Yep, we went and things are going OK. I think his scale has to be lessened a bit as we are basically giving under the recommended dosages and his numbers seem good.
Expanding his diet still continues to be a concern, but hopefully he’ll come around to trying new things.
Well welcome back, and I hope everyone had a blast. It sounds like everyone is easily into things, so hopefully he’ll expand his food choices in time.
I remember the night time lows, I slept so light for a long time! Luckily when my daughter went low it would wake her up so I started to sleep a little better. Fast forward 8 years…we now have the T slim pump by Tandem and the G6 Dexcom. They talk to each other!!! So it’s not perfect, but it works way better and keeps us from being as scared! It has also helped her A1Cs. That being said…I would NOT get a pump before I was comfortable with doing all the calculations and so forth. You never know when you made need it! We have not had to yet, but its technology, and I want to be prepared incase it ever fails. 
This is a marathon, not a sprint. You have got this!!! You can and will do this!!! And know that technology keeps getting better and better! It has improved a lot in the 8 years since her diagnoses!!!
Thanks Tracie! I am not and more importantly he is in no rush for the pump, but definitely want to get him using the Dexcom G6 to monitor for school this coming fall.
His grandfather is a Type 2 diabetic and was explaining a different insulin delivery mechanism he used to use, I’m not sure if something like this is still around, but it was something that attached to the body, had small needle, and he would manually ‘click it’ a certain number of times to deliver that certain number of units. He used this in conjunction with his Dexcom G5 at the time.
My son seemed to like this better than the idea of using a pump because the tube crimping possibility scares him. Once he is able to recognize his body’s signals, that might change down the road.
Hi @mawa316! It sounds like you all are adjusting - great news! I saw your note about a delivery device used by Type 2s who use insulin. I’ve heard of something like that, and admittedly don’t know much about it but I believe it is only for Type 2s as it delivers a specific dosage that can’t be changed, as we do with pumps or injections. However, please do your research and discuss with your doctor as I could be wrong. Just to leave your options open if he does decide he might like to use a pump down the road (again, not everyone wants or needs to, and that’s fine) - there is one called OmniPod - there are some forum topics on the subject that you might look through. The pod is tubeless and uses a handheld device called a PDM (Personal Diabetes Manager?) to deliver insulin, etc. I now you’ve been busy getting adjusted and learning all you can. Just tuck this in the back of your mind as an option if you do consider going on a pump.
As far as I know there is nothing like that for T1D. My daughter did shots for years, I think it was 2nd grade when she finally decided she wanted a pump. We have not had any issues with the tube crimping, and she is going into 7th grade this year. So 5 years and no real issues. Biggest issue was is the insulin going bad, but that happened in the Pen too. If you are doing shots, you might look into the Pen. There is also the Omnipod which has no tubing. Some of the girls that my daughter plays sports with wear them and love them. We tried it on my daughter first, but it fell off within a couple of hours, so we switched. You will get a lot of advice, and you just have to do the research and pick what is best for you! I am always happy to help if you have questions. You will do GREAT! He will GREAT! This is manageable, it could always be worse.
There may be others, but here’s a device I had in mind. You can select the dosage but perhaps not as precisely as with a pump. Apparently there is only 1 basal rate and it is for Type 2 only.
This was one of the first iterations of a pump it was awesome. It required you to dilute your insulin because it had 1 basal rate it was set and and non adjustable. The clicks were for when you eat. Each click represented a unit of u100 insulin but if you diluted to 75% it was only 3/4 of a unit. If you diluted to half it was half-unit etc. We had to be GOOD at math to not die. Ahh the early days of pumps. It was the size of a shoebox and No you can’t get this anymore
It’s really cool that he had one though.
I personally waited 27 years to try pumping. Everyone will have their own time table and you can make anything work with enough effort. 
So we just got back from vacation and everything went pretty well. His scale dosages were decreased while we were there.
He was also able to eat some of his favorites, pizza, ice cream, and a Belgian waffle - in moderation, of course. The even gave us instructions for a correction dose for the ice cream and that worked out pretty well too.
We did notice that when he ate these foods, his sugar levels were up and down, but still within his acceptable range.
One thing I’m not sure about is when his level is on the lower side before going to bed. He’ll have a snack and we’ll check early in the morning (12:30-1-ish) and if still on the lower side of his range he’ll eat a little something again then we’ll check in an hour or so. There’s been nothing under 70 lately, but the other morning at 2:00 AM, he was 79. I’m not sure if his basal dose is supposed to keep that steady until he eats breakfast or if he should eat something to get it up a bit (which he did in this case). We’ll bring this up with the doctor, of course, too.
Tonight between dinner and his basal dose he was 89. He ate some yogurt, but maybe I should have given him a 1/2 banana.
I still think he’s getting too much insulin and we are self adjusting a bit and will call doc tomorrow.
Welcome back and congratulations! You should all be very proud. Managing fatty foods can be challenging as they can cause a delayed spoke in glucose levels, so good job keeping them in his acceptable range. His doctor will advise you on his overnight basal insulin, or a snack alternative that will last until morning. And good job on getting more comfortable with self adjustments. Congrats on your accomplishments.
