My 10 yr old daughter was diagnosed w/Type 1 on 8/31/2009. She is on the pump and everything has been running smoothly, until our last doctor appt. Over the past few months my sweet little girl has not been checking her blood sugars as regularly as I thought. The school health associate fills out a daily paper for us on how many carb she eats, what her bolus is, and what her bg checks are. It's after school, evenings, and weekends that we have been slacking. I have not been nagging as much since she has been so responsible for over a year at taking care of herself. Well now I find out she is just tired of having diabetes & doesn't like to check as often. I can't blame her, but unfortunately it's not a disease you can forget about. Unfortunately it truly is 24-7-365. At the doctor's appt last week her A1C was 9.6 (highest ever since she was diagnosed) and traces of protein were found in her urine. We did another urine sample a day later to verify the results. We went thru the holiday weekend with me nagging her to check her blood sugars and having to check her meter to be sure it was done. Also back to the 3 am checks which we haven't done in a few months. Today we took in another urine sample and it showed protein again. It is now being sent to the lab to find the source of the protein. Worst case scenerio, kidneys are starting to fail. Has this happened to anyone else that has had diabetes for less than 2 years? I am really hoping the protein is due to the high glucose levels, but am scared to death! Please tell me someone else is out there that this has happened too and everything has been OK with tighter control.
Is your daughter taking an ACE inhibitor (blood pressure medicine) to protect kidney function? After I'd had D about 25 years I had protein in urine, but it disappeared completely once I started taking the medication.
I would caution you not to be too heavy handed with your daughter and not to expect her to be perfect.
It is natural to think you can "fix" any problems she's having with tight control. I'm not convinced that's the only factor, or even the primary factor, that prevents complications. Not feeling pressured by diabetes will make it easier for her to manage the day to day responsibilities of it. It helped me a lot to stop looking at my meter as a judge and to see it as a tool that tells me if I need to take a correction bolus or eat a snack.
The problem with expecting your daughter to have great control all the time is that she may rebel against that pressure by doing the opposite. Diabetics are way more prone to eating disorders, depression and other scary stuff. It also encourages people to be duplicitous because they feel like they are falling short of expectations. Instead, try to work with her and figure out a way you can help her deal with challenges. Maybe you can give her days off from testing, like if she does great for 5 days she can have a test-free day as a reward. I'd also endourage you to read this article.
www.diabetesmine.com/.../teens-with-diabete.html
Take care. -Jenna
Jenna,
My daughter Celia is not taking any medications right now. The lab results came back with a low level of protein and the doctor believes it is from her high blood sugars over the past 3 months. We are on a wait & see what the next test results are in 3 months.
Thank you so much for sharing the link to that article. I WAS that smug mom that said, my kid would never do that! My daughter was doing so well with controlling her diabetes I didn't think she would ever neglect it. How naive! When I talked with her about it, she said she is just sick & tired of having diabetes. After reading this article, it's good to know we're not alone, but also frightening.
I like the idea of rewarding her for her hard work, but right now, I still can't grasp giving her a test-free day. Her blood sugar numbers are all over the board right now with summer activities & softball going on, that I can't see doing that. I already told her that if her A1C is an 8 or lower in 3 months, that she would get the cheerleading warm-up jacket that she wants.
We went to the Joslin center last Friday and she had an average of 8 checks a day since her doctor's appt 2 weeks ago. Our diabetic coordinator gave her a huge high five and Celia was beaming from ear-to-ear. I took her out for ice cream and told her how proud I was of her. I backed-off nagging her this weekend & she actually checked on her own. I want her to keep up the great work and am really working on trying not to micro-manage.
Thank you for the advice & thanks again for sharing the article!
Sandi
You and your daughter are both doing a good job with a tough situation. When I became a mom my own mother told me that the worst part of being a parent is that you always feel like you could have done things better.
I know not testing isn't ideal, but many of us had diabetes years before glucose monitors were available. At some point your daughter will figure out that testing allows you to correct and feel better overall. I don't think you can make that happen. Teens and young adults drive fast, drink too much or try other risky stuff. Unfortunately diabetic teens also ignore their diabetes. A few people suffer terrible consequences of their dangerous choices (like kids who die in drunk driving accidents), but most of us live to tell the tale of being young and dumb.
About the same time that young people realize hangovers aren't worth it and driving fast leads to tickets and car accidents, diabetics realize that ignoring diabetes keeps them from having the energy to do what they want. For me it happened around age 24. Don't think I really took my health seriously though until I got married and became a mom. I want live a long, healthy life and take care of my grandkids someday.
I follow the blog of mom with three boys with Type 1 (and one without). Each of her boys are now pretty independent in a lot of their own D-care, but from time to time she gives each of her boys a "diabetes vacation". SHE takes over as much of the hour-to-hour management as possible. She goes to them when it is time to test and does the test for them. She counts the carbs in their meal. She does the bolus. After a week of having mom take care of everything they're ready to take back more responsibility for their D-care. You can read her post here: www.ourdiabeticlife.com/.../pinch-hitting-for-better-diabetic-life.html
With our son (9) there are times when he just doesn't want to be told again to stop what he's doing and test. When he starts getting to that place, I just take to the kit to him, get everything all ready for him, and he does the test without complaint. I can generally get more testing in during the day this way than telling him it's time to test, and then reminding him, and then reminding him again...
Maybe your daughter can use a little "diabetes vacation" to get the testing back on track?
Blessings,
Mo
Sandi-
I had protein in my urine, and the doctor had us recheck it a few months later and it came back fine, but he told us that all sorts of things can cause slightly raised levels, not just diabetes. (at the time I had had diabetes for 17 years.) He said that if I was fighting off an infection, even one not noticeable that that could cause it too. I think he might have said something about where I was in my cycle too. . . but that could have been about something else. . . Good luck!
Hang in there mom. I think all of us have or will be going through the same thing. My daughter is 12 dx over 4 years ago. She also does not check, forgets to bolus and flat out lies about her BS at times. I try not to nag or get on her about it. When she is in one of those moods. I just hand her the clicker, she does the stab and I do the reading. No asking, I just get a reading. Show her the number and she does the correction or what ever needs to be done. Make sure she is drinking a lot of water to help hydrate her and move that protein out of her blood.
jennagrant thanks for sharing that link. Very good! I also read something in the comments below it that moved me a great deal.
It was posted by a mom with a collage kid with type 1. These are not her exact words, but very close.
No such thing as a "Bad" number. The numbers give you control. The "Bad" is the unknown. Control is the freedom they want!
I can't get home and start working with this new idea with my tweener!