Some may say that there is nothing simple about dealing with life and then adding T1D ontop, others may take it in their stride and it just becomes of a part of who they are. But there is one thing that is certain when you get ill and you feel like the sickness is all cumbersome however T1D never takes a backseat.
My last post that was a while ago now saw sickness hit my family and take a large toll on my 3 y/o T1D daughter where a week in hospital was required. All is well now and she is strong and healthy however I reflect on how things have changed since I started living this life.
For about a week of two before my daughter shows any signs of sickness her body already starts fighting what is within because the first sign of sickness is her BSL rising rapidly. This means greater amount of monitoring and care however the over the easy part that we manage is the ability to adjust the temporary basal rates that we have on the pump. For the last sickness we engaged the temporary rates to 200% of her normal requirements but depending on what was happening throughout the day and what ever was going on in the body we would actively manage the rates varying from 50% (needing less insulin) to all the way to 200%. Yes is takes a lot of management, monitoring and changes but with a 3 y/o or even my self as a veteran adult monitoring and positive adjustments are part and parcel of this life with T1D.
I thank the advances in technology for the ability to make changes to my daughters settings on the pump instead of having to make additional insulin shots just to keep her out of DKA. Even though with sickness my daughters Ketone levels rose we actively managed with the changes to the pump to keep her out of DKA. If we didn't have the pump we would have been in hospital for both the Flu (which took a big toll) and even more seriously the poisoning of ketones in her system. After 24 years of T1D I have only been in DKA once after diagnosis and unfortunately that was due to doctor error and sickness rather than poor management and it is something that I do not plan on getting into ever again. It is a terrible place to be and the last time I was there I was basically in and out of a coma for days. My wife and I will do all we can to keep our daughter out of DKA and hopefully teach her all that she needs for the day where she has the full responsibility to manage everything herself.
The other part to the technology that was the difference between DKA and even just sanity for my wife and I was the CGM sensor that is connected to the pump. To be able to monitor the ups and downs and then make the necessary proactive changes takes a lot of the guess work out of doing what we do.
Anything to make things just a little easier, even if it was the simple change that allowed my BGL meter to talk directly to my pump, is welcome and we will continue to find things that can be added to our arsenal to make life choices easier.
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