The CGM is so cool! It helps so much to see the trend graphs of where his blood sugar is going! We've had no lows today, but only because of the CGM. When it headed down sharply around 11:30, I instantly decided it was lunchtime- low avoided. It looked low again around 2:30, so we had a snack. Without the lows, these were bolused snacks & the best numbers I've seen in a long time. After he eats, he spikes to around 205 & then comes down. I really like this!
Dr. Matthew asked me to call numbers in on Friday, so I read the phone nurse our numbers for the week. She said it had to be the Glucocare, because she'd never seen anything like it. She's been type 1 since childhood herself too. Another first - she asked to run the numbers by someone else & call me back. We backed way off on insulin. For example, lunch ratios were 1:23 last week. I changed them to 1:25 earlier this week. Now they are 1:30. Basals went down three times this week too. I figured we'd see horribly high numbers, but we're not. Last night he had pizza without the extended bolus, so that didn't go well, but today's been great!
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Dexcom is here!
The Dexcom is here! Yeah! We unpacked it, applied numbing cream, & inserted it before heading to K-group tonight! The 2 hour warm-up period ended on the way home & it is working great right now!!!
Andrew woke up at 44 this morning & then dropped to 36 after juice. We desperately poured in sugar after our experiences the last few days with not being able to get him up. He came up, but we were afraid to bolus for breakfast. By snack, of course, he was high, so we gave a correction. Then he started falling hard & fast again. I'm afraid the nurse had a rather stressful day. He was low again before dinner so we gave only half of the recommended dinner bolus. He's running high now, but we need to tolerate that a little to get him off the yo-yo. His doctor called me on my cell today! He doesn't think we need any new labs. All the labwork this summer was normal. He doesn't know anything about Glucocare but supports our trying it. Vanderbilt offered CGM start classes, but when I told him the rep said we could follow the tutorials & start he approved that too.
Our K-group prayed for Andrew tonight & it was really sweet! God has definitely used these experiences to make Andrew's heart receptive to having the CGM. He is actually excited. We were both worried about insertion, but it went great! Tonight, I feel very blessed!
Andrew woke up at 44 this morning & then dropped to 36 after juice. We desperately poured in sugar after our experiences the last few days with not being able to get him up. He came up, but we were afraid to bolus for breakfast. By snack, of course, he was high, so we gave a correction. Then he started falling hard & fast again. I'm afraid the nurse had a rather stressful day. He was low again before dinner so we gave only half of the recommended dinner bolus. He's running high now, but we need to tolerate that a little to get him off the yo-yo. His doctor called me on my cell today! He doesn't think we need any new labs. All the labwork this summer was normal. He doesn't know anything about Glucocare but supports our trying it. Vanderbilt offered CGM start classes, but when I told him the rep said we could follow the tutorials & start he approved that too.
Our K-group prayed for Andrew tonight & it was really sweet! God has definitely used these experiences to make Andrew's heart receptive to having the CGM. He is actually excited. We were both worried about insertion, but it went great! Tonight, I feel very blessed!
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Good news on Ben!
Ben's results are in & all great news! The celiac panel was negative & the sed rate & A1c are all great! Ben's A1c was 4.9! The highs we saw with illness must have been just that - just illness! Yeah!!!
Andrew has been scaring us with his lows. He went low just after 7 pm last night & we could get him over 61 until nearly 9 pm! We tried juice, glucose tabs, an entire can of sprite, candy! He ate over 130 untreated carbs over the two hours before coming up. We even called the Vanderbilt doctor on call. Tonight he was low again for over an hour - this time before dinner. It took over an hour & being disconnected from the pump to come up. I bolused the missed basal & nothing for over 100carbs & he went low again! I'm sure he will spike later, but this is very strange. It's like he's going into a honeymoon again! We didn't even give him the Glucocare today. We're waiting on the CGM before giving him any more. The doctor last night mentioned looking for other endocrine problems like thyroid or Addison's, but I really hope it's the Glucocare. It's 10 pm, he had > 100 carbs again tonight, mostly empty carbs like juice, glucose tabs, sprite & ice cream + he had a hot pocket & I made him eat a couple peanut butter crackers before bed. No bolus except the missed basal & he's only 176! He's eating horribly just trying to get his blood sugar up. I have appreciated the prayers of friends & family through this blog & Facebook. Thank you!