So the goal of this whole situation is good blood sugar level management, but what does that mean for the safe range given by doctor? If the range is 80 to 150 for now, is good management anything within that range, including yo-yo’ing up and down within that range (80 to 125 to 91 to 145, for example)?
Actually Matt @mawa316, the goal is to live a full, active, and healthy life.
Yes, to live a healthy life even while living with diabetes. The numbers, such as the 80 to 150 mg/dl for your son’s blood sugar level is what his doctor suggests for a “safe target” - it is not a goal. As far as for bouncing around in that target range you should not be concerned; I suspect that you, or any person who has not been diagnosed with diabetes, will “bounce about” quite a bit in that range.
The purpose of frequent BG checking is not to establish a report card or to determine bad or good, but rather to provide information so that one knows what is happening so as to be aware. That awareness, in the case of an extremely high BG [this differs by individual], MAY indicate that a correction insulin dose is needed, or that an insulin dose take for a meal might have been insufficient, That “high” should be stored in the memory bank for future use.
Tough, yes. Diabetes is a continual learning process and as time goes on much will become second nature for your son and be significantly less of a burden. It will become habit, just like you know that if you are wearing stockings, you must put them on before you put on and lace up your boots.
A positive side-effect for kids with diabetes is that they become better at doing arithmetic mentally than many of their peers; a kid with diabetes will automatically add of carbs in a lunch pail and divide that total by an insulin value to know how much insulin is needed.
Thank you for the correction on the active, healthy life goal!
It’s just becoming a bit more concerning as his level seems to be all over the place lately. We have been adjusting the doses during our vacation, which was working out well. Since our return home, levels seem all over the place. I guess we’ll got back to prescribed dosages for the remainder of the day and contact the doctor.
Since I started using Basal IQ with my TSLIM pump a few weeks ago I decided to revise my control goals. In the past I would over-correct for lows, driving my numbers sometimes very high; but those lows have minimized. So whereas in the past my numbers looked something like I imagine from a tour de France map - fairly flat in some areas, giving way to mountainous peaks and downward drops - I am aiming for my patterns to look more like a leisurely ride through the park: relatively stable, with some inclines (indicating the rises after I eat) but overall on the same plane. My doctor have me a range (my plane) of roughly 100-140 (that’s mine - your son’s doctor gave what they determined should be good for him). If I see a step peak looking like Mount Everest, it means something is wrong - I didn’t take insulin to cover what I ate, or perhaps illness. But long as I’m having a smooth ride through the park, even if my numbers are a bit out of the range she prescribed, I’m doing okay.
Thankfully we do not have to worry about hitting an exact target (“112 for meals - nothing more, nothing less!”) we wouldn’t be able to do it.
The next thing… When can you tell insulin is going bad or expiring? When it starts to get cloudy? I think we’re ready to move on to the next bottle of Novolog.
@mawa316 I haven’t had a bottle of insulin go bad in 40 years. If there are particulate or if the fast acting is cloudy that’s not a good thing.
Ditto what @mawa316 said. I’ve never had a bottle of insulin go bad. Novolog can be kept at room temp for up to 28 days, but “room temp” can vary by location so to be safe I keep mine in the fridge. I used to get a 3 month supply (3 bottles) and all were fine so long as they didn’t exceed their expiration date. The pamphlet that comes with it will probably tell you not to use it if it becomes cloudy, so I would move on to the next bottle.
If you mix insulins in some cases they have to be mixed in a certain way - you can draw up Bottle A followed by Bottle B, but not Bottle B followed by Bottle A. I don’t know if that applies to Novolog.
So we’re plugging and I think the scale approach may be coming to an end for us. During our last visit, they touched on Insulin:Carb ratio and correction dosing. We haven’t started it yet, but I think that’s in the future.
What’s been happening the last few days is that we check two hours after a meal and the level seems a bit elevated. If we check an hour later it drops down closer to range. For example, at dinner time this evening his level was 133, two hours later it was 202, then an hour later back down to 137.
After thinking about that a bit, I guess that falls in the working time of his dinner bolus, right? It seems that between hours 2 and 3, the insulin is still working. Plus the Lantus is working in the background as well.
I guess the spiking to the 200s needs to be examined, but tonight he had one Arby’s roast beef sandwich, which is 37g of carbs. That was supplemented with some of his usual ‘stuff’ to get to the 60-75g range. I don’t know if the restaurant sandwich is what did it or not.
I guess we’re doing OK. According to MySugr for the last two weeks his average blood sugar is 109, deviation of ±28 with an estimated A1C of 5.4.
Welcome back! I’ve been wondering how things are going and am glad to hear from you.
A spike a couple of hours after eating is normal, and 202 isn’t awful, especially since you’re still be and it was a restaurant meal! His average and estimated A1C sound great - keep up the good work!
Yes! For most people, fast acting Humalog, Novolog, apidra) begins to work in 20-30 minutes, peaks at just about 2 hours and then keeps working for a total of 4 hours.
You’ll like I:C and sensitivity. Too you got it!