Frozen Fiasco

We tried a new restaurant tonight. This place is known for their burgers and their frozen custard. As we ate our dinner, we kept seeing trays of tempting treats pass us by. Sundaes, shakes, cones--it all looked delicious. It wasn't just the kids who wanted dessert!

Jack's pre-dinner blood sugar level check gave us a good number, and his actual dinner was not loaded with carbs. So we looked up the nutritional information on the custard, calculated the carbs and let Jack order away. He chose a scoop of vanilla custard topped with Oreos. As he said, "Yummy!"

We injected him with his insulin to cover the entire meal, and we went home a happy family.

Our happiness lasted for about two hours, that is until we tested Jack's blood sugar level before he went to bed. (Testing before bed is part of our nightly routine.) Much to our dismay, we saw a 320 on the meter, a disappointing high.

So, we gave him another shot of insulin to reduce his sugar level, and then 90 minutes later, long enough for that insulin to have taken effect, we tested him again. Another poke for Jack, this time in his sleep. Even more disappointing, he hadn't gone down at all. Rather, he had gone up. He was at 355, which meant giving him yet another shot of insulin and us staying awake for at least another 90 minutes.

Here's a picture of Gregg administering that shot.

Welcome to diabetes, a disease you can treat, but not control, a disease with a mind of its own. Unfortunately, this kind of thing happens all the time. We strive to take the very best care of Jack. We monitor his blood sugar level all day and all night long. We measure and weigh foods. We calculate carbs. We give him insulin accordingly. But there are days when that's just not enough. No matter how hard we try, we can't always win. There are no guarantees with diabetes.

It's now 12:12 a.m. and 90 minutes have passed since Jack's last insulin injection. We just checked him again. He's now at 330. It's going to be a long night... Crazy custard!