Time for a Tune-Up

Every so often it dawns on me that my child is desperately in need of a tune-up.  She has no tires to rotate or filters to replace, but she there's plenty of other maintenance to be done which will help her systems run better.

A couple of days ago, I realized she was overdue for an overhaul.  I'd received calls from the school nurse almost every day for a week.  Juice boxes were clogging up my trash bin.  A quick scan through the meter's memory confirmed that readings that began with a 1 were fewer or at best equal to  those beginning with 2's or those with only two digits.  My child was not running at her optimal performance level.

We could spend a lot of time debating how this happened. Illness, a growth spurt, or any number of other factors could have thrown her out of whack, but it really doesn't matter.  What matters is the need to figure out how to get back on track.

We've started by getting out the old-fashioned logbook sheets and writing it all down.  Modern technology is great, and the ability of her meter to sort, graph and average blood sugar numbers is very cool and often useful.  But there's something about writing it all down.  It makes us more cognizant of the problem numbers.  Writing those numbers that start with a 2 or a 3 over and over again brings focus to the problem.  Seeing a straight column of 2 digit numbers clarifies exactly where the issues are.Seeing a little star next to an outlier from last weekend reminds us of the bagel, or the forgotten bolus that caused it.

Now, starting today, we'll work our way through the day, noting patterns and tweaking basal rates and insulin:carb ratios as we go.  I can hear the endocrinologist in my head encouraging us to basal test, which we will likely need to do.

My hope is that with a little focus, and support from our diabetes team as needed, we'll easily get back on track. If only it were as easy as a 2 hour visit to the mechanic!