Top 10 List: Sugar Spikers (Non Food Related)

Here is our list of things that take our flat lined blood glucose reading and shoot it up into the crazy zone:

1.  The Dawn Phenomenon - That damn hormonal surge!

2. The Re bounder - The rebound high after an extreme low or rebound from an over night low called the Somogyi effect

3.  Post Exercise Spike -  Increased levels post intense exercise.

4. The High Blood Sugar made Worse by Exercise Spike - Different then the above.

5.  The I'm Stressed Out Post Argument High -  Also called the Post Terrible Meeting, Post Anyone who Stresses you out High.

6.  The Dehydrated High -  The  I haven't had anything but coffee today spike.

7. The Site Change Spike - Good before the pump site change terrible after.

8. The Forgot to Bolus for my Meal High - Opps

9 The  Fasting High - AKA I  Forgot to Take my Bedtime Longacting.

10 The "where the hell did that one come from?" Spike - Which there is know rational explanation at all. AKA the Diabetic Curveball High

Feel free to add your own.

Cheers!

Trev

Singing the Post Breakfast Blues

"Couldn't find any with five kids"

I must say that for us;  the hardest blood sugar reading to contend with in our house full of diabetics is the Post Breakfast one.

It is bloody relentless.

I for example take 50% more Novorapid to cover any carb with my breakfast dose of insulin. That's right, 50%. 

Rowan, is no different, and the most frequent calls from the school are when they do her mid morning glucose check and I get the text that reads; "Hi Trev, her readings say 25 Mmol,(Divide by 18 for US) should I ask the wizard what to do?"

This happened a lot in the beginning but we are starting to conquer the post meal spike.

Dr Berntein, in his book, The Diabetes Solution discusses this issue at length, and thus recommends eating only 6 gms of Carb for breakfast. I can do that, but tell that to a group or more accurately a pack of hungry wolf cubs ripping into a box of cereal.  He further explains in detail the increased hormones(Cortisol) that cause an increase in blood glucose readings in the first two hours after waking.  It is a good book, however, very rigid.

It is also recommended that taking your meal time insulin 20 min (for rapid) prior to that first bite as this lessons the 2 hours spike in glucose.  This I found scary when Rowan was 18 months, and throughout her toddler years. You all know how predictable small children are with eating(sarcasm).

Okay for the most part we try to adhere to the above recommendations, the key word here is try. Now if you have children of school age(or even know these little creatures), and you somehow forget to pre-make lunches, pre-put out the clothes, and end up doing what we do 50% of the time and wing the "Launch Sequence" out the door in the morning;  then you can hopefully understand how following Dr B's recommendations are tricky, and next to impossible most mornings.(I know that sentence structure sucked, never liked writing, lots to say, so little time)

However, I will say this:  When we do give the insulin 20 min before a meal, and we make the eggs or some other  good source of protein, I don't get any text messages from the school during the week, and we don't have any post meal blues on the week-end.

Trev

Exercise, Diabetes, and Pacman

Now what does Pacman have to do with diabetes, and for those newbies, what the hell is Pacman.

This analogy was inspired by my youngest Type 1 in the household.

Let me explain.

We were trying to explain to our daughter how exercise helps with diabetes control.

So my wife said to her that when she runs, bike, jumps around, and is active the sugar in her blood get gobbled up, and then she did the sound effects, "gobble, gobble, gobble" while tickling her.  I thought to myself wow that's a great way to explain the concept.

If you actually think about it, we exercise and any excess glucose circulating is used up in two ways.  First, it get gobbled up like the old video game Pacman by our muscle cells for energy.  Second it get gobbled up by our Liver to replenish the good old glycogen stores.

So the next time you are exercising or encouraging your loved one to exercise just think Pacman, or Mrs Pacman, depending on your preference.

I still smile when I think about my kid giggling and my wife saying "gobble, gobble, gobble!"

Cheers!

Trev

Diabetes and Puberty Don't Mix

I have been told many times that when my tween Type 1 hits that time, you know that time---Yes,  I am talking about Puberty.  The big P word.  By the way I did mention I have five daughters living in one house who will eventually all experience this transition.  Fun, Fun, Fun...I plan to pick up lots of overtime.

Well that time has come, well it is actually in passing as she just turned 13.  I was forewarned about the increased need for insulin and rollar coaster blood glucose levels, but wholly crap there is way more to it then glucose and insulin.

Someone or some thing I believe has abducted my daughter and replaced her with a replicate from another planet.  The old one comes to visit on occasion then returns to the mother ship.  Okay, perhaps I am being a bit too harsh.

The challenges of raising a teenager with diabetes is a daunting, and very tricky task.  To her, her friends are now way cooler then us, and she would prefer to be with them instead of under our careful watch. Let the autonomy struggle begin!

We ask her daily to track her readings, count her carbs, take her insulin.  But all she wants to do is be a teen, free to hang out at the mall, socialize with friends and talk about the latest movie.  Notice how I didn't mention boys, yes I am in denial and I'm totally OK with that.

This got me thinking about when I was a teen with Type 1 diabetes.  It sucked. But I survived.  I was active, so is she.  I survived with no testing, and 1 shot a day.

This amazing alien that was sent takes her own shots, counts carbs better then most adults, knows how much to take to correct her highs, and usually tests a minimum of 4-5 times a day.  All this stuff and has a thriving social life! A promising track career, and she is passing school. What more could we ask for, really.

Even though Puberty and it's surge of hormones has made it extremely difficult to manage her diabetes I think she is doing Great!

The only major issue (which I will blog about next time) was a recent trip to the emergency department.  It wasn't DKA or a Hypo.

Oh and another thing, I like it when the mother ship leaves her for more then a day.

Later,

Trev