Honeymoon

Andrew was headed to bed two weeks after his diagnosis & his bedtime BG was 70. Less than 70 is low, so I fed him & almost sent him to bed. The Lord must have led me to recheck & his BG was 49! He continued to stay low despite juice, so I called the doctor on call. He was kind & reassuring but brief. Soon the phone rang again. The doctor said, "I didn't realize from speaking with you that Andrew was a new diagnosis. When I went to put him in the computer, I saw his diagnosis date. I think he may be honeymooning. How is he now?" He was still low. "I don't mean to alarm you, but how far are you from the nearest hospital?" 20 minutes. "Don't go yet, but I want you to find your car keys. Keep doing what you're doing, but if he gets worse or refuses to eat, I want you to put him in the car & go straight to the hospital. Have the E.R. call me as soon as you get there." We were able to manage it at home, but I don't think Andrew had ever had so much sugar in one night! Every fifteen minutes, we gave him juice, candy, soda, anything that would raise his BG. It took over an hour to get him over 70. Too bad that he didn't feel well enough to enjoy it.

Type 1 diabetes kills the islets in the pancreas that produce insulin. I believe the doctors said that you won't have symptoms until you get down to about 20% of your islets left. The little bit of Andrew's pancreas that could make insulin appreciated the help it had been getting and was ready to make insulin again! That is the happy part of the honeymoon in the sense that it requires less insulin to manage BG. This night, it also meant that Andrew suddenly had too much insulin. One silver lining from the episode was that I was able to shift Andrew's Lantus (24 hour insulin) shot from evening to morning as a friend had suggested. Even though he took 2 shots at breakfast, it felt like only 3 shot sessions a day instead of 4.