Keeping At It

We visited the endocrinologist yesterday. 

In general, it was a good visit.  The downloaded blood sugar charts showed no glaring problems.  Her A1C was not in the orange zone, and up .4 from last time, but still acceptable.  She grew a bit. We're doing a "good job" at keeping on top of the diabetes stuff.

Just for fun, I checked the meter average the day before her appointment and tried to guess what the A1C would be.  My guess was higher than the actual result, which was a bit of a relief.  I knew her numbers were creeping up a bit.  Numbers that start with threes have appeared here and there. The phone calls from school are escalating again.

My hope was that, with the numbers laid in front of us, yesterday's appointment would give us an instantaneous solution.  "Aha!" we'd exclaim, "If we just tweak this basal rate, and that bolus ratio, she'll be fixed."

Alas, that is not what happened.  There were no real trends to be found.  Some outliers here and there.  Maybe a need to take a closer look at mid-afternoons.  But really, those bold print high numbers were fairly evenly scattered all over the page. 

"Keep at it," the doctor said.  "You know what to do." 

Indeed, I do know what to do.  I need to be sure we write everything down, and then spend time at least weekly poring over the blood sugar charts. Taking that information, I then need to make changes to basal rates, bolus ratios, and correction factors. When changes are made I need to make sure my daughter checks her blood sugar more frequently than usual. I should also set up a couple of basal tests, risking the wrath of a hungry child.  This hard work is ongoing, but the level of energy we give to it ebbs and flows.  It's time once again to get in there and crunch some numbers.

How I wish it were simpler.