New to the game

Hi, my name is Chrystelle and a friend told me about this site after finding out my daughter has T1.  She was just diagnoised on Dec. 16.  I found it to be a bit of a shock thinking she might just have a UTI when I brought her to the doc only to be told that she was dumping sugar.  I kinda felt like an airhead not catching it, I knew the signs but its so easy to write it off as just her being a kid and how they all change from day to day.  So after they checked her blood sugar level in the office and said it was 379 they sent us over to the hospital for a 3 day vacation, lol.   I think part of me is still hoping this is a bad dream that we will wake up from.  I dont think it has totally sunk in yet that this is for the long haul.   Plus we still dont have a good hang on the sugar levels.  everytime I test her she is around 250, been giving her all the doses like the doc said to do, but they even said to wait it out longer before changing the doses of her insulin.  I guess I am sorta confused maybe some of you could help me with what your journey was like when you first found out, was it this sugars are running high all the time for the first few weeks or what.  Thanks for any responses.

In the same boat here. We got my daughter diagnoses on the 15th with a 4 day hospital stay. Hers was over 500 and she was air lifted from where we live to a childrens hospital about 45 min away. We have a case manager that we call every morning and every evening that changes her dose of insulin based on her numbers. She dropped below 70 today and it scared me but she has been in a normal range lots of times we have tested but as high as 236 today. So she is still all over the board but getting there. I wish this was all a dream.

Hi Welcome! This is the place to be for all of you questions. I have been recently diagnosed as well this year. I am 46 years old. How old is your daughter. I know all of this is alot to get used to, but you have come to the right place. I was so glad I found this site. Everyone on here is so helpful. Any questions just ask. It is hard to see the symptoms even if they are staring you in the face. I knew them too, but never thought this would happen to me. Good luck and welcome

They told us if we had any questions to call them but just wait it out for our 2 week appointment before they change it anymore then what they did in the hospital.  They got her on 5 units of lantus everyday and 1 unit of novolog for every 20g with her meals with .5 units for corrections.   Its so hard watching my girl ask for all her normal snacks and telling her sorry you cant have that cause you just had a dose of insulin why dont you have a free food and she is getting sick of those already.

Ah I should have put her age, she is 9 year old.

Hi. I was diagnosed before home glucose monitoring was used, but from what I've heard from others on here, it's common to run high at first and slowly bring sugars back down. I would feel okay about her numbers as long as they are slowly going down and as long as there is someone, like a nurse educator, who you can call frequently to check in.

I'm imagining that it must feel overwhelming to think of this as forever. It sounds like a good idea to focus on the here and now as you get used to all the changes. Holiday times are even more challenging (says someone who went to a holiday cookie swap last night and left with a sugar of 236, lol), so you have to be even more patient with yourselves! But, the more time you spend on here, I think you'll see that us T1's generally lead pretty normal and successful lives even though it's tough and not a fun diagnosis.

The first few months / first year, things will be hard as you adjust, but you are doing the best you can! Even those of us who are familiar w/ D have strange sugars at times, so it's impossible to be perfect. Don't beat yourself up about sugars that aren't what you had hoped!

Good luck and send me a message if you have questions.

[quote user="CassiesMama"]

Its so hard watching my girl ask for all her normal snacks and telling her sorry you cant have that cause you just had a dose of insulin why dont you have a free food and she is getting sick of those already.

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I just saw your second quote. Some "free" (low carb) foods I like are: cheese sticks, sugar free jello, sugar free popsicles, small pieces of chocolate with less than 5 grams of carbs, peanut butter on cucumbers or carrots, veggies and dip, a hotdog w/ mustard. Probably other people have better ideas too. Mine aren't the healthiest, lol. Hang in there!

My daughter is 9 as well. She is at 60g for breakfast lunch and dinner and 15g for snacks. They told me she can have no carb or protein snacks when ever she wants. She lost 22lbs really fast and is eating a lot to gain it back. She is on NPH and novalog tonight she had 12nph and 7 nova. We have to check her at 2 a.m. to see what she is at.

