Greetings - my daughter T1 is experiencing extreme highs and critical lows this past week. She is due to travel without me for a week with friends and stay 2000 miles away. She will be active there and the mom that’s going is a Type 1 - for 40 years. However , these highs and lows for my daughter are new since diagnosis a year and a half ago. Her MD and I are making adjustments but we aren’t seeing numbers in range yet .
I’m very uncomfortable sending her at this point and disappointment on all ends is rampant.
My daughter is 11 and hypoglycemic unawareness. Last week she hit the 30’s and would’ve three more times if I hadn’t been right on her. Now she’s living at 300-400. My friends is confident she can manage her- but I’m not comfortable sending her. In addition all the active plans they have and my daughter can’t do if she’s that high, I’m not sure this generous family is recognizing that .
Am I over reacting keeping her home? Cancelling this trip? I just am so uncertain … advice is welcome
Hi @Dhaddocks1 and thanks for reaching out. I’ve been diabetic for 50+ years, and despite my experience I would be reluctant to travel myself with things so very out of balance. You didn’t say when the trip will be. If it’s a few months or maybe even weeks off you may have time to pinpoint what’s going on. It could be hormones; stress; an infection (which typically causes highs) followed by over-treatment which causes lows. Not finger pointing, just making suggestions.
Her hypoglycemic unawareness may qualify her for a CGM to help keep track of her numbers and alert you if they are rising or falling so you can take action before things get critical.
Since she was somewhat recently diagnosed she could be in the honeymoon phase, where her body still produces some insulin, sometimes at inconvenient times.
Although she’s traveling with a Type 1 mom, if it were me at that age I wouldn’t want to feel I had to be constantly under her watchful eye, different from the rest of the kids (I was always extremely independent, even as a young child).
Hopefully you have enough time between now and the trip to address what’s causing the extremes and help her get in range at least for the most part. She’ll be better able to enjoy herself that way.
Thank you! They leave tomorrow - early am for. Week. Hence the dilemma
Ouch! I’m always happy to chime in (as readers on the forum already know 
).
Apologies if I have added to an already tense situation. I’m not a mom (not a single maternal instinct in my body) but I had one, and I know she made some sometimes difficult or (to me anyway) embarrassing decisions. My husband and I were shoveling her walkway one day when I heard her call me. I turned around and she was waving me into the house and yelling at me to come in “right now.” Mind you, I was 48 when I got married and that was a few years later…
If I might suggest for travel - if not this trip then ones down the road - have her endo write up her treatment plan - units of long acting insulin (if she takes shots), insulin:carb ratio, correction factor, etc. The parent won’t have to try to remember, and in the event she has to go to hospital, they won’t have to guess what to do. And if that plan is not working they will at least have a baseline - and her doctor’s contact info.
Treating kids can be challenging. If her doc is not a pediatric endo feel free to look for one.
Wishing you the best. Take a deep breath and follow your mom instincts.
Thank you!
I really appreciate your insight!
Hi Denise @Dhaddocks1, I can understand your anxiety especially as you have not personally lived with diabetes. I’ve lived with diabetes, my personal diabetes for over 60 years and I’ve learned that just being with other people living with diabetes has helped me manage my diabetes more effectively - possibly “learning by osmosis” little things that one can’t learn from a book or from [even the best] doctor.
Whether or not you daughter will travel is your decision, but if I was to make that decision, I would let her travel with the mom who has successfully managed her own diabetes for 40+ years.