Friday, August 22, 2014

Walk of Hope: Day 3

Today I am going to be sharing with you how we handle high blood sugar (hyperglycemia). High blood sugar is very tricky to manage since Bradley is so small. You have to be extremely careful about treating high blood sugar. His insulin takes three hours to work through his body. If you give him extra insulin too early, he is probably going to drop. Scheduling, recording, meal planning and looking for patterns plays a very important role in helping manage Bradley's high blood sugar. 



Here are some causes of high blood sugar:

  • Too much food (carbohydrates)
  • Too little insulin
  • Sickness/infection
  • Stress
  • Growth 
  • High elevation (in our experience)
How do we treat high blood sugar??
  • Give extra insulin
  • Fluids
How does high blood sugar effect Bradley??

When Bradley's sugars are high he usually is fussy and anxious. He also sometimes complains that he is hungry. 


It is an ongoing balancing-act to keep Bradley's sugar stable, especially since he is so young. The endocrinologist does not want to be too aggressive with his diabetes(giving him a strong does of insulin) because of his age. They rather have him a little high than too low. Whenever we get his A1C (his blood sugar report card), I always want it better. The doctor reminds me every time that it is too dangerous to do any better. Bradley's body changes really quickly. His blood sugar can be above 300, and 30 minutes late it can be at 100. He is extremely sensitive to sugar, and also extremely sensitive to insulin. Some days the numbers look perfect and you think "oh wow! I got this!". Then the next day, he is high, and then low and you can't seem to get it just right. AND you didn't do anything different than the day before! Sometimes it doesn't make any sense and it can can be so frustrating. 

Before the 1980s, Type 1 Diabetics were treated with animal insulin. For many years, drug companies used pancreases to extract insulin from slaughtered cows and pigs, which didn't need their organs anymore. Animal insulin saved many lives, but it had a few problems: many people were allergic and it did not work as quickly as human insulin. In 1978, they created the first DNA insulin, which is identical to what our pancreas produces. Breakthroughs would not be possible without research support. Please support the JDRF and thank you so much for reading my blog! I think it is so important to spread Type 1 Awareness. Thanks! 

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