Woman, Independent Parent, Artist, Advocate, Artifical Pancreas.... and EVERYTHING in between.

I am blessed to be parenting two beautiful girls, ages eight and eleven. My youngest nearly lost her life at age six (August 2010) to diabetic ketoacidosis: an often fatal consequences of undiagnosed type 1 diabetes. This is OUR journey: raw and sometimes, uncensored.

Thank you for visiting wishing good health and a cooperative pancreas to you and yours.

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Swimming Fiasco

Her Dad was planning on taking her swimming this afternoon. I had warned him to bring at least three juice boxes and rescue snacks. It was replied that I was being excessive, and she's been fine in the past, she'll be fine today. "I'm not going to jump out of the pool and feed her or check her every 15 min".

So my solution was to accompany them swimming. I stayed on the pool deck, the three of them were frolicking in the different pools.

Now keep in mind that she is to have a BGI (blood glucose index) between 6-12 mmol/L. Anything under 4 mmol/L is hypoglycemia and considered an emergency. Anything over 15 mmol/L is hyperglycemia, and also very problematic.

This is how the swimming adventure played out. I fed her a huuuuge lunch, beyond that allowed by her meal plan, because I knew she'd burn it off swimming in a mere heartbeat.

She enterred the pool at 4.4 mmol/L at 2pm. So I fed her a snack before she even hit the water.
The next time I tested her was at 2:14, and I had gotten her up to 5.3. At 2:28 she had dropped to 2.7 mmol/L so out of the pool again to have a rescue snack. 2:40pm she tested 3.6. Back out of the pool, yet again, for a juice box and granola bar. 2:53 she was at 1.3 mmol/L. This reading worried me, because she was absolutely zonked AND zoning out. I could ask her a question, but she wouldn't reply. Her eyes were listless and flat, the purple bags showing up under her eyes, and she was so pale. I fed her a fistful of jellybeans. At 3:07 she tested 5.3, but at 3:23 she was back down to 3.8... another juice box and granola bar which she had a hard time finishing because she was so full. Finally I gave up and declared swimming officially over.

He was boggled and agog to have witnessed this "I thought you were being dramatic" he says "I didn't realize swimming hit her this hard".

As much as I didn't want to sacrifice my two hour child-free window, I'm glad I did because she was okay. I'm also glad I did because I finally received the validation of our swimming experiences, which somehow had alluded him until today.

I'm not taking her swimming tomorrow. I'm exhausted from chasing her from upon the pool deck, testing her, pulling her out of the water, and constantly feeding her. Absolutely exhausted.

No comments:

Post a Comment