Andrew has been scaring us with his lows. He went low just after 7 pm last night & we could get him over 61 until nearly 9 pm! We tried juice, glucose tabs, an entire can of sprite, candy! He ate over 130 untreated carbs over the two hours before coming up. We even called the Vanderbilt doctor on call. Tonight he was low again for over an hour - this time before dinner. It took over an hour & being disconnected from the pump to come up. I bolused the missed basal & nothing for over 100carbs & he went low again! I'm sure he will spike later, but this is very strange. It's like he's going into a honeymoon again! We didn't even give him the Glucocare today. We're waiting on the CGM before giving him any more. The doctor last night mentioned looking for other endocrine problems like thyroid or Addison's, but I really hope it's the Glucocare. It's 10 pm, he had > 100 carbs again tonight, mostly empty carbs like juice, glucose tabs, sprite & ice cream + he had a hot pocket & I made him eat a couple peanut butter crackers before bed. No bolus except the missed basal & he's only 176! He's eating horribly just trying to get his blood sugar up. I have appreciated the prayers of friends & family through this blog & Facebook. Thank you!
Monday, September 20, 2010
CGM is on it's way!
I am so excited!!! Dexcom called today to say that insurance approved it! I paid right then & it should be here Thursday! We can watch the tutorials online & start ourselves or contact the regional educator to come help us get started. I'm thinking we'll start on our own.
Dexcom Seven+ is the name our CGM or continuous glucose monitoring system. It is a sensor that is worn under the skin (another site). It doesn't inject anything. It just measures the glucose in the fluid under the skin. The fluid doesn't change as quickly as blood glucose, so a finger prick is still more accurate. Four finger pricks a day are still necessary to callibrate the system, so they won't disappear. The key advantage is that the receiver will display & graph the glucose reading every few minutes! Not only can we see if his sugar is 88, but we can tell if it's 88 & steady, 88 & climbing, or 88 & dropping super fast! We can set alarms to go off at certain numbers so that we can intervene if it's going to low or too high. I hope it will have a dramatic impact on his A1c in December. We go back to Vanderbilt the 30th, so it should be interesting to see the difference. Right now, we are supposed to run Andrew around 150 at night to avoid lows in his sleep (still had 2 this last week). With the alarm, I hope to bring that number down!
Thursday was actually a rough day. Andrew was sick & running ketones all day. Then Ben had a series of bloody diapers (again), so the doctor tested for celiac, which runs in the same endocrine family as type 1. She also tested for Crohn's, another not nice autoimmune disease. We still don't have results in on him.
Dexcom Seven+ is the name our CGM or continuous glucose monitoring system. It is a sensor that is worn under the skin (another site). It doesn't inject anything. It just measures the glucose in the fluid under the skin. The fluid doesn't change as quickly as blood glucose, so a finger prick is still more accurate. Four finger pricks a day are still necessary to callibrate the system, so they won't disappear. The key advantage is that the receiver will display & graph the glucose reading every few minutes! Not only can we see if his sugar is 88, but we can tell if it's 88 & steady, 88 & climbing, or 88 & dropping super fast! We can set alarms to go off at certain numbers so that we can intervene if it's going to low or too high. I hope it will have a dramatic impact on his A1c in December. We go back to Vanderbilt the 30th, so it should be interesting to see the difference. Right now, we are supposed to run Andrew around 150 at night to avoid lows in his sleep (still had 2 this last week). With the alarm, I hope to bring that number down!
Thursday was actually a rough day. Andrew was sick & running ketones all day. Then Ben had a series of bloody diapers (again), so the doctor tested for celiac, which runs in the same endocrine family as type 1. She also tested for Crohn's, another not nice autoimmune disease. We still don't have results in on him.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Day 2 Glucocare
So here are today's numbers -
6:19 am 91 Breakfast + Glucocare
9:20 am 78 Felt low. Nurse gave juice + snack & only bolused snack.
11:05 am 59 Juice. Recheck 95
11:45 am 117 Lunch
2:05 pm 262 No correction because of running club. Ketones negative.
2:30-3:00 Running Club
4:00 pm 51 Juice + snack. No insulin
4:29 pm 94
5:25 pm 56 Juice. Dinner.
6:30 - 8 pm Baseball practice. Gene accidently bought regular Gatorade instead of G2- 34g instead of 12g. Andrew drank the entire bottle & didn't bolus! I expect him to be high, but...
8:24 pm 102 Really? Turned basal -10% for 6 hours for exercise. Disconnect for bath.
9:08 pm 61 More Gatorade. He likes it and we never buy it on purpose!
9:22 pm 110 7g snack
10:35 pm 141
It has been a beautiful, active day. Or is it the Glucocare? I'll probably send him to school on -10% basal tomorrow. That many lows in one day is not good. But it encouraging to think the Glucocare might help him. The CGM should have gone to insurance for approval today too.
