my daughter is 18 now diagnosed at 2and 1/2 months last year she used 36 units of lantus a day and humalog. This Sr year at high we are having trouble maintaining stable Bg levels on 6 units of lantus a day. She was stealing and lying about insulin use last year so she is under careful watch. Her medical ‘team’ said she must be in renal failure test proved that not to be so. Why isn’t any medical person interested as to what is going on with this child??? Does she have some sort of tumor could it be psy stress. I dont know, meanwhile praying this disease is not taking more of a toll. Anybody with any ideas please advise as a single mom and daughter no family you might imagine how things are going around here. Happy Holidays to all and may all your levels be right:)
I think we need a little more info to help.
In the post title you say that her A1c is 5.7 (that's AWESOME), but then you go on to say you are having trouble maintaining stable BGs. Is she going low a lot? You also say she was lying about insulin use - lying to say she was injecting, or saying she was using more/less than she did?
Anything more you can tell us will help us understand and hopefully help however we can.
I don’t specifically have an answer and really no one does. But I’ll try having been Type 1 since my teens (which was many many years ago). It could possibly be her way of being in control no matter how negative it is…in other words teen rebellion. Just like people without D we have emotions that aren’t always explained in simple words…there is an emotional side to Diabetes that the medical profession hasn’t learned how to deal with. Your daughter will not hear what you have to say until she’s ready so say your prayers for her. Like other chronic diseases living with Diabetes isn’t any easier then other diseases. Perhaps you can interest her in signing into Tudiabetes and talking to others in her age group who live with Diabetes.
hi Shelby!!
I am a 34 year Type 1 who was diagnosed at age 17. I am not for sure we will understand the full question? Insulin requirements vary for many reasons, food intake, stress, infections, activity level, metabolism and dozens of others. So let me hopefully help with one thing, having changing insulin requirements is not indicative of having a tumor. Here is a personal story, i started on 25 units of insulin when I was 17, today I use about 90 units. Of course I was 17 and now I am 53. the improtant thing is not what she is using or not, but how is her BG level. In many ways with an A1C of 5.7 she might be looked on as having pretty good control. now on the other hand, if she is racing up and down each day she may feel poor and still have a a pretty good A1C. Again diabetes is a personal disease, and it is more than food in glucose out. The same foods, the same exercise and the same stress may produce very different results in different people.
What is important is that your daughter take control of her disease. It is good that you are concerned, but she is 18. I hated this disease when I was diagnosed and for years after I rebelled against it. But ultimately, this is a a disease she has to manage, and 18 is not too late to get the hang of it. Again going back to my experience my mom was beside herself when I went off to college. I was not checking my BG,I dodged the doctor and generally lied to myself. Ok, so a doctor said look, your an adult grow up. mom might be upset, but at what? At what you are doing to yourself. As a doctor he / she really does not care about what a diabetic does. We pay doctors for their advice, it is our opportunity to ask experts how best to manage our disease. Really they are not there to catch us, scold us or taunt us.
Greta doctors often say look accept my advice or ignore it, is your choice. They cannot cure us type 1's so the pressure is on us. When she wants to take care, she will, the best thing others can do is help he understand, these are the results of not caring and those are significant. Chances are she will come around to doing the right thing, but when one understands what this disease means to a person (me included) and how much we hate it (I still do) it will be her choice.
My final peice of wisdom, and i wish my mom and dad had done this, is to seek talk therapy to deal with her feelings. I was angry about my disease for more years than I should have been and it caused more difficulty than it should have, because deal with my anger. If you want to help in the long run, consider that avenue, I suspect it will eb a wise investment.
rick phillips
Im with Kari, you post sounds a bit panicked. Not that I blame you. An A1C of 5.7 is great, although the A1C isnt the magic number if shes have massive lows all the time. More clear info about whats going on would be great. That said, the first thing I would do is get her a psychologist / psychiatrist. A teen with D is all over the place. Good luck.
It sounds like she was once taking 36 units of Lantus plus boluses of Humalog for food and was out of control (high numbers), and now she is taking only 6 units of insulin a day and no Humalog and yet is low (A1c of 5.7).
Renal failure can cause insulin requirements to decrease a lot, but if this has been ruled out other conditions should be looked into. Several other autoimmune diseases (which are more common for people with Type 1 than the general population) such as Addison’s disease (adrenal insufficiency) and celiac disease (though this usually also causes other symptoms like digestive issues) can cause insulin requirements to decrease drastically and should be looked into if they haven’t already.
If she was diagnosed at 2 1/2 months of age it’s also worth looking into monogenic diabetes, which can sometimes be controlled better on oral medications instead of insulin.
Wow, nice call and suggestions Jennifer.
