prayer request

I was wondering if any of you out there wouldn't mind praying for me. My son started the pump early october. My husband decided rather quickly he doesn't like it (he is also type 1 and since going on the pump i discovered he was overbolusing our son, which I suspected on shots, but had felt guilty for thinking - he is paranoid of highs and the first day on the pump i discovered this through the bolus history. anyway...) so I am pretty much on my own for managing things and also trying to keep really good control without going low and trying to shield my husband from pump negatives like bad sites. anyway, i have had several nights where sites have gone bad at night and i have waited up after correcting a high to find this out then had to wait up to make sure the site is working then that it isn't working too much, etc. last night i kept cutting back the basal rate trying to keep my son from going low and had to wake him up for juice twice anyway so i was up half the night. tonight he was low at bedtime (and a few times during the day) so i didn't count some of his bedtime carbs in his snack bolus. he seemed to be coming down but i wanted to be sure and be sure that he wasn't coming down too far. i set my alarm and an hour later he is the same (not up or down). so i don't know if it is the site or not so i will have to check again to see (i did another correction bolus to see what that does). I am just soo tired and I am having my own health problems and the lack of sleep is really getting to me and I also work and my job had the benefit plan so i am stuck (but financially otherwise i kind of am too) there and so exhausted (I have used almost all of my sick days and don't get anymore til april). okay thanks.

0 members like this

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by latvianchick on November 28, 2010 at 12:19am

I do not use a pump but I would say that he is definitely having too much insulin. Try lowering the doses a unit or two until you find a happy medium, but be prepared to put it back up again, depending on his stress levels, state of health, food intake in the last couple of days - lows are often reactive, as are highs. If he goes low during the night he will wake high again as a reaction.

Just because your husband does not like the pump does not mean that the child should be denied the chance to use one if it works well for him once you have sorted the boluses out.

I will be praying for you. God bless.

Permalink Reply by Kristin on November 28, 2010 at 1:45am

Sorry to hear about these struggles Tracy. I will certainly pray for you!

Do you have a doctor who is working closely with you to get your basal and bolus settings right? That can be really hard to figure out, but a good doctor should be able to do it.

Also, do you have the book "Pumping Insulin" by John Walsh? I highly recommend it as a comprehensive guide to pumping. It is often available in public libraries.

Permalink Reply by Brunetta on November 28, 2010 at 2:56am

U have my prayers too, Tracy. Kristin's suggestion "Using Insulin" has been very helpful for me, as well. there are charts and slow step by step guides, and howe to trouble shoot and I got it from Amazon, used, for less than ten bucks.

Please do not overcorrect, and please urge your husband not to do so with himself nor with your child.. Overcorrections are be so dangerous, paticularly with a child.

Here is my story of what happened to me quite recently:
I made a BIG mistake and overcorrected on Tuesday.a.m.. After about an hour and a half,I "thought" I was ok as my blood glucose showed 118 . The cgms had one arrow going down, but I "assumed" I would be ok, as I planned to have a quick lunch "In just a few minutes", or so I "though"t, before heading out the doot to a noon-day Thanksgiving service at my church. I had even laid out my coat and hat on the sofa. I did not make it to the service.
I was awakened by a paramedic calling my name. It was 3 hours later.the Cgm had alarmed, but evidently I did not hear it. God directed one of my good friends to hear and heed that 'still small voice" of the Holy Spirit. She had not seen me at church and, after having run several errands, stopped by to drop a package off to me. She noticed that my car was in the garage, but I did not respond to the doorbell. My friend used her key ( she is a former roomate) and found me lying on the floor in the living room , unresponsive. My blood sugar registred at 22 before they put in the glucose IVdrip.!!! The cgms showed that I had run in the 40's for well over an hour... but it could have been lower, I later consulted by phone with a MM CGMS specialist, who said that a blood glucose lower than 40 will register as "in the 40"s as it is not mean to show anything below that number ( 40).
. It appears that I could have been in the 20's for hours!!!. God USED AN EARTHLY ANGEL ( my friend) to just "happpened to stop by". and I am alive and well 4 days later!!!

He so takes care of us, protects, and provides for us.
Your name and your family will be in the prayer box at my church today.

God bless you, Tracy!!!
Brunetta

Permalink Reply by Tracy K on November 28, 2010 at 8:07am

Glad to hear that God sent you an angel. This is scary stuff and I guess that is why I feel I can't go to sleep until I can be sure my boy will be safe through the night. My husband always feels and wakes up to his lows. My son can no longer detect his lows well and we don't know if he would wake up to them if we didn't catch them first.

Permalink Reply by Tracy K on November 28, 2010 at 8:03am

I do not have the book but i would like to get it- we are the only pumpers in our town, so it is doubtful our library has it.
We have been working hard to fine tune settings and we had everything pretty good (just occassional bad sites messing things up), but then he started getting more lows. The other night when we couldn't keep him up was after we had lowered his overnight basal for the second time. but then last night he was high and wasn't coming down a lot with the correction, so I moved the basal back up a bit. I corrected again and he woke up at 3.7. Hopefully tonight I can get a good starting point to see how the basal setting is without throwing and corrections or temporary basals into the mix:)

Permalink Reply by Sandra burke on November 28, 2010 at 2:25am

God love you. There is a special place in heaven for mothers and wives. You will be in our prayers.

Permalink Reply by Anne Marie Anderson on November 28, 2010 at 6:35am

Tracy, I will pray.
Some times when I am not sure about a site at night I go ahead and give a shot. I disconnect the site and run the correction through the pump to calculate the IOB (active insulin). At least I know she's getting the correction. If she's still high in the morning I suspect a bad site and not enough basal. It gets you through the night.
I am now using 3 different basal profiles . We always have bad nights at grandmas. My child's cat allergies crank her numbers up like crazy the whole time, always at night esp,.
Kids hormones kick in at night so it is always when the problems are. The beauty of the pump is you can make these changes hourly or daily as needed. Unlike your husband your child is going to keep changing. Just when you get basal rates all set, he will grow, get sick, start a sport. A1c expectations are higher for kids to take this into account. And keep them safe.
Perhaps your husband could speak to your sons CDE or Doc. Over correcting leads to highs (rebound) too.
The no sleep thing is the part I try to voice when advocating. It get's unbearable at times.
May the Lord bless you with his perfect rest and peace.

Permalink Reply by Tracy K on November 28, 2010 at 7:59am

Thank you very much! Turns out the site was fine, so it must have been cutting back too far on bedtime bolus. I never thought of giving a shot just to get through the night- might try that sometime. I had always been thinking that then we won't be able to tell if it is the site, but that way i guess you could wait until morning to figure it out. (The only problem is my husband would still flip out if he's high come morning and blame the pump). We have spoke with the CDE. I have spoke with them on the phone myself. They keep giving the same message, he keeps nodding, smiling and agreeing, but not actually getting it. Just like on shots he would ask me how much insulin and I would calculate and then at the next meal I would be trying to figure out how in the world he went so low and when I would ask are you certain you gave x number of units he would say yes- but I guess just telling me what I wanted to hear. Anyway our CDE doesn't know what to do about this so for now i just make sure I am always here. Most nights it is not an issue, but when you get 2 in a row (especially for opposite reasons :s) it can get soo exhausting! thanks again.

Permalink Reply by Jeannine on December 30, 2010 at 11:50am

You are in my prayers! Good luck!

Jeannine

Permalink Reply by tinu on January 17, 2011 at 1:44am