Exhausting

Rising and lowering blood sugars sure is exhausting!  We have been battling low blood sugar for the past couple of days.  Yesterday Nathanael had a bowling tournament and we struggled to keep his blood sugar up.  He found when he was close to 100 he wasn't bowling very well.  He feels the best when he is about 120.  I even gave him two peanut butter cups for 24 carbs to get his sugar up.  Normally this would send him through the roof without a shot.  It didn't have that much of an effect.  It gave him enough of a boost to help him finish the tournament.  He qualified for day 2 in third place.  He bowled awesome!  The best part of bowling was he was consistent all day.

After we got home last night and had dinner, he blood sugar decided to start rising.  He all of a sudden was nearing 300.  I have no idea where this came from.  It certainly wasn't what he ate.  He ended up going to bed last night in the 200's.  I checked him during the night and he was 256.  I almost gave him a shot but I didn't know how his blood sugar would react so I didn't.

He got up today at 233.  I gave him a correction before his shower.  Then after his shower, he had a smoothie for breakfast and took a shot for it.  Two hours later his blood sugar was unchanged.  It hadn't gone up and hadn't gone down.  Finally after two bowling games, his blood sugar dropped to 156 and he wanted food. (The story of my life.  He always wants food.) He took a shot and had a snack.  We didn't check again until after we got home.  (Which was 2 hours after his last shot and his snack.)  He all of a sudden asked for his tester and checked his blood sugar.  He was 55!  He did have a lot of water to drink while bowling.  I think all the water and the exercise from bowling just caught up to him.  I gave him a large glass of milk and started his lunch.  Within an hour, his blood sugar has now risen to 149.  He was complaining he was cold and was yawning.  So he grabbed a blanket and I convinced him to take a little nap.  Within 5 minutes, he was out cold.

I can only imagine how this must feel to him.  I know what low blood sugar feels like but I have no idea what it feels like to go from normal to very low back to normal within an hour.  No wonder he is tired.

T1 Diabetes Frustration

One thing that every person living with diabetes really understands about diabetes is that it makes no sense.  I'm trying to help my son's body work like mine and no matter what we do today, tomorrow will be different.  For the past few months we have been dealing with mostly highs and have been trying hard to get Nathanael back down to normal levels.  We have tried increasing his fast acting insulin at meals and he still has spikes in the morning.  We have tried increasing his long acting insulin in hopes of getting him lower.  After that didn't work, we tried splitting his dosages for about a week and that didn't work.  So we went back to once a day at bedtime and increased him until his morning level was lower.  Finally, his fasting blood sugar was below 200.

The other thing we are now doing is adding up his carbs, dividing by 10 and adding 3.  This is how much insulin he takes at meal times.  This has really been helping him to not have such a huge spike after meals.  The "standard" carb number for people with diabetes is 15 carbs.  Anytime a person is eating or drinking something with 15 or less carbs, no insulin in needed.  Well, 15 carbs is just a little too much for Nathanael. We were doing 11 carbs then Nathanael was adding 2 units of insulin.  Since we starting dividing by 10 that has really worked.

The other thing that has been helping with his blood sugar is to make him go to bed about the same time every night.  Usually on the weekends, he stays up really late.  I have been finding that when he does this, his blood sugar is higher in the morning and then we fight highs all day.  I have also been checking his blood sugar early in the mornings on days where he sleeps in.  Because this too causes his blood sugar to go high.  So if he is over 200, I will give him a shot and then when he gets up in the morning, he is lower.  So far this has been working.

Now all of a sudden this week, his morning level is getting lower and lower.  Each day is a new lowest.  Yesterday morning, I checked his blood sugar after I got up and it was 105.  That is really good but it got me a little concerned.  How low did he go during the night?  I don't normally check him during the night because we have never had an experience of him going too low.  Usually at bedtime, if his blood sugar is over 200, I make him take at least 2 units of insulin to try and keep him lower during the night and it has been helping.  But the last two nights, his blood sugar has been lower so he hasn't been taking the Novolog.  I have no explanation of why he was 105.  Then this morning, I checked his blood sugar after I got up and he was 87.  This is really scary for me.  For people without diabetes, 87 is normal.  For Nathanael, this isn't so good.  He doesn't feel well.  He feels very week and his legs are shaky.  So he got up and drank a small glass of milk.  Within 30  minutes, his blood sugar had risen to 161.  When he finally got up this morning, he was 121.

These numbers are really good but what I don't understand is why now all of a sudden has he leveled out and even started to have more lows?  Today has been a really good blood sugar day.  So has he now finally hit another milestone and broken another barrier?  How long will this last?  The only thing that I know is that tomorrow will not be like today.  I don't know what it will be like it's just going to be different.  Tomorrow should be a good day.  He has a bowling tournament and will be bowling 9 games.