Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Another visit on the type 1 diabetes and my son...

So its been about a year and a half and now it is appearing that the honeymoon is over. Sugar bounces all over, Dr.'s are changing ratios trying to get it reined in...for those of you that responded so greatly and have been there and are going thru it, does the pump regulate all of this better? He has yet to get one. He is suppose to be getting the device soon that tells which way you're trending with alerts and all. Also he is 16. I started him out from week one guessing where his sugar is, as suggested here, and that really helped him in knowing his highs and lows AND trends. Now it's not so easy. What does his next part of his life look like? Thank you all very much....

He needs to get a pump.. Both my wife and son have one and they're unbelievable in controlling sugar levels..

Blood tests need to be done at least 3X/day.. My wife usually tests X4.. Not sure about Adam.. But they're VERY aware of continuing attention to bolusing at or just before a meal or snack..

A1-C levels with a pump can be literally near a normal person's count..

Your medical insurance should pay for most of it.. But GET one, asap..

I got Type 1 when I was 7. I'm 62 now. Was told I would not live to be 21 because my blood sugar was all over the place. There is hope.

First, hook up with the best Endocrinologist that you can find. I cannot stress that enough. Next, a dietician. Carbs are the bane of diabetics. You have to watch them. If a regular MD is monitoring your son, get a referral to an Endo.

The pump is nothing more than convenience. You still have to test your blood sugar before dispensing insulin with the attached pump. I roll pump-less.

Blood sugar is affected by diet and exercise. Also by stress, a cold or excitement.

Low blood sugars are dangerous. Learn the signs. High blood sugar won't kill. Low blood sugar can stop your heart. He should always keep glucose tablets in his pocket. Only get the orange flavored ones. The rest taste bad. For a rapid increase in blood sugar in an emergency, sugar water or a soda pop with sugar works FAST. The liquid sugar works RIGHT NOW to raise blood sugar.

Lastly, pray. Because through prayer, God let me live long enough to get gray hair and have grandchildren.

The pump can help some. It's closer to the way the body works with the small increments given continually and bolus's taken when he eats. It can really be fine tuned to his needs. I was on the pump for several years but I finally gave it up because I was so physically active I couldn't keep the pump sites on. I went back to shots but think for most people the pump is a better option.

He's going to have highs and lows his whole life. The only way around that is to eat exactly the same thing every day and do exactly the same thing every day...and never get sick, or stay up late, or train extra hard, etc....it's just not feasible. With time he'll learn how to work around things and anticipate what's going to happen. ...even then, there will still be some highs/lows that happen.

I know it's just common sense, but the more often he checks his blood sugar the better the control he will have. Stopping highs (and lows) early will help protect him from future (or immediate) damage. Checking often, adjusting dosages/food to the reading, exercising, and keeping a log of everything will help him. I remember being his age with it and wish I knew then what I know now. I also wish I'd have had the options in insulin and monitoring that we have now...

He and you may be struggling with it now, but he's got the best options for controlling it that anyone up to this time has ever had, and the options are only going to get better for him. Take advantage of those options and roll with the punches when highs/lows occur.

Yep...he test a minimum of 4 times daily. How easy is it to take on/take off the pump for an activity if that's possible or recommended?

The main thing is carb intake control. There's not much that doesn't have some carb content to it. I've become a voracious label reader. Even when trying to eat healthy, carbs can be an issue. Fresh fruit has carbs. Yougurt has carbs. For me, lunch is pretty much a salad every day. I eat a lot of pickles, fresh veggies, and luncheon meat and cheese. Bread, pasta, and potatoes are high carb. I eat three carbs, or 45 grams of carbs per meal, and try very hard not to exceed that. You just learn to avoid stuff. A one carb serving of rice for me is a scant half cup of cooked rice.

Read the labels, know the values.
If you can't find good info on the packaging, look everything up on line. It's all there, and it takes just a few seconds to look it up.

I test three times a day, before each meal, and have much better control if I do my insulin before eating. Exercise helps. Even just going for a walk after eating, or any time for that matter helps. Winter's coming on, and walking outside isn't real attractive. Pick up a treadmill and use that, or go to the mall, or some schools have free open gym time when you can walk on an indoor track. Exercise definitely helps, but make sure you monitor blood sugar levels afterwards to prevent going low. I always keep one of those half size cans of pop with me at all times in case I go low. You don't need to refrigerate it-my diabetes educator told me room teperature pop will bring your sugar level up quicker than refrigerated pop, which in a low blood sugar situation is a good thing.

