Tuesday, May 20, 2008

D-mergency


Even when I tried to put in the title, the blogger program changed the first letter to E.  Nobody understands :)

"Captain, we've got a D-mergency....Ketone field dead ahead, take evasive action"

The D-mergency is something that diabetics and their caregivers know all too well.  It's sort of the secret handshake that you'd rather not know.  The D-mergency is often associated with Murphy's Law as well.  We were at a birthday part last night for one of Cadence's friends.  First birthday party with kids, cake, pizza, and soda.  We were so excited to let her experience these foods for the first time and to see the power of the insulin pump in terms of dealing with these carbs.  We were all set, pump was going, infusion site did fine all day, as soon as we hit the front door apparently the infusion site decided it was finished...or Cadence's body felt that she was finished with it and it scarred over.  1 hour into the party before any food was put out she hit 20.3 on her meter, 4 times the normal range.  She felt like (or so I perceive) she just downed 5 big gulps.  She played quietly and jumped anxiously everytime anything around her made a sound, cried uncontrollably at the site of a party hat, weird stuff.  Back to Murphy's law...the one time we leave the house without a backup syringe/insulin/infusion set...is when we need to use it.

So, as the pizza was unboxed and after 2 corrections Cadence's sugar only climbed, we had to make our exit, take her away from the party to go and try to bring her sugar down.  We were all bummed out, it was a quiet ride home.  After we put in the new site, gave her a big bolus of insulin, her sugar started dropping and we had a little party at home.  Cadence had a taste of some frozen yogurt, danced to some music, and hit the sack a little later than normal.  Nic and I got ready for a long night of fighting the lows often associated with a high correction and a new infusion site.

We know the secret "D" handshake and every day wish that we didn't.  The trick is to make every attempt to use it as little as possible and make day to day life and normal and vibrant as possible.  Diabetes is a life ending disease without an obvious disability or a cure.  A great quote I read yesterday rings so true "you don't get time off for good behavior", you just have to try to keep the ship headed in the right direction.

For an awesome perspective on diabetes read this article on Jake Cutler, quarterback for the Denver Broncos.  We are officially Bronco fans now.

b.