An Unlikely Outcome

After a long day of cooking, cleaning and yard work in preparation for hosting Easter dinner, we were grateful to adjourn to a local family-friendly Irish pub for dinner.  My daughter knew what she wanted before we walked in the doors.  'Remember how good their fish and chips is?  I'm getting that.' 

I was pretty sure she hadn't come close to finishing the plate the last time we went, so I delivered insulin for 40 carbs to start and waited to see what she would eat.  My estimate was 12 per fillet and 2 per fry with a few carbs thrown in for good measure.  I figured the 40g to be about half her plate, and knew giving some of the insulin a head start could only help the cause later on.

I guess the combination of cleaning her room, helping me cook, and softball batting practice built up quite an appetite.  Before I knew it her plate was almost clean. 

I bolused for another 40 carbs despite her sharing 2 or 3 of her last fries and a small piece of fish. 

It's extremely rare that she eats more than 50 carbs per meal.  Consuming 80 is almost unheard of.  When there is fat involved, I usually actively discourage it.  No matter which 'tricks' we try to contain it, her blood sugar inevitably objects.  In the back of my mind, I worried what those blood sugar numbers would look like later, but after a long day I was just happy to sit and relax over my own meal and let her enjoy hers.

As she set out her Easter basket to be filled, her post-dinner blood sugar was 234.  I figured that to be only the beginning.  Yet that correction brought her quickly down to 175 an hour later.  By 2 a.m., the meter read 133.  At 7 a.m.?  93.

This story contains no advice.  My daughter consumed a significant amount of fried food while I haphazardly guessed the carbohydrate content.  I used no temp basals, combo boluses or other diabetes tricks of the trade to yield this result.   I can almost guarantee you that next time she orders the same entree the blood sugar results will be wildly different.

All I can figure is that in recognition of our hard work and the occasion of Easter weekend, the diabetes gods chose to smile on us Saturday night.  On a day when you most need it, I hope they are similarly gracious to you.