parent to type1 teenager

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freckle43uk

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I'm looking for some advice on how to lower high blood sugar levels and get rid of ketones.
My daughter has high levels we think brought on by stress due to gcse exams.
 
Hi freckle

It's an absolute fact that stress can cause high BG's - or sometimes - hypos! LOL

Does she 'carb count'?

If you know it's stress - ie you definitely have the basal insulin spot on, she definitely took the correct amount of fast acting insulin for the carbs she ate, it isn't the monthlies and she isn't sickening for something, you could try correcting by HALF the amount you would normally correct by. ie if 1u normally brings her BG down by 3.0, use 1u for every 6. Sound potty, but it was what worked for me when I actually had a mental breakdown. I was correcting by the 'usual' amount, then going hypo and rebounding back up again and down and up .....

In any case, here are some general 'sick day rules' - for when we have ketones - test test test, drink water, little and often insulin adjustments etc.

http://www.diabetes-support.org.uk/info/?page_id=141

And how to test if basal insulin is correct

http://www.diabetes-support.org.uk/info/?page_id=120

Bear in mind these are written for adults though so you will need to use your judgment as to whether they are likely to apply as written to your daughter. Am a bit gobsmacked to think you haven't been issued with any 'sick-day rules' by your hospital/DSN though.

Good luck. Hope she will feel better and regain her control soon, but if it isn't resolved pretty quickly, get hold of her DSN on the phone. Don't leave it ......
 
parent type 1 teenager

thanks for your advice, my daughter was diagnosed sept09 , my husband has been type 1 for 38years.
my daughters levels have been ranging from 13 to abut 28 for over a week now, (no fear of hypo's!), and has pretty much had ketones the whole time ranging from 0.5 to 5.7 (she has a ketone blood meter) we have been to a&e twice as we were always told that ketones over 3 is a medical emergency, but after doing blood gases and finding all her blood results completely normal we are sent home. Our diabetic nurse has been brilliant, but to me we just dont seem to be getting anywhere. we carb count, and are now on 3:1 for all meals, anything above 14 bg or 1.4 ketones we should be injecting 10% of the day befores total daily dose every 2-3hrs. It's extremely frustrating as she is due to start pump therapy in the next 2 weeks. Any ideas ? or is there anything that has worked for anyone out there thats different to what we are doing? she seems to be injecting huge amounts to bring levels down but little or no movement, drinking flushes ketones mostly away during the day, but during the night the levels rise again.
 
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Welcome Freckle

As Trophywench as already given great advice that can be adapted for a teenager, I'll just add that this board has a parents section, and many parents also use the Children With Diabetes UK website / email list. http://www.childrenwithdiabetesuk.org/

Some times schools can offer support to help lessen stress of exams eg extra time for blood glucose testing / taking exam in another room, not main hall etc.
 
thank you , i shall check out the website, our diabetuc nurse has just called they have said my daughter is very insulin resistant, well known teenager/ adolescent problem . they are taking her into a day unit, but may put her on metformin, aswell as her norma insulin. i will post any further queries on the parent section. thank you for your help x
 
Hi freckle. Welcome 🙂

What insulins is your daughter on ?

I was wondering whether she has become resistant to her current ones and whether it's worth mentioning to her nurse about this.

If you're certain that she's not missing injections and is eating normally, then I can't really think of any other obvious things to check for unless there's some underlying infection/illness that's waiting to pounce. Sometimes they can bubble under the surface and the only clue is raised BGs.

I hope they get her stabilised. 🙂

Rob
 
Hi Freckle and a warm welcome to the forum
 
Hi Freckle, We went through a similar thing with my daughter a couple of weeks ago. She was really high (always double figures and rising to high 20's post lunch). She kept on correcting and as she uses a pump was able to increase her basal rate 400% but it still wouldn't bring down the blood sugars. Then after about a week her blood sugars started to decrease and now are back to normal again, she wasn't obviously ill but she did have the flu jab just before it all started. Her DSN came to see us last week as I was beginning to lose the plot with ratios etc, he said quite afew kids had reacted badly this year and that it could well have been due to the jab.
 
Welcome to the forum 🙂
 
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