but I am a huge believer in the pre-bolus and we did have some bread.

The final kick in the teeth came when we got the bill and went to leave.  Would you believe we received NO discount on the bill, and no manager came to apologize to us?  

Will this change how we bolus Elise at restaurants?  Probably not... this is how we've always done it and never had a problem before.  But I'm guessing I should have thrown down the "D" card a lot earlier and been more vocal when we didn't get a response.

Just another thing to think about when dining out with "D".

Respect the D

We had grand plans, Elise and I. Usually Friday night is "date night" for our family, but this time Fred was stuck at home dealing with a work emergency. So I asked Elise if she wanted to go out, just us girls. The response was an enthusiastic YES! Mattias needed his beauty rest, so he stayed home.

We hit up her favourite restaurant, the Macaroni Grill. Her dinner was grilled chicken, broccoli, and spaghetti. Of course she started off with their bread; dipping it in olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Which is the whole reason she chooses the Macaroni Grill.

And we finish off in style, a piece of chocolate cake. If you ask me, every dinner should culminate in this way. To allow for this carb-fest, I gave her 1/2 a unit more. It isn't often we girls get to go out on the town solo!

We then decided to so some shopping. And this is where it got bad. One minute she was fine, the next, she said she didn't feel so well. Her CGM wasn't receiving for some reason, so I got out her meter.

That's when I noticed all the light had gone out in her eyes and was replaced by a vacant stare. When I saw the number, I knew why. 36. Oh. CRAP.

I whipped out a bottle of apple juice and commanded her to drink. We were in the middle of an aisle, blocking traffic, but I didn't care. She was shaking so bad, a lot of the juice ended up on her shirt. Freaking out, I picked her up and ran to the customer service area so I could sit down with her and get her to drink some more juice.

Carrying her was like carrying a lifeless rag doll. A very heavy rag doll. Her head kept lolling to the side and I was pleading with her to stay awake. Finally I sat her down and continued to get the 1000-yard stare. Only 5 minutes had elapsed, but I checked her anyway... 64.

Okay, coming up, but she was still acting "gone". When I'd ask her a question, it took her about 5 seconds to answer. She just sat there. Not crying. Just staring. I checked her again... 95.

I cradled her in my lap, and she leaned on me as if her life depended on it. I felt the tears threatening, but I wasn't going to cry. One final check revealed a 130. And in an instant, she came back to life. Almost like nothing had happened.

She saw a stuffed Tigger and asked for it. That extra 1/2 unit of insulin at dinner brought me tremendous guilt, and what kept running through my head was, "of course you should buy it for her, you nearly killed her."

Not true? Hyperbole? Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe I sometimes I think I've got this disease figured out and dole out insulin and carbs rather cavalierly. More carbs should equal more insulin, right? Except for tonight, it didn't. Maybe I'm too cocky. Or I don't give this disease the respect it needs. I don't know. I do know this experience has left me rather shaken.

And Elise? Well, tonight she's sleeping with a stuffed Tigger cuddled in her arms.

Diabetes gave me a birthday present

Or at least that's how I'm looking at it.

Yesterday I decided to choose one of those hibachi Japanese restaurants for my birthday dinner. I think the baby was craving some dinnertime entertainment to go along with our food.

Before we left the house, we checked Elise's BG... 95. Wow, she was 299 when she went down for her nap at 2:30, that was a pretty big drop in two hours. Happy with her pre-dinner number, we made the 15 minute drive to the restaurant.

It's 5:00, so we (along with the rest of the 65 years and up crowd) sit down and wait for the food to start flying. We gave Elise her insulin, and our food started to arrive.

I nervously watched Eileen, just waiting for those darn double arrows and numbers in the high 200s that have been showing up lately towards the end of dinner.

Elise happily had some soup, salad, zucchini, brown rice and steak, along with her milk and some cantaloupe for dessert. The entire time Eileen sat there with a flat arrow (meaning stable BG), and didn't go any higher than 120. The whole freaking evening. I was so happy that when the waiters had me stand up so they could sing me the birthday song, I did a little dance... pregnant belly and all.

