The time of the year is here where the leave start to change, the temperature starts to drop, the winter clothes come out of the wardrobe and unfortunately the cold and flu season starts to kick into full gear. This means feeling horrible either yourself or seeing your loved ones go through it. This would all be fine if we only needed to manage the daily battle that these micro viruses bring us however with T1D it can mean a lot more.
This season has already been one that would be great to learn from but forget. The flu hit my daughters school and caused a number of usually healthy kids to be admitted to hospital to help combat it and get back to being healthy. My daughter was also the one who came down with both bronchitis and the flu. A day or so before the symptoms begin we checked her Ketone levels and we could tell something was coming as the levels had begun to rise. We prepared for the sick day management plan. Using the 640g we promptly increased her basal rate to clear the ketones while also making sure we had standard full sugar drinks as her blood sugar rates had not yet begun to increase. We settled in for the night with regular checks to see that everything was going in the right direction.
Without fail, the body never lies, the symptoms of a deep cough, runny nose, cold sweats, body aches and both increased blood sugar rates and ketone levels. The balancing act had now really begun. A trip to the doctors also meant that things would get a little more difficult as the main treatment for bronchitis is steroids and as you may or may not know steroids inhibit the absorption of insulin in the body which ultimately means even higher blood sugars.
Thank goodness for the 640g with the Smart Guard function as we made sure we had her continual glucose monitor in place and in working order. We set the basal rate to 200% of usual rates to ensure we can keep her blood sugars in check. Panadol / Nurofen was on standard 4 hour rotation and a good supply of blood ketone strips were found and obtained. For some reason the blood ketone strips seem to be a difficult to find as the suppliers do not see them as important as glucose strips and in fact they are as much if not more important. Even though you don't use them every day when needed they are a life saver.
Over the next 4 days the path had bigger ups and downs than the biggest roller coaster in the world and not to mention the emotional tax it takes on the care givers trying to make sure that they are doing their best to keep their little baby alive.
Thank fully the technology and management plans allowed us to keep her out of the hospital where her friends were seeming to call home over the same days. We managed the sugars through the pump, we had 100% visibility through the continual blood glucose monitor, we had the confidence in knowing how to keep the ketones down by having the strips and we then had all the regular components of trying to keep the cold and flu as easy as possible.
It is the season to be careful however we have the ability to manage through it all. With the right management plans and with the right team anything is possible.
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