A mother who is having a bad day/week/month

[simone3112]

Thats exactly the problem we have with ben in the mornings - loves a big breakfast but then high for ages - if we manage to rectify this you can gaurantee he'll crash at lunchtime. Remember you cant logically be proud of you children without being proud of yourself - they didn't get to be such little stars without a whole lot of love. We cant get it right all the time and I know there are nights when they're in bed i beat myself up for hours for bad results or being short tempered or just anything less than a first class earth mother but I know I couldn't love my boys more and I'll never stop trying to get it all right - thats what your doing and from the sounds of it doing it well so be proud!

Hi Ruth, have u tried cutting out milk in the mornings?? Mornings are just the worst aren't they. If u get the mornings right ur in for a good day!! Harry was high at 10.30 this mornign which lead him to be high all day then hypo at 3.30pm luckily he's been 8.5 ish most of tonight but im dreading checking him at 12am. I've had a really good day today. Had a really bad day on tuesday, I wrote a poem and sent it to the charity 4 poems. Got an email back saying they thought it was really good an would put it on their website. Any proceeds will go to diabetes uk. It give me the courage to show my fam n friends n everyone thinks it's really good. Feel really proud!!! If we have a good night 2n I've finally cracked his basal rates as i've spent the last 3 weeks tweeking them. 12am is always the deciding factor it decides today and tomorrow all in 5 secs xxx:🙂

 

[am64]

good luck simone 3 mins to go ...you are a supermum...and although it hard you always will be xx🙂

 

[simone3112]

good luck simone 3 mins to go ...you are a supermum...and although it hard you always will be xx🙂

Thanks, just done them and he's 7.1 a little bit lower than I wanted but his basal drops at 12am so Im going to check him at 1am then if everythings ok. im going to SLEEEEEEEEEEEPPPPPP. It's amazing wot can change in 24 hours. I spent yesterday leaking tears (not crying) I was just so down. His bloods were fab last night got a good night sleep and could be heading for another one!!!So excited even at the thought lol and what beats it all its saturday 2m as well lazy morning xx

 

[am64]

i love saturdays

 

[simone3112]

i love saturdays

I know perfect. It's kids channels all week but saturdays r my series link days. I normally take Jodie to dancing in the morning but we're not going 2morrow. So my morning is... Bloods, breakfast, pump. Then blanket, setee n series link till at least dinnertime. It will be even better if in 40mins Haz is still in the 7's.

 

[am64]

some of the mums on here talk about alarms and stuff ...does it help or do you spend the whole night just listening for them anyway ?

 

[simone3112]

some of the mums on here talk about alarms and stuff ...does it help or do you spend the whole night just listening for them anyway ?

The alarms only work when u have the glucose sensor on. You have to wear them on ur stomach and with harry being naturally thin it really hurts him so I try not to use it unless it absolutely necessary (his pump goes into his bum as theres more fat). They also only seem to last 3 day (supposed to last 6) he wore them last week but Tuesday night faiiled again told me he was 8 but when I done his bloods he was 18.

 

[bev]

The alarms only work when u have the glucose sensor on. You have to wear them on ur stomach and with harry being naturally thin it really hurts him so I try not to use it unless it absolutely necessary (his pump goes into his bum as theres more fat). They also only seem to last 3 day (supposed to last 6) he wore them last week but Tuesday night faiiled again told me he was 8 but when I done his bloods he was 18.

Hi Simone,
Alex wears the sensor on his thigh - and he is really skinny! If the sensor reads a different level than the pump -it doesnt mean its failed - it just means that the callibration might have been done at the wrong time (i.e. if you callibrate straight after eating then this will confuse the sensor - so its always best to callibrate at least 3 or 4 hours after a meal so you can get a true reading). Callibrating first thing in the morning also helps a lot as you are getting the base level right without food etc.

I just noticed your having problems with the breakfast spike. Have you tried doing a 'super bolus' - I have tried this on occasion and it seems to work - although now we seem to have things under control just by changing and timing the basal for the spike. What sorts of foods does H eat for breakfast?🙂Bev

 

[Kei]

SO many hugs Simone! People who haven't had any experience of parenting a diabetic child just don't know how hard it is on the whole family. I'm glad you found us here.

I hope you managed to have a really good sleep last night. It does make all the difference!