I thought for sure by bedtime, her BG would start to shoot up, ruining the chance for Elise to have some cake with her snack, but a finger poke showed 109. Awesome!

Then I was CERTAIN that the cake, combined with the new, lowered dose of NPH, would shoot her to the moon overnight. But overnight checks proved me wrong. By midnight she was 158 and hovered there pretty much all night long, waking up at 159 this morning.

Thank you diabetes... and Happy Birthday to me. It's the smallest things that can make all the difference in the world.

Bet you've never heard THIS one before

Fred and I have a tradition for our anniversary. We always go to this uber chi-chi restaurant in the uber chi-chi part of town for lunch on the day of our actual anniversary (Fred takes the day off if it falls on a weekday). Elise, of course, comes with us.

Today I really, REALLY wanted this flourless chocolate cake they had on the menu for dessert, and we decided to ask our server if they had any nutritional information on it (so Elise could have some too). We told her we were looking for a carb count.

The first thing that had Fred and I rolling our eyes and giggling was when the server came back and informed us that each serving had 800. We grinned at each other, knowing the server was confusing carbs with calories, and restated our question.

Next came the manager, who very politely told us that they had no less than three chefs trying to work out the information we were looking for. I think she came back two more times, wringing her hands and asking us questions. The last time she came out, she started asking us questions about the nature of Type 1 Diabetes.

Somewhere along the explanation, we got to the part about counting carbs and how it's important to know carb amounts because of what too many or too few carbs can do to Elise's blood sugar.

At this point she says, "I need to tell you that if we can't get the correct carb amount, we cannot be held liable for what it could do to your daughter's blood sugar."

It was all I could do to keep from howling with laughter. I looked at Fred and tried not to laugh. We assured her that we would not be suing if Elise's BG went too high, and we appreciated their efforts in getting us the information.

It STILL makes me giggle. I think we may be onto something here, people...

BTW, we totally WAG'd the carb amount for the cake and Elise's BG came in at 116 two hours later. Nice.

I guess we won't be suing after all.

Boo to the cheesecake

Thanks to everyone who chimed in about the glucagon and the cheesecake. I love that I can ask all my crazy questions and you are so quick to help out!

We thought we had figured out the cheesecake pretty well since Elise was 103 at bed time. But at midnight check she was 303, and 320 at wake up this morning. I have no idea if the cheesecake was the culprit or not, but I think we'll stay away from it until we get it figured out better. We only go to the Cheesecake Factory once or twice a year anyway, since just looking at their food can cause you to gain about 50 pounds!

Celebrating

As I mentioned in my previous post, Elise had a great visit to her Endo on Friday. So we decided to celebrate by having dinner at one of our favourite restaurants, Maggiano's. Fred and I debated over the North Park or Willow Bend location (North Park being our favourite), but decided to head to Willow Bend because it seems less people are getting shot at that mall.

One thing that is difficult about the type of insulin that Elise is on is the timing of her meals. She needs to eat pretty much at the exact same time (within 30 minutes on either side) every day. She usually eats around 5:15-5:30, which means she doesn't eat at the same time as us during the week, since Fred doesn't get home until 6:00.

Diabetes also makes taking Elise to restaurants very difficult. It's hard to find nutritional info on a lot of places, and when you can, the carb amounts in the food they serve are so high that they don't fit into Elise's food plan (between 15 and 25g of carbs per meal). What we usually end up doing is feeding Elise before we go, or bringing food for her.

But on Friday, I was determined to make this a family affair. So we called up Maggiano's and asked about how we could get nutritional info on their food. The head chef ended up being the one who called us back, and when we told him of our predicament, he said he had a great low-carb pasta with marinara that he would personally make for Elise. Even better? He would figure out the card count for me, giving my brain some much needed rest. And because it was such a small amount, he wasn't going to charge us for it.

When the food was brought out, Johnny (the chef), came out to chat with us. Never in my life have I received such amazing, personal service. I actually started to cry as I thanked him (and I'm not really like that normally). It just meant so much to me that we could enjoy a nice dinner as a family, and be able to just celebrate our good news from earlier.

So thank you, Johnny Poché, and Maggiano's for helping us to go out and feel "normal" for once.