Crash Central
Like I’ve said in earlier posts, we seemed to be returning to normal. Then we get too comfortable with that notion and diabetes likes to rear it’s ugly head once again. Katie had a huge spike higher than I think I’ve ever seen. I did 3 (yes, count them, three) blood sugar tests on Monday afternoon just to be sure. I even tested myself because the logic just didn’t want to take hold in my mind. She had been over 200 Sunday night so I gave her an 1/8th of a pill (don’t ask me how you cut that, it’s not an exact science). Then she woke up Monday at 99. All’s well, no pill because for the last few weeks I haven’t given her anything until she’s over 200 because even minuscule amounts tend to crash her out. However, that Monday afternoon she was 490! The second and third tests confirmed that she was in the high 400’s. So I gave her a 1/4 pill and she dropped to 78 within a few hours. I had finally had enough and called into the doctor to get her a suspension. Doing that will allow us to give her smaller amounts more accurately. It’s nothing new, she was on suspension for about the first full year. We only moved to pills last summer when she kept having high 100’s on the 1/2 pill dose. The rest of the week, she continued to astound us and hang out in the low to mid 100’s without any medicine. Today I finally gave her a .05mg dose and she’s slowly coming down from her afternoon 223. Slower is much better. She is a much happier girl when she’s not crashing.
Now if Andy would just play nice, we could have a nice, chaos-free home again. But , NOOOOO. I have been slowly increasing his dose over the last couple of weeks and we haven’t seen any major lows. He’s been taking a 1/4 pill(1.25mg) twice a day and he’s been running nicely in the 70-120 range. All was hunky dory until he woke up this morning at 69. In all my motherly, scientific know-how, I decided it would be prudent to not give him a dose this morning with his breakfast. He was not too fond of the buckwheat pancakes and sausage links (my attempt at introducing more fiber and fat into his diet) so I thought his blood sugar would probably stay pretty stable.
Andy and I spent the day running errands and had pizza and bread sticks at the mall so I expected the spike after his nap this afternoon. A blood sugar of 223 would be nothing of a surprise after a lunch like that. However, I overshot, once again. My instincts were not playing nice with my logic today and I gave Andy a 1/2 pill instead of a 1/4 pill to deal with that. I also went against every grain of logic that for the last 4 years has told me a blood sugar that high must be rechecked (thus the reason for 3 checks with Katie on Monday). The 1/2 pill paired with the fact that he ate exactly one meal today (stir fry and rice at dinner was apparently not a favorite with him) made for the perfect conditions of a crash.
It was a bad one. He literally CRASHED, against the sliding glass window in the living room. At first I thought he was just mad because we told him he couldn’t play with pillows (his favorite activity we use for rewards). But then I heard him crying and noticed he was lying on the floor so I rushed over with the glucose meter. It was one of THOSE. The one where he thrashes when you try to get him up off the floor. When I tried to lift him, he couldn’t stand on his own. I finally got him up on the couch and it took another minute to finagle the meter and the finger to the right positions to find out he was at 39. At this point I was screaming for Dan to come help so we could get some sugar in him. Dan tried to get him to walk to the kitchen, but Andy’s poor wobbly legs would barely work. He was uncooperative and we eventually had to hold his shaking body down on the couch to pour soda into his mouth. That at least got him more responsive and he was able to eat without us restraining him. After approximately 32 ounces of soda, a peanut butter sandwich, a half a banana, and a cup of milk later, he was finally at 57.
Lesson learned mom, don’t overcorrect and always double check when the blood sugar seems too high. I don’t know what this recent illness has done to my kids’ bodies but for whatever reason, they are now extremely sensitive to the glyburide in a way that reminds me of the time Andy was on insulin. Before he was on a pump, a half unit of insulin would bring his blood sugar down 300-400 points. Those of you who are familiar with this will know a half unit is nearly impossible to measure accurately which is why we switched to the pump when he turned a year old. Since the glyburide was started over 4 years ago, we’ve had the occasional low in the 40’s or 50’s but the last 2 months have been totally frustrating and exhausting.
Of course, if you were to look in our living room right now, you would never know these children had any problems at all. Right now, Andy is building towers with his pillows and jumping off of them onto the pillows on the floor. Katie is climbing up into the chair and bouncing up and down. Both of them are laughing and giggling. They are playing, having fun, and wearing themselves out so we can all (hopefully) sleep through the night. Who knows what tomorrow will bring. We just have to thank God that we have these beautiful children and that they are alive and (for the most part) healthy. Others are in much harder situations than ours. For tonight, I am sending two “normal” children to bed in hopes that tomorrow will bring me better instincts.
