Flu

Neither of us felt great on Tuesday a week and a half ago. By mid-day Wednesday we were camped out on the couch coughing, feverish and watching the Olympics.

We visited our respective primary care providers on Thursday. Both were out of diagnostic swabs but our symptoms of fever, aches, cough and utter exhaustion led both to diagnose us the old-school way.

Despite getting flu shots and obsessive hand washing and hand sanitizing, we ended up with the flu.

Because of the afore-mentioned flu shots, the experience was allegedly less awful than it could have been. Nevertheless we spent Wednesday through Monday pretty much immobilized in front of the television.

Diabetes, needless to say, did not like the flu. The night before it hit was a multi-juice box night, which is consistent with my daughter's pattern when she's coming down with a virus. Despite no medical information to back me up, I've always assumed these pre-symptom lows were caused by her body waging a last-minute battle against whatever germs have invaded.

Then the blood sugars headed up. And stayed there. Days would usually start out okay- higher than usual but nothing crazy. Then, despite temp basals, corrections, and a diet consisting mostly of chicken soup, she'd crest 300 by mid-afternoon.

By bedtime (which was before 9 several nights- when sitting on the couch became too exhausting) she was sliding back into an acceptable-for-being-sick range. My saintly husband took overnight duty a few nights in a row, each of which required at least one correction bolus.

By Sunday afternoon and Monday the highs weren't SO high and the correction boluses began to actually work a little.  She was on the mend.

We've done diabetes + colds, stomach viruses, strep, pneumonia, chicken pox, dental surgery, ear infections and more, but never flu. There was quite a bit of transferrable information from our experiences with other ailments. We knew about the necessity of frequent glances at the CGM, setting increased temporary basal rates on the pump, and aggressive correction boluses for highs. We knew that with patience and perseverance blood sugar would return to normal as the illness passed.

The primary novelty of the flu compared to our countless other illness + diabetes experiences was the duration of being really sick. With the illness lingering, in a serious way, for nearly a week it was a long wait for blood sugars to look more like they usually do. The silver lining was that both of us were too sick to expend any energy worrying about it. It took everything we had just to keep our tea mugs full.

Spare a Rose

I reorganized my daughter's insulin this morning. I discarded a vial of Lantus which expired two years ago- a vial we had on hand only in case her insulin pump failed and we needed to give her an injection. We had never opened it. We have a new container of long-acting insulin on hand, which we also hope never to use. 

I took the oldest vial of her usual fast-acting insulin out of the refrigerator so that we can start using it to fill pump cartridges, and then I reorganized the butter compartment with several more vials, enough for a couple of months.

I also restocked the diabetes supplies in her room: test strips, lancets, insulin pump paraphernalia, and the stash of juice boxes we keep on hand for overnight lows.

What a hassle all this acquiring, organizing and using diabetes supplies is. And how fortunate we are to be able to do it.

The International Diabetes Foundation's Life For a Child Program helps families who live in places where having a butter compartment full of insulin and a drawer full of lancets and test strips is unheard of. There are children in underdeveloped countries around the world whose lives have been saved by this program. Children who would otherwise have no access to insulin or any other diabetes care supplies. Per the organization's website,

The program currently supports over 18,500 young people in 42 countries. There is so much work still to be done, we estimate that over 100,000 young people still need our help. Together we can achieve our vision that no child should die of diabetes.

This will be the 5th year that 'Spare a Rose' will be part of our Valentines' celebration.

Sparing one rose from a bouquet of a dozen and donating that $5 cost to Life for a Child provides a month of insulin, syringes, and diabetes education to a child in need. Donating $60 and foregoing roses altogether provides a year of life.

Want to learn more, or participate? This is the link!

Happy Valentine's Day!