Sick Days... Why do they seem to last forever???
So yesterday Cole was crying uncontrollably in daycare… this is very unlike Cole. Even when Cole is sick he’s normally smiling and laughing. So I brought him home and made a doctor’s appointment. The doctor advised that Cole had a really bad ear infection and was wheezing. Cole had been grabbing at his chest a lot and crying so we asked about that. Doctor stated that it may be hard for Cole to breath and that might be why he was doing that. So she gave him an antibiotic for his ear and told us to do breathing treatments every 4 hours.
Cole seemed to be doing much better after the antibiotic got in his system. Cole has not been eating very well or drinking much in the past couple of days. I guess normal behavior when one doesn’t feel well. But what does that mean for a diabetic….
Now we are checking his blood sugars every 3 hours and his ketones. Yesterday afternoon he had large ketones. Not good. Cole’s body (along with everyone else’s) needs glucose for energy. If there is no glucose then your body uses fat for energy which produces ketones. Ketones are acids that build up in your blood when your body doesn’t have enough insulin. So my point is, Cole needs food so he can be given insulin. If we give him insulin with no food then he might come crashing down causing other issues. Cole needs to drink to help flush out his system. Cole not drinking and not eating much is not helping him.
Last night I ran to the store to get flavored water… Minute Maid Fruit Falls (2g carbs less than 1 g of sugar). Thankfully he managed to drink most of one pouch. He barely ate breakfast or lunch yesterday and only ate about ½ of what he would normally eat for dinner.
This morning, of course Robert was gone already, so I had to wake up get Cole his breathing treatment, try to force him to eat and drink and get him ready… needless to say I was a couple minutes late today (but shockingly really only like 2 minutes late) for work. Yes, I went to work and took Cole to daycare… why would I do this when I need to monitor him closely you ask: Well Cole’s daycare is at my work and I didn’t think my work would really want me missing again : ) Anyhow, back to the subject. Cole would not eat and not drink. Shocker. His ketones were high again.
I got him to daycare and managed to get him to eat a little and drink another flavored water pouch. Checked him again in 3 hours. His blood sugar was 496 and his ketones had thankfully gone tomoderate.
Then I had to battle with, should I give him a full correction which is over 3 units? Should I only give him a little correction because he might be high from the snack he just ate? Should I give no correction and let him run into the 500s until lunch time which is inan hour? UGH I HATE DIABETES!! So what did I decide??? I gave him ½ a correction and hoped like hell he would come down some before lunch. I didn’t want to give a full correction and have to shove juice down his throat because he came crashing down from 3 unit correction that he didn’t need.
So at lunch he was 303. Thankfully coming down. Gave him a bit more correction but not the full correction since he still had insulin on board. Of course I gave him a carb correction for what little lunch he did it. Still not eating like Cole or drinking like Cole.
3 hours go by and another check of blood sugar and ketones. ketones are almost gone!! woo hoo! The celebration ends 3 hours later when we are back to moderate ketones....oh the fun life of a diabetic. How many finger pokes can Cole get in aday? Luckily he is on the pump and does not need a shot for all of these corrections. I talked to a student here that is diabetic. He told me if Cole has ketones he probably feels miserable. I told him his bg this morning was 496. His response…. “oh my God that is bad”. Thanks kid! : ) It’s nice being able to talk to these kids at my campus that are diabetic. It gives me some insight to how Cole might be feeling. It also helps me see that there are 2 bright young kids that seem to handle diabetes very well (and one that doesn’t handle it well at all--- but I’ll just ignore that one).
As you can see being someone’s pancreas can be a bit stressful!! I would say I need a drink after today, but I don’t really drink anymore. Too much riding on my shoulders to have a drink….. maybe I’ll settle for some chocolate cake or something (that of course I will eat in the closet).
well I settled for ice cream after I put Cole to sleep. I'm tired but waiting until 10:30 so I can check Cole's blood sugar and ketones. 30 more minutes....
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