Who's in charge...

...of decision making regarding your child's (or your own) Diabetes?

When The Superhero was diagnosed with Diabetes in July 2008 I seemed to understand the "science/math" part of it rather quickly. I was supposed to fax/email in BG logs every couple of days or once a week or whenever we thought a change was needed. This got old. Really fast.

I started using my knowledge and making small adjustments on my own. I would then call the doctor's office and let them know what I changed and why I made that adjustment. They always seemed to agree with what I was thinking. After a short time of this, I quit calling in numbers. I quit asking for their advice.

Since that time 2 1/2 years ago, I very rarely have to call and ask for any advice. In fact, I don't even remember the last time I asked the endo for help figuring out The Superhero's numbers. We do it on our own.

*I* am the one making all the adjustments and seeing how they go and making more changes as needed.

To me, this is now the "norm".

I figure we are the ones managing this disease 24/7 and someday The Superhero will have to manage it himself. We need to raise him to be able to make adjustments on his own.

But, I started thinking that maybe this is not the norm for everyone else with T1 out there.

I have a few other T1 Mamas who I know are NOT allowed to make ANY changes on their own. Seriously. One of them was told that if she made any changes on her own or put her son back on his pump, they would call CPS. So, her son ran HIGH for days before they would call her back. The endo made her take him off the pump while he was in the hospital for ketones. He is still back on shots now, and this was a while ago.

This is not the only one I have heard of. I have read lots of FB posts where people are waiting to hear from endo's offices to make changes. And they are dealing with highs or lows in the meantime.

So, what is YOUR take on this? Do you adjust on your own or wait for the endo?



*Disclaimer: I am a mom of a T1 Diabetic child. I am NOT a doctor. I just play one in real life. Please do not take anything in this post or any other post on this blog as medical advice. If you have questions or concerns of your own, please seek advice from your doctor.*

Adjusting we will go...

Why do I always feel like I am adjusting something?! Things were running pretty smoothly for a few weeks now, no adjustments to speak of, which for us was very unusual.


Then all of a sudden this week we started seeing high numbers. Many in the 300’s. All day long! I usually wait a day or two before making changes to make sure we are really seeing a problem and not just food issues.


It is almost impossible to do a fasting basal test on The Superhero due to his age. I can’t really starve him. So, when making changes, I usually increase the basal if it is an all, or most of the day, thing.


So, when numbers start running high consistently, it must be time for change! When making changes for him I usually only increase basals by 0.025 per hour from where they were. (thank you Animas for small basal increments!)


The Superhero seems to be super sensitive to insulin and any larger change would cause him to crash. I am always nervous on basal change day. Will it work? Will it be too much? Will we need to increase more?


Lucky for me, this time, everything seems to be working out PERFECTLY!


He woke up at 150. Perfect!


He was 183 at lunch, with a little insulin still on board! Perfect!


After nap, he was 138! Again, perfect! Yeah!


I LOVE when the changes seem to be working!

At dinner, he was 95. Now I have to figure out why he dropped so much before dinner. Don’t get me wrong, 95 is a great number, but our target was 150.


So more adjusting must need to be done. Or maybe we had dinner too close to his snack and the snack was still bringing him up while the insulin was bringing it down. Or maybe it was a fluke. I will have to figure this out, again.



I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We will be having our dinner tomorrow and again on Sunday. I am hoping all of the yummy food will not give us too much trouble.