Sunday, November 14, 2010

It's World Diabetes Day?

Today, November 14th, is World Diabetes Day. Instead of spending my day advocating, campaigning or educating those around me about Type 1 Diabetes, I had a "normal" day. What is "normal" around here? Well, I'll tell you...

Grace spent most of the day throwing up. She caught the stomach bug that Little Brother had earlier in the week. Unfortunately, she started throwing up with her blood sugar already solidly low. As in 49. You tell me; how do you raise the blood sugar of a 9 year old who's nauseous and throwing up, thus can't keep down any of the sugar you've tried to give her? Glucose tab? Threw it up. Apple juice? Threw it up. Pretzels? Threw them up too. At this point I took off her insulin pump. Thankfully, she was able to keep the various foods down for about 10 minutes each, so some sugar was absorbed. Her follow-up blood sugars were a slow and steady climb back into the range we want her - 59, 66,76, 89, 105.

By 7:30, her pump had been off for about 5 hours. I checked her blood sugar and she was 180. Slightly high, but so much better than low. Then I checker her ketones. 1.2 on the Precision Xtra blood ketone meter. Anything over 0.6 is considered elevated. My only point of reference was the last time she had a stomach bug for a week. She ended up in the hospital when her ketones got to 2.5. So 1.6 is high, but I knew she'd had no insulin for a while. So I plugged her back into her pump, corrected the high blood sugar, and cut her basal back by 50%. Hopefully the throwing up is over, and if we can keep her ketones down she'll be on the mend.

And Little Sister started throwing up at 7pm tonight.

And my dog is dying. She's been sick for a while, but today she took a major turn for the worse. She doesn't eat very much any more and lost 20 pounds. Today, all of the sudden, she can't seem to walk very well. She seems to be suffering, and that's the point we decided to help end her misery. If she makes it through the night my husband plans to take her in tomorrow to be put to sleep.

So no, I didn't do much to celebrate World Diabetes Day. Not much to celebrate around here today. But I'm glad to hear stories of how my fellow bloggers did.

6 comments:

  1. I am sooo sorry your day was so terrible. I'm sorry about your dog too. Know I'm thinking of you and yours. I hope Grace gets better very quickly, I know it's a bit scary when you can't seem to keep the lows away. ((Hugs))

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  2. Sending you love and hugs to get through all of it. WDD wasn't exactly celebrated here either. Hang in there hon.

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  3. Pam! I am sorry about your dog and your sweet girls being sick. Doesn't a stomach bug just make you want to climb in bed and cover your head with the pillow?
    You and your family are in my prayers.

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  4. Hugs to you. Hope everyone starts feeling better soon. Sorry about your dog too. We had to make that tough choice a couple years ago right after Bryce was diagnosed with D. Not fun at all. Hang in there.

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  5. OK...that SUCKS. I am so sorry about your kiddos being sick and your dog...I came here from Hallie's blog, you guys had a rough day. I love you and am thinking of you and hoping today is better Pam.

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  6. i know im late.. So sorry about your dog :(. I have been there with the stomach bug but during mdi. Our endo ordered us anti nausea meds shortly after and said always make sure to have em. Key for diabetics. Maybe ask for an rx to have on hand for next time? Hope things have gotten better on the d frontz

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