Eventually you'll learn how to carb count. It's tricky at first, but it will give you more flexibility, i.e. taking insulin for what SHE wants to eat, not having to eat x carbs at x meal. It will be soo worth it!

they didnt give us any carb restrictions just said we needed to cover them with insulin, which we have been doing.  I even went so far as to find those low carb wraps that are like 3 carbs so she can have a cheese tortilla thing or like a sandwhich wrap with this to make it a bit more interesting.  She is just really bummed cause I have no clue how many carbs are in these chocolates we made before we found out and now she cant have them unless i can get an idea.  That and grandma sent her home with a huge thing of homemade fudge thinking i might be able to find out what the carb count might be on it but no luck.

Everyone always thinks, take some medicine and you'll be fine. But, diabetes is never going to be an exact science, just make sure you are doing what the docs are telling you. That's all you can do and be completely honest with them, they know what they are doing, most of the time.

Oh and she only gets her insulin before dinner and before breakfast. I think that is all I forgot.

[quote user="Chrystelle"]

they didnt give us any carb restrictions just said we needed to cover them with insulin, which we have been doing.  I even went so far as to find those low carb wraps that are like 3 carbs so she can have a cheese tortilla thing or like a sandwhich wrap with this to make it a bit more interesting.  She is just really bummed cause I have no clue how many carbs are in these chocolates we made before we found out and now she cant have them unless i can get an idea.  That and grandma sent her home with a huge thing of homemade fudge thinking i might be able to find out what the carb count might be on it but no luck.

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Definitely pick up the Calorie King book, you can get it Barnes and Noble or any bookstore. That's really good if you are going out to eat because it has a lot of restaurants in it as well as a lot of things that you can get as close of a carb count as possible, it gets a lot easier to carb count when you get used to it.

[quote user="Courtney"]

Definitely pick up the Calorie King book, you can get it Barnes and Noble or any bookstore. That's really good if you are going out to eat because it has a lot of restaurants in it as well as a lot of things that you can get as close of a carb count as possible, it gets a lot easier to carb count when you get used to it.

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I will look for it on amazon, Thanks.

In addition, you can look up most foods carb counts at calorieking.com, and you can figure out carb counts in homemade recipes at http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/recipe_analysis.php

 

The recipe analyzer has been a lifesaver for me this december. my mom makes the cookies, and i take the recipe and find carb counts for them. 

Even knowing the carb counts, it's never perfect. 

When I was first diagnosed, I was in the hospital for three days, and didn't get below 200 for almost two weeks. It really helped me to just focus on this meal - this is what i have to do for THIS meal. Then, everything seemed less overwhelming. Keep it up!

Definitely keep your head up.  It takes a lot to get your levels under control and sometimes they never do.  I know that generally my BS's go out of control at least 1 time every 6 months for no reason.  There are lots of things that can affect what your BS's are:  stress, metabolism, illness, etc.  Plus, since your daughter was recently diagnosed she still could be in her Honeymoon period.  This is one reson why the doctor's probably don't want to change her doses around a whole lot.  If they increase the amount of insulin and she is still Honeymooning, then she will drop drastically.  When I first got diagnosed I was in the hospital for 5 days because they couldn't get my insulin levels right.  I had a general physical treating me and after he almost killed me, they decided to call in an endocrinologist.  My endo is AMAZING (I drive 3 1/2 hours one way to see him).  He finally got me straightened out enough to go home, but he continued to change everything after seeing how I did for about a month out of the hospital and on my own.  They will continue evaluating and tweeking for a while!  I don't know if your doctor has said anything, but mine is a HUGE proponent for pumps, especially for kids.  I know you have a lot on your plate right now, but something to think about in the future!!  I would also check on a CGMS (continuous glucose monitoring system).  They can really help notify you if the levels are getting too low or high.  Plus, they are great alarms at night if her blood sugar starts dropping.  Keep your head up, both of you will be pros soon!  Good Luck!

The endos we talked to in the hosptial said a pump would be a good idea once we knew for sure she was done with the honeymoon.  So they were thinking in about 6 months we would look into it.  I think it would be really nice for her from what I have been reading on them.  I got to admit even tho she is running high right now her color is better and her behavior is so much better now that she is getting insulin.  I think we got a really good endo she seamed super nice when we met her in the hospital and the rest of the team at childrens seams awesome, so that helps to put my mind at ease.  The one thing I have been wondering about is the novolog pen she has.  I have read some places that they sometimes dont work right.  Have any of you had problems with it?