For the past few days 4-3 days or so, my 6 year old daughter was experiencing sugars in the 200's that will not move, I will have to give a considerable amount of insulin for it to go down and then it will head back up again. I changed sites thinking it was the pod but nothing (pods were on her thighs). Yesterday morning(Sunday) for breakfast in total I gave 7 units of Novolog by injection, to bring down her high and cover her breakfast. This did not drop her, it just brought her down slowly in her correct range, when 4 days ago I would have never given her that amount of insulin as she would have dived. I changed the pod which is now on her abdomen, and increased her basal, she is now back within range. I did not think it was a bad site because she was not in the 300's just hanging around the 200's. It was scary and frustrating. One night I slept with her and kept giving corrections from the PDM and nothing, I finally ignored the PDM's suggestion and dumped insulin in her (she wears a CGM) and that eventually brought her down within range at 4am but she went back up again in the morning without even eating!!! Has anyone ever experienced this? Was it a growth spurt? Or her basal just needed increasing? How do you know when it is time to increase basal? I have never experienced this, I was thinking her body was becoming insulin resistant?
We just went through a similar episode with our 7 yr old daughter. Tried changing sets/sites, switched to a new vial of insulin, injections. Still kept going high. Then one day it just seemed to be over. Very weird. I suppose it was a growth spurt??
Growth spurts can do that. So can infections (any sign of illness?).
Changing of the site,sets and even changing the insulin vial is my first guess. Growth spurt would be my second guess. Third would be illness. Fourth and my all-time favorite is... diabetes. If you followed all of these, changing and trying everything out, working your way down the list of possible culprits. Last thing it could be, is just plain diabetes. It will never be perfect and there will be times like this in the future. Sounds like you did your best and finally got her down, which is the most important thing.
Yes that is typical of diabetes...it is unpredictable at times.The exact way our body secretes insulin and maintains carbohydrate metabolism is still not fully known.Research is showing the role of other peptides and not just insulin in carb. metabolism.Till the time some more concrete evidence emerges or I hope non invasive real time monitoring and feedback loop emerges, we all will have to bear this constant stress of rearing our children, as best as we know.This forum does let us relieve our stress to some extent and gain from the experiences of each other.Just maintain your cool and hope for the best.
Well first off to put it bluntly this disease sucks. We are right with you on highs, my daughter 12 is experiencing the same situation,after ruling out the site twice and a new vial of insulin she is still running high. I corrected for days and am now on a 30% increase with a wake up number still in the low 200’s today, it’s frustrating to say the least. It’s hard to get aggressive your right, in fear of major lows. My daughter is 12 and I’m sure it’s hormones/growth spurt. It has happened before ( and at her age I’m tracking it now on my calendar) and it still took me a couple of days of corrections and highs to realize it and we have been dealing with Type 1 since 2005. It’s a crap shoot at best, I’ve been doing temp basals on her pump, and I know as soon as I change a setting she’s sure to pop back to normal when I do. The worst part is in this situation,they then go into meals high and she gets so insulin resistant the higher she is.
I’ve given up saying please just wait and hour to get your numbers down to have that snack …and it never does. Good luck, my advice is to increase, correct and check a lot… maybe a glass of wine lol. Hugs to you because when you think you have it right, then all changes. I will say I’m thankful this isn’t during school though! Sorry so long!
I second the glass of wine.
When my teenage son was insulin resistant, his dad would take him browsing at the big box store and buy him a bottle of water. The slow exercise and water seemed to break the insulin resistant cycle. Applesauce, which makes no sense since it is full of sugar, also seemed to help. His CDE thought maybe he was low on some critical vitamin or mineral that the insulin had to have to metabolize.
I so look forward to the Bionic Pump that Boston University is testing in more trials this Summer, some on children at Diabetes Camps. One of the blogs of the adults that tested it for a week on the BU campus said she was crying when she had to give it back. It tests Blood Glucose every 5 minutes and using two solo pods that give either a small amount of insulin or a small amount of glucagon to keep the blood sugar at a Constant 80. She said it was amazing to not have to count carbs and try to figure out why their blood sugar was way off when she knew she was doing the right thing that had worked before. It's where my extra money (ha ha) will be donated this year!
When my daughter (also 6)has a growth spurt it tends to go - highs for 3+ days (hers usually are in the 300s - come down - then right back up) I make changes to her basal and sometimes I:C ratio - have lower highs for 3+ days - raise the insulin again - 2 weeks of good numbers - then we are chasing lows and I have to lower the insulin - she usually ends up with a slightly higher basal rate or I:C ratio in the end - even though I have gone through this 2-3 times a year since she was two - it still takes me a week to figure out it is a growth spurt. It is weird some days how their numbers are so persistent - we have had some good days (and bad days) where we get the same number(within 5 points) all day - and other days where we are riding the roller coaster