I laughed, cause she is.
And oh, this addict uses A LOT of insulin throughout her day. She's up to about 50 units per day. She's maxed out the 150 units that I use to fill her OmniPod pod, so now I up it to about 175 units for three days.
It is what it is.
It's puberty, that is.
12 going on the preteen years.
Growth spurts, hormones, growth spurts, hormones and did I mention, the GROWTH spurts?!
Like, growing 2 inches this past year and on track to bust another inch in the next six months.
All that growing requires a lot of insulin. Both in basal and in bolus amounts.
Carb ratios that have gone from a breakfast of 1:15 to currently 1:8. Lunches are now 1:10 and dinners have just been reduced to 1:12.
It's the basal rates that make me shake as I enter them. I repeat the phrase 'She needs what she needs, these are only numbers' again and again in my head, but secretly, there is a little voice that whispers, My God, woman, that's a HECK of a lot of insulin per hour.'
I try not to listen to that little voice.
I enter new basal rates. Large ones for such a little girl.
And I know it's what she needs. And it's just a number.
Here's our current basal rates:
12a - 3a 1.35 U/hr
3a - 6a .85 U/hr
6a - 6p .90 U/hr
6p - 8p 1.00 U/hr
8p - 10p 1.05 U/hr
10p - 12a 1.20 U/hr
Does 12a - 3a freak you out? Well it does me.
And I still think it could be tweaked to 1.40 U/hr or even, GASP, 1.45 U/hr.
Insulin Addict.
Damn straight.
7 comments:
I know what you mean- I had to change the max bolus amount for my daughter and I was a little freaked out that she was taking over 10 units for a meal!
They're growing like weeds!
I think I'm starting on that same track. Amy's only 8, but I increased each basal rate throughout the day and she's still above 10 most of the day. I'm thinking carb ratios and correction factors need to change now. She had strept throat and the chicken pox within days of each other and her sugars haven't been the same since! I'm so not looking forward to hormones....
Thanks for this post. I have been stewing over the dramatic increase in insulin my nearly 10 year old has needed in the past 6 weeks... her needs have increased by about 40%! Basal rates hover around 1.7 and carb ratios are between 1:9-1:12. It's alarming! But yes, only numbers. Only numbers. I think I need to brace myself because this is the beginning of puberty.
At a JDRF event one of the speakers shared how we produce double the amount of insulin resistant (growth) hormones during puberty than any other time. I don't know how parents handle it! That's crazy!
So encouraging as a fellow parent of a 12 year old. It amazes me how much tweaking is needed over and over again. But then it's so encouraging to see in range numbers as a result.
Penny, this is so good for me to see! Ally is 11 and currently into that hormonal, growing like a weed, requiring more and more insulin phase. And it scares me!! She is currently using a lot less insulin than Grace...but probably needs a lot more. I'm so glad that I read this today, because I will go ahead and make those increases that I know she needs. I've been dragging my feet because it felt like so much insulin!!!
It is very scary and you may not get much sleep but you will get through this. Be prepared, in addition to the higher basals, crazy amounts of increase on nights when growth hormones are kicking in, only for her to go back to baseline at 3am. So definitely no sleep! We had many nights where she used two units and sometimes close to 3 an hour! And then back to her 1 unit an hour by 3:30am the same night. But, again, usually over a three evening period for about 