I don’t have much time to reply at the moment but will share more later.
A year down the track from starting this discussion my son has just spent two days in hospital to get his blood sugars sorted. He had adjusted his night time insulin down to 5u instead of 12u.
I have had three full nights sleep in three months. The night after we got out of hospital I slept for 11 hours straight until I was woken by the phone. He is so afraid of going low that he has been sneaking snacks to keep his blood sugars up and then tried the insulin adjustment. I have to watch him like a hawk. I am testing twice a night just so he will go to sleep without adjusting his BS. He doesn’t feel safe unless I do this. Over this time he has been sick as well, twice.
Our school year here is slit into three terms. He had about 30 - 40 % attendance for the first half of this term. I think in the end he spent about 20 days at school. I have had the school on my back wanting to know how I could better control his diabetes so he spent more time at school. The school is another whole kettle of fish. Which I now have to fight and get the Diabetes nurse back in to speak to them.
I am so tired. I’ve never functioned well on less than 8hrs. My other children don’t get the time and attention they need. at the moment it seems like a downward spiral with no way out. The more tired I get the less I am able to deal with my sons behavior and the less tolerant I am with everyone and the worse his control is. I miss things like him not testing even when I’ve asked him half a dozen times to test I miss not following up and checking before he eats.
We have a clinic appointment next week and I am going to talk to them about getting a pump. We are also looking at getting a diabetic trained dog to reassure him at night. There is up to a two year waiting list for one in the UK. Only one place is training them for use with children. Other than that I don’t know what else to do.
Every time I read about type-1 and nationalized health care systems the more I want to stay very clear of them.
As for your son, he is most certainly being a 10 year old… Thats how old I was when I was diagnosed, and believe me, it gets worse before it gets better. My parents freaking out and trying to fear me up was never all that effective. Actually, they kind of sucked at the whole thing. Back then we didn’t have blood tests, I had a really spooky looking chemistry set for the bathroom though. 8^P On the whole control is good thing, he is still young and growing, so his needs will be changing pretty fast soon… Its pretty much going to be a fact that its tough to control. So, relax… Be there to help him figure out how to keep control and don’t freak out. That sends a really bad signal. Fear is not helpful in good control, and when parents freak out on a a1c or reading that sends the kids a signal that they should be scared. It just needs to be fixed and dealt with. highs will happen, they happen to adults just like kids… just try to get a good carb count for a dinner at a good non-chain restaurant. 8^P Or see what happens when you just accidentally got served a non diet soda, and didn’t notice the difference. These happen, you test and fix, thats the only thing you can do. As for his fear of nocturnal hypos, he is not alone. When I was 11 I had one nearly kill me. Just let him know that there are better ways of dealing with the fear of them… Get those before bed and wake up numbers and adjust to keep the nighttime curve flat. he is very likely taking extra late night food in an attempt to feel some empowerment over the fear of the late night lows… You can re-direct to a better way of preventing them being a problem and undo the fear that they rightfully cause.
Also, Kristin is totally right with the positive thing. There is no built in positive feedback loop for good control. None, not dying, or suffering complications is not positive feedback when it just means walking the tightrope again tomorrow. So, you need to make sure that he feels comfortable with being truthful about where his numbers are at, and the good control is a good thing, but when the numbers are off its ok, they can be fixed.