6:19 am 91 Breakfast + Glucocare
9:20 am 78 Felt low. Nurse gave juice + snack & only bolused snack.
11:05 am 59 Juice. Recheck 95
11:45 am 117 Lunch
2:05 pm 262 No correction because of running club. Ketones negative.
2:30-3:00 Running Club
4:00 pm 51 Juice + snack. No insulin
4:29 pm 94
5:25 pm 56 Juice. Dinner.
6:30 - 8 pm Baseball practice. Gene accidently bought regular Gatorade instead of G2- 34g instead of 12g. Andrew drank the entire bottle & didn't bolus! I expect him to be high, but...
8:24 pm 102 Really? Turned basal -10% for 6 hours for exercise. Disconnect for bath.
9:08 pm 61 More Gatorade. He likes it and we never buy it on purpose!
9:22 pm 110 7g snack
10:35 pm 141
It has been a beautiful, active day. Or is it the Glucocare? I'll probably send him to school on -10% basal tomorrow. That many lows in one day is not good. But it encouraging to think the Glucocare might help him. The CGM should have gone to insurance for approval today too.
Friday, September 10, 2010
CGM & Glucocare
Today, Vanderbilt faxed in the narrative of why Andrew needs the CGM, and the school nurse faxed in the school BGs since we've had lots of lows at school. We'd already submitted 3 months of BGs, but the variability is easier to see when school & baseball is in session. We now have everything ready to submit to insurance on Monday morning!!!
A friend also shared that she has been using a herbal supplement called GlucoCare. Her daughter is type 1 & is getting good results with it. It is worth a try and is supposed . I ordered it Monday night & already have it. We are going to start with one meal a day & work our way up. I won't do lunch, because I don't want to have to deal with sending it to school. Dinner worries me a little since if it works he may need less insulin & I'd hate to have him low in his sleep. He could use help with breakfast, but have I mentioned he has had some really low morning lows at school? Right now, I'm thinking of starting for breakfast on Sunday. I hope this will be a much safer experiment soon with CGM!
A friend also shared that she has been using a herbal supplement called GlucoCare. Her daughter is type 1 & is getting good results with it. It is worth a try and is supposed . I ordered it Monday night & already have it. We are going to start with one meal a day & work our way up. I won't do lunch, because I don't want to have to deal with sending it to school. Dinner worries me a little since if it works he may need less insulin & I'd hate to have him low in his sleep. He could use help with breakfast, but have I mentioned he has had some really low morning lows at school? Right now, I'm thinking of starting for breakfast on Sunday. I hope this will be a much safer experiment soon with CGM!
Sunday, September 5, 2010
A Week In The Life
My precious aunt just spent a week with us, and we were so blessed by her visit! She loves each of the kids and pampers each of us. She wanted to learn how to care for Andrew's diabetes because she may care for the kids while Gene & I take a trip in the Spring. What a week she saw! Saturday, we went Ryan's restaurant, a buffet, to celebrate Ryan's 13th birthday. Lots of food, combination of fat & carbs, + difficulty carb counting = a night of frequent BG checks because of high blood sugars. Monday morning, he walked into school and staight into the nurses office at BG 37. Tuesday night after baseball, he complained of feeling low. His Bg was 151, so I tucked him in & promised to recheck him in 30 minutes. He was 245! That was a lot to go up in 30 minutes, but his ketones were negative, so we gave him a correction. At 2 a.m. he was 191, which isn't great, but is okay during sleep & at least he was coming down. I went back to sleep without concern. Morning came along with moderate ketones & BG 385. The drop must have come from exercise, because the site was definitely bad. I don't remember a bad site since the rough night last Spring. Wednesday was a rollercoaster & Thursday brought a persistant low that took over 30 minutes to correct. Fresh eyes looking at the situation reminded me how much we need a cure and how much I'm looking forward the Dexcom CGM.
The Dexcom process is going slowly. I think we are still waiting on the letter from the doctor of medical necessity before sending it to insurance. I hope they cover it at first request. Benefits change October 1, so time is running out. It will be another piece of technology that can fail like a pump site, but the benefit it can add will be worth it!
So far things are going great at school, so that is a big praise!!!
The Dexcom process is going slowly. I think we are still waiting on the letter from the doctor of medical necessity before sending it to insurance. I hope they cover it at first request. Benefits change October 1, so time is running out. It will be another piece of technology that can fail like a pump site, but the benefit it can add will be worth it!
So far things are going great at school, so that is a big praise!!!
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