Thank you for all your kind replys and words of wisdom. She is rebellious and still in denial over this disease and as a Mom it is hard to sit back and watch her destroy her body. Her one high BG is 2 AM as a rule by 6 am she is back to 80’s \90/s. As I have taken the humalog away due to her abuse she is skeptical to cheat on lantus. I will study monogenetic diabetes and see where that goes. As to therapy she refuses as she does not need ‘help’ I do:0 That is true! Appreciate the feedback and willl let you know what I discoverl
I am really confused about what is going on here. If your daughter is now 18 (as is my daughter), she is an adult. She may well be rebellious and may be in denial and you can be assured she won’t make the decisions you would. You claim she has been abusing and you take away her humalog. What exactly do you think she has been doing? Do you think she has been not taking her lantus and just correcting all the time? Not exactly what I would do, but not what I would call “abuse.” It is very hard being a teenager to begin with, but having D and growing into taking responsibility for yourself makes it even more of a challenge. I would urge you to work towards supporting her she needs your help and guidance, but as she becomes an adult, she doesn’t need you to tell her what to do. Giving up control and letting your kids make their own decisions (and mistakes) can be very hard.
i really feel for you, and I pain for your daughter. So many people are rebellious with their diabetes, I was for sure. i do ask however, that you consider therapy, if only to deal with the difficult times ahead. I see a therapist routinely and it has helped. Of course I do not know your family situation, and relationship with the medical profession. All i can rely on is what eventually worked for me. I finally was able to come to some peace with the disease in therapy, but even then it has not been easy. If you cna please check back with us? this disease is best handled as a community and we feel you are part of ours now.
rick phillips
I'm concerned that you took away her Humalog.
I mean.........seriously?
Do you realize that by doing that, YOU are putting her very life in danger? She may be rebellious, but so are all 18 year olds. Taking insulin from her, which is keeping her ALIVE, is serious. Like......go to jail for with-holding vital medication from your child, serious.
I'm really confused how taking her Humalog is helping her in any way, in your mind? Was she over-correcting with it?
Am also confused why you've taken her Humalog away. Was she intentionally over dosing? Making this a power struggle won't result in improvement, though I understand your worry. With her low A1c using no bolus insulin, her doctors should be investigating the cause. Perhaps time for a new doctor with a fresh perspective. Can't imagine any T1s being able to maintain BG on six units of Lantus.
Would she considering joining Tu D, or another on-line community? Talking with other diabetics can make a huge difference.You can delete your comments & discussions so she won't see them.
Many stories here about people who had terrible control during their teen years. Rebellion, denial, burn out, the need to be not different, not to mention hormones, make it so difficult. I wasn't diabetic as teenager & know I would have been totally out of control because I was a rebellious kid. My parents said one thing, I did the opposite to assert my independence.
If she was diagnosed 18 years ago, I guess you were taught not to allow sugar and so forth, and that eating it and giving extra Humalog would be cheating. That is not current medical opinion.
If your daughter is able to get an A1c of 5.7% on only 6 units of insulin per day (Lantus and no Humalog?!) eighteen years after diagnosis, she either is making a lot of her own insulin and does not have type 1 diabetes, or she is in late stage renal (kidney) or hepatic (liver) disease. There are no other possibilities.
I would suspect that she has MODY. In any case, genetic testing is warranted. Here is an interesting story about a guy who was on insulin for more than fifty years but was able to stop taking it; it was found that he has MODY. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1547158/?page=1
Hard to say if this is the problem, but I thought I'd throw it out there.
I have never been that low for my doses, but I am kinda overweight. I currently take about 18-20 units. I have been down to about 10 units a day. It took me forever to figure out that my meds were making my bg go up, which I expected. One day I finally made the connection. When I forgot to take my pills, it dropped, and then I would drink a cup or 2 of juice in the middle of the night because I couldn't figure it out. Good thing for me is that I have lost about 10 pounds with no other change than omitting the corrections for the low bg.
Not to ruin your day, but your daughter can always walk into any pharmacy and get Regular insulin for about $35 / bottle. Or at least that is what I paid recently.
Sorry you have a teenage daugher that is driving you crazy. My mother always said her life would have been so much easier if she were the diabetic instead of me, because she worried so much. I will pray that you are blessed with patience and guidance on how to best handle this situation, and that if there is a medical problem, that the doctors will be blessed with help diagnosing the problem. Good luck, mom!
Ms Shelby E Heron
You need to listen, and listen good.
You dont ever, under any circumstance ever, and I mean ever, take somebody's insulin away, regardless of what is happening. If anybody ever attempted to take MY insulin away, I would introduce that person's face right into pavement......
Insulin is a life dependent hormone that keeps her alive, and to take that way makes me almost speechless.
Back when I was 17 My own mother was on a power trip and tried tampering with my control which nearly got me killed from a bad low, but that is an entirely different and complicated story that I do not feel like going into at this very minute.
But if you want a nice word from me, heres what I think you need to do. Just like a few of the others have said, Tell her you found this very site and that she should have a look around, and join. That way she can talk and interact with other diabetics, many of us here have had the disease for many years and have valuable experience with this.
If I were you, I would get this post of yours deleted, and get her onto this site. Once she has contact with us, she will have a much better idea of what is going on and what she needs to do.
We can help