Diabetes Blog Week - Day 1: A Day in the Life of The Superhero's Diabetes

Karen at Bitter-Sweet Diabetes Blog had an idea to have a Diabetes Blog Week. Thank you Karen for making this a possibility for all of us to share our experiences with others. I look forward to reading everyone’s posts all week!

Day 1 - A day in the life . . . with diabetes. Take us through a quick rundown of an average day and all the ways in which diabetes touches it. Blood tests, site changes, high and low blood sugars, meal planning, anything that comes along. This can be a log of an actual day, or a fictional compilation of pieces from many days.

A day in the life of The Superhero’s diabetes… Though there are no real “typical” days in Diabetes, here is a run down of what happens during the day for us.

In this scenario, The Superhero was running a little high all night (upper 200’s to low 300’s). No matter what we did, he was not budging. There was either some sugar in the diet lemonade from Chick-Fil-A, or I mis-counted the carbs for the fries. Either way, high’s all night, create a CRANKY 3-year-old the next day.

6:30am The Superhero wakes up crying. Check Dexie (Dexcom CGMS), he is still in the upper 200’s. Check finger to verify, 289, enter number into Dexie to calibrate. Before bolusing, I think “Hmmm, he is in a crummy mood. I would like to pre-bolus breakfast, but will he actually eat it?” I decide he is too grumpy and I will only bolus for the BG at this time.

7:00am Breakfast. The Superhero wants Froot Loops. I weigh out the cereal on the scale and add milk to soften the froot loops. Then I dump the milk out so we don’t have a mess. Give The Superhero his food. Measure his milk and warm it in the microwave (I have a strange kid).

I wait to bolus until he is eating, because he is still acting grumpy. He eats. I enter carbs into the pump remote and it calculates the amount of insulin he needs, I dial the amount I actually want to give, what it recommends this time, and bolus. Dexie was showing he was starting to come down from his high BG, but now that he ate breakfast, he is sure to spike.

7:30am Dexie beeps twice. Ugh. High. He is 301 with double arrows up. I wait it out. I know he has insulin on board, let’s see where it goes.

8:00am I check Dex again because he is being MEAN to his sister. Still in the 300’s. I wait it out. Lots of insulin on board.

8:15am Dex beeps. He is dropping. Now, let’s hope he drops enough, without dropping too much!

8:35am Check Dexie again. He is now 210 with an arrow straight down. Wait it out and see where things go.

9:00am Dexie says he is 150 with an arrow down. Weigh snack on the scale, enter the carbs on the pump remote, dial the amount I want to give, and bolus.

9:30am Dexie beeps. Low. He is now 89 and dropping. I know he just had his snack, but he also has IOB now from the snack, along with any left over breakfast bolus. Give small fast carbs, marshmallows, roughly 5g.

11:00am Lunch time. We made it to lunch with no more issues. Check BG. 141. Yay! It worked out. Enter number into Dexie. Bolus PB and J sandwich for lunch. The Superhero eats. I bolus the rest of his meal, fruit and milk.

11:30am-1:30pm Nap time. He goes up above 240 (high alert), then back into range quickly. Hovers around 120 during nap.

1:30pm Wake up. Dex says 145. Eats snack. Bolus.

3:00pm Check Dex. Up around 180 from snack. Not too bad!

5:00pm Dex beeps. He is dropping. This is “normal” for dinner time for him. BG Check. He is 101 and dropping. We give him his milk “free” and bolus the rest of dinner.

7:00pm Getting ready for bed. He is 180 and steady at the moment. Still has some insulin on board, but it should work out ok.

8:00pm Dex says 120 and steady. Great number, but a little low for night time. We will wait and watch. The Superhero is sound asleep.

9:30pm Dex says 121 and steady. Awesome. Still low for night time, will wait and watch. The Superhero is still sleeping peacefully.

11:30pm Dex says 118 and stead. Verify with finger poke, 120. Awesome. Sleep coming. Still low for night time. Will it stay steady? Checking again at 1am. The Superhero wakes up just to stick out his finger, and then back to sleep.

1:00am Dex says 125. Awesome! Back to bed for a bit. The Superhero sleeps through us walking in his room to check Dex.

2:30am Dex says 122. Woo Hoo! (basals MUST be right on!) The Superhero is still sleeping nicely. I was up with The Princess for a few and check Z while I was up.

4:00am Dex says 127. Is this really happening? The numbers are this steady? So awesome! I love how The Superhero sleeps right through his parents obsessive night checks.

6:00am The Superhero wakes up. 131. Wow! We made it a whole night without having to give insulin or treat a low. I wonder if this will happen again? (it did NOT happen again the next night!)

While the events listed above do not happen every day, they do happen often. We have unexplained highs and lows and there is often no explanation. We just deal with the numbers as they come and then move on to the next.