Ho Ho Lows!

Just before the Christmas holiday, Bird's insulin ratios were adjusted again in an effort to curb the number of low readings she was having.  It worked for a couple of days. About the same time, she regressed back to being combative during pricks and shots, and she decided to test the limits of not eating to avoid the shots. When she's below 60, we have to treat that with a fast-acting sugar - 4 oz. juice, 3/4 cup milk, etc. - then we have to recheck the sugar 15 minutes after she's finished that, treat again if still low - this time with something slower-acting - and repeat.  Lows are NOT fun.

Bird's brave Grandma took her and sisters to the mall, where they spent more time checking sugar and treating lows than they did shopping.  I'd hoped to get a lot of things done while they were gone, but I was frantic with worry the entire three hours.

Christmas Eve she had a low of 35 and was very symptomatic (lethargic, grumpy). We did manage to get some juice down her, then some food, and she bounced back in a timely manner.  Just to add some coal to the fire, sotospeak, the mail brought a letter from SoonerCare explaining that, due to budget cuts, the number of test strips they will pay for monthly is being cut in half beginning January 1.  Great.

Fast-forward to Christmas Day (yesterday). LilBird has had some diarrhea off and on, and lots of gas - both of which I attribute to sugar-free stuff.  (I'm beginning to feel that stuff is just EVIL.)  LilBird delayed breakfast as long as possible but began the day with a normal sugar-level. After that, however, as she didn't want to eat at the right times and so we fought lows the entire day (save one reading).  She chose to eat a sugar-free chocolate with her dessert and seemed to handle that okay.  However, once we made it home from Grandma & Grandpa's (late), she was low again (40s).  I made the mistake of giving her 8 oz. of lower-carb orange juice (I'd bought it so she could have more than 4 oz.), and then treated again with sugar-free chocolate.  (Little did I know I was concocting a recipe for middle-of-the-night disaster.)  When we re-checked and she was continuing to drop, albeit slowly, I insisted she needed some REAL food.  She agreed to a couple of sandwich crackers which she did not finish because her tummy became upset.  She grew tired, I think mostly just because it was late and it had been a long day, not so much because of the low sugar.  The sandwich crackers worked, and finally, at 2 AM, she returned to a normal blood glucose level.  At 5 AM, I woke to her screaming and crying for me from the bathroom.  I rushed to her to find the toilet bowl and her pants FULL of loose stool, and from the waist down, she had it everywhere.  My poor, poor baby!!  A half-hour (and a half-dozen or so flushes) later, she was clean again and back asleep, her clothes were in the washer, and the bathroom was beginning to smell normal again.  NO MORE SUGAR-FREE CHOCOLATE!!

So, this morning, she started off with only a slightly low reading (68), and I hope I made the right negative correction for her breakfast choice.  She says she understands now how important it is to eat a meal when I tell her it's time and that sugar-free chocolate is not her friend.  I can't blame her a bit for regressing to the combative state when it comes to pricks and shots ... "It HURTS." It's just that I feel this is so out-of-control ... managing diabetes is crazy difficult.