Kei
xx

 

[simone3112]

Harry went down to 3.9 at 1.45am 2 glucose tables and he already had a 70% basal for 2 hours. got hiim up to 4.5 then 4am got he was at 5.2 so set another 2hr 70% basal and he woke up at 6.9 a 7.30am.

It's amazing how little you actually get told about how the sensor worked. I tested him at my bed time he didn't have no extra basal but Im unsure if I would have calabrated it around tea time (possible). Last saturday when I changed his sensor (me and my neighbour-good friend) pinned him down. With the weather being so hot he didn't have a top on and the sensor came out. Rang DSN to see if there was another place I could put it because the stomach really hurts him and ob not very secure, esp when his pump bag sit's under it. They told me the stomach was the only place with him being so small to get a correct reading.

It just make me so angry that the DSN are giving such poor information to me.

Breakfast is generally, cereal bars, toast, pancakes, crumpets, apple. These tend to be ok if he just has one of them, but Harry starts the day eating loads. So it's a constant update on the pump for extra carbs he basically heats from when he wakes up 6.30am till 8.30am when we leave for school. He used to get his bsl done at 9.30am when he got to nursery - always high got corrected and hypo'd. Now he doesn't get his BSL done till 10.30am and we're finding it's making a hell of a difference. It has made Milk, Orange Juice etc so much more noticable as he is always high at 10.30am if he has any of these in the morning. Last week for instant I give him 18 carbs for 100ml of orange juice, warned nursery that he might hypo and he was in the 20's at 10.30am.

His basal used to kick in at 6.30am but put it back to 6am and this seems to be helping. I've also tried bolusing 15carbs before any type of milky breakfast but it doesn't seem to have an effect.

WHAT IS A SUPER BOLUS???

 

[Gemma444]

hya Simone

i cant advise on pump but I just wanted to say good luck and i hope all the tweaking gets things sorted soon and you can have a good nights sleep.

Gem xx

 

[simone3112]

hya Simone

i cant advise on pump but I just wanted to say good luck and i hope all the tweaking gets things sorted soon and you can have a good nights sleep.

Gem xx

Thank u Gem

I ended up going a bit nuts with my DSN but she's been great n she made changes - i adjusted her changes lol !!! I've had a perfect week of night BSL evening thursday night I checked him at 10.30pm n he was 7mml he woke up at 8am at 5.8mml FANTASTIC!!!!I hate to think that I can't do it. I SCREAMED!!!!!!!!!!(Literally) n got the help I needed!!! My DSN was shocked when i did! I think my biggest problem is I WONT ASK FOR HELP!!! I did n it worked xxx

 

[Patricia]

Wow, I love your exclamation points Simone! Brilliant. Exactly right.

Re the morning spike then crash: the only thing we seem to be able to do to help this is bolus way before eating, like a half an hour. For some reason this does the trick. Even if we have to add a little bit at the actual breakfast time, getting the main bolus in seems to do it.

My son is 14 though, and knows what he wants for breakfast. He is also a creature of habit, and tends to have the same things, for that meal anyway. He wakes up, boluses, showers, then eats. The one or two times we've ended up putting it off (assuming he's a good level -- if he's below 5mmols, we don't bolus early), he has ALWAYS had a hypo -- clearly the insulin 'missed' its target.

Good luck with everything. Again, I love your expressiveness. Just hits the nail on the head.

xxoo

 

[Jacqui]

A super bolus on the pump is one where you have fast acting food (breakfast sems always to act fast as it is grabbed by the body after the starving of night) and so bolus for the carb and the next hour or two hours basal at the same time and then turn the basal down or off. It means more insulin than is needed for the food is given as you eat but this compensates for the speedy action of the carbs on the Bg, which then would mean a quicker drop later compensated for by the removed basal.
I find we have to have a 20 minute wait between bolus and breakfast, but this is only possible with older children who will definitely eat what they are being given. With smaller children, evena small bolus with a wait might help avoid the spike. Or you could set a much higher basal for that period of time over breakfast which would help the bolus to get going faster.
I have found that the actual match between basal and bolus ratio is not as text book as pump companies may advise. Whilst I could set a basal that would keep the boys steady without eating, it would not work with any bous ratio I can set with it. So i know that on their usual school pattern I am helping the bolus along with basal. At the weekend I will use a different pattern to avoid a low whilst the boys sleep in late and then compensate with the later morning basal.
This is very technical stuff so big apologies if it is annoyingly geeky for those not on pumps lol