Most bread counts for at least one carb (15 grams) per slice, so a sandwich uses up two carbs. I always get skinny bread, or those thin pita-like bread pockets to help keep the carbs down. Watch for hidden carbs. Most stuff has at least some carb content. Ketchup comes to mind. If you like tortilla chips, 7 tortilla chips is one carb. Fast food is pretty tough to eat. Stay with salads or just ask for a burger with no bun to keep the carbs in check. If you have Jimmy John's Sandwich Shops near you, they offer an "Unwich" which is a lettuce wrap. No bread, no carbs. Grilled chicken in stead of fried chicken. No croutons on the salad. Read the carb content on your dressing. Know what you're putting in your body, or plan on buying/taking lots of insulin. Can't stress knowing the carb content and controlling it enough.

It's easy. The line attaches to the infusion site and it is no problem at all to detach it to swim, shower, etc. I would disconnect it when I would exercise. The only reason I stopped was losing the infusion sites. Wrestling 4 or 5 times a week meant I was constantly changing them because they would get pulled loose.

Testing and adjusting insulin, diet, and/or exercise in relation to the glucose reading is the balancing game. If you don't know exactly what the blood sugar is then you can't adjust accordingly. I test around 12 times a day because of how active I am. Before training in the morning, after training/before I eat, before I drive to work, mid morning when I eat, before lifting at lunch, after lifting at lunch/before I eat, mid-afternoon before I eat, before I drive home, before I eat dinner, if it's an evening where I train then before and after training, before I go to bed. Some days a few times less if its an off day, some days a few times more if I'm having lows.

gophergunner is correct in stating that carbs cause highs (fats and proteins have some effect but not nearly as much). You can avoid/limit them like gophergunner or you can balance the amount of insulin you take to account for them. Different ways of handling the same problem and both will work. If I'm not having to cut weight, I eat carbs like crazy, balancing the exercise and insulin to account for it. If I have to cut weight, I avoid carbs...and at the same activity level, my insulin dosages go WAY down.

It's all about balancing food, exercise, and insulin based on blood glucose readings. You can juggle the variables in many ways to get the end result of good glucose levels.

As most of you know my Grandson is a college football player at West Virginia. He was diagnosed at 10 years. Fortunately we are Choctaw Indian and he is taken care of by the Choctaw Diabetes Clinic in Talihina, Okla. His endo is head of the endo dept. at the University of Oklahoma. Josh has to test 8-10 times a day. He is very aware of his body and knows the feeling of either high or low blood sugar. The pump will be an option after football.
Playing college football has him doing conditioning year round-weight lifting, stretching, and running.

I didn't know your grandson is diabetic. I played football in college as well and started the pump after my senior season.

My youngest was diagnosed as type 1 at age 16, major shock to all of us since there is absolutely ZERO history of it on either side of the family.

Was just in California for vacation 2 weeks ago and watched a teenage girl with type 1 crash bad in line at Universal Studios. Neither her nor her folks were prepared for it, she flat out collapsed/fainted and all they could do was ask for paramedics. Fortunately there was a nurse in line who was able to recognize it and found some candy to get down her once they could wake her up enough.

As stated, carb intake is the core. Lots of teenagers rebel and sneak food, or else they won't tell their friends and their friends push food/pop on them. I know he'll hate it, but you might want to start a log of what he eats and see if there is any common denominators. Teenage years are hard, been there and still going through it (my son is now 18).

Quite easy, as another posted.. And these new generation pumps are really something..

My son was age 3 when diagnosed..

The daughter of one of our close friends has had Type 1 all her life. She is mid forties now. In January, she had a double transplant, kidneys and pancreas. Doing well so far. "Non diabetic" now, and hoping for the best. It has been a long, hard journey for her.
Type 1 is a terrible disease.

Lots of possible things in the future to help out Type I's, from improved pumps that automatically monitor and give insulin or glucagen as needed, to possible implants that replace the dead beta cells that produce insulin.

The pump has already had human trials, not sure how long before it's available.