My son isn't on insulin yet (I posted a few days ago, he has positive antibodies and his BG numbers have been higher lately, but he does have a cold so I don't know if the cold could be the cause). His numbers have been higher lately, for example, his pre lunch number today was 230. We didn't give him too many carbs with his lunch so it wouldn't cause it to go even higher. We tested him again about an hour after lunch and it went down to the 160's. In a case like this, where his BG goes down without insulin (I don't know his doctor is going to say after I fax over his log sheet for the week, if she would want to start him on it or not), would insulin be given if there's a possibility his number would go down on it's own even though his BG before lunch is well over 200? His endo. said she wouldn't start him on insulin unless his numbers are consistently over 200, especially if ketones are present. He's had a lot of 200's lately but ketones are negative and eventually his number comes down on its own.
[quote user="rakgyk"]
My son isn't on insulin yet (I posted a few days ago, he has positive antibodies and his BG numbers have been higher lately, but he does have a cold so I don't know if the cold could be the cause). His numbers have been higher lately, for example, his pre lunch number today was 230. We didn't give him too many carbs with his lunch so it wouldn't cause it to go even higher. We tested him again about an hour after lunch and it went down to the 160's. In a case like this, where his BG goes down without insulin (I don't know his doctor is going to say after I fax over his log sheet for the week, if she would want to start him on it or not), would insulin be given if there's a possibility his number would go down on it's own even though his BG before lunch is well over 200? His endo. said she wouldn't start him on insulin unless his numbers are consistently over 200, especially if ketones are present. He's had a lot of 200's lately but ketones are negative and eventually his number comes down on its own.
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I would say if I were his endo that the earlier you start him on insulin, the better it will be for him and it would give better protection on his remaining beta cells. I am no doctor, but if you pass on this information to her she may doublecheck his numbers more.
I think you are right. Treatment gave my daughter a nice 4 month honeymoon.
And for now whenever he is elevated make him run around like crazy!
We try! I live in NJ and we're in the middle of a blizzard right now (we have about 18 inches and it's still coming down) and after dinner I took my kids outside to play. He was 239 before dinner and 2 hours after dinner (which included about an hour in the snow) he went down to 103. I was shocked to see how much it dropped, but when you're not quite 3.5 feet tall and playing in snow that's half as tall as you, you use a lot of energy just trying to walk around.
Using insulin now could be very risky. He is not accustomed to lows, so even a drop to the low 100s might make him feel hypo. One unit of insulin before eating mighty make that 160 become 100, and that would be great for him in the future, but not so good now. If you keep thorough records of his tests and carbs eaten, types of foods, etc then you might see times you can give a small amount of a fast acting insulin to correct a high to some extent, but without making him feeling hypo.
Thank you. This afternoon I took my kids to play in the snow for almost 2 hours, and before we were going to leave, he wasn't acting like himself, he was really crabby and crying, like he usually gets when he has a high. I took his BG and it was 70. He's never had a reaction like this to a 70, so I don't know if his body has just gotten used to being higher that now a 70 feels like a low. So even though his pre lunch number was 157 (not terribly high), I know insulin would make his number drop too much. But when he's over 200 and really moody, I don't think a little bit of insulin would be so bad, to help him feel better.
It sounds like you're keeping good track of his numbers, so maybe you should think of it as leaving things up to the endo now to make the decision. It would be less stress on you than feeling like you have to know what's best to do next... It sounds like during this period, his numbers just aren;t going to be perfect and he will have some reactions. Hang in there!!!
It's fascinating that he has lows even though he doesn't take insulin. I didn't know that was even possible.