Friday, February 15, 2008

Red Sky in the Morning, Sailors Take Warning

Do you know that old rhyme?

Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning
Red sky at night, sailors' delight.

That's what I learned when I was a kid. It had to do with the weather. If the sky was red in the morning, you could expect rain. If you had a red sunset, then fair weather was ahead.

We had a red sky this morning. Although the weather outside stayed clear through the day, we still had to take warning. Daniel woke up with a blood sugar of 458 today.

So I ask -- what the hell is "free food?" The nurses said that free food is carb free, and can be eaten without bolusing. Pickles! You can have all the pickles you want! Daniel was like, woo hoo pickles (as opposed to WOO HOO! PICKLES!). But meat... ahhhh, here we go. Meat. It's something he sinks his teeth into. It's carb free! It is a manly food! But take it one step closer to perfection -- add cheese. Meat and cheese! What could be better for my growing teenager? He just loves the stuff.

Yesterday was Valentine's day and instead of getting candy for each of the kids, I made heart shaped cheeseburgers. Dominic and Nora got some candy (I bought the bag of all green m&ms) and I made the gluten free brownies for a treat for Daniel. I sat down to my tofu and watched the kids devour red meat.

Nora had a cheeseburger. Dominic had 1 1/2. Daniel had 4. Yes, seriously. He had 2 at dinner with the buns, along with a few strawberries and his brownie. He bolused for this. Then, an hour after dinner, he was amazingly STILL HUNGRY. It's a curious thing, watching a teenager eat. Human vacuums. The food disappears at an alarming rate. So he started picking at cheese sticks, and then found the leftover burgers. He ate 2 without the buns.

He was already a bit high at bedtime, so he corrected AND ATE SOME MORE. He had 2 empanadas.

I know that growth spurts can cause teenagers to eat almost anything in their path. I also know that growth spurts can cause crazy blood sugar numbers. This morning, I had a grumpy, snappish, thirsty male with mild ketones and a crappy attitude. He didn't want to eat breakfast. I got an egg into him and kept him home for a little bit so I could see if his blood sugar was headed back down again. It was, so my husband took him to school and I called the nurse to give her a heads up. She called me at lunchtime to tell me his numbers were back at 89.

Later in the day he's back in the 200s, even with bolusing, correcting, and 30 minutes on the elliptical. It's definitely been a stormy day, diabetes-wise. I hope we can steer into smooth sailing soon!

2 comments:

Jillian said...

I'm sorry to hear this, it's rough to say the least. I know it all too well though. I'm trying to figure it out how to say this... Smooth sailing at 14, in my personal opinion is just not possible. Even on a pump, even if all he ate was free food. As if starting your teen years isn't enough, diabetes as a teen creates this horrible perfect storm. Everything is amplified. All I can say is that thousands of us have made it through those rough years in one piece, and I believe that even with the crazy numbers Daniel will be okay when it all falls back in to place (even if it takes a while). I know this probably isn't what you want to hear.

Cara said...

Man, I'm way past my teenager years, but I still have days where I will be hungry ALL DAY LONG! It drives me crazy cause I know I don't need to be eating that much, but I'm hungry! And it really does mess with the blood sugars, doesn't it?
I hope things even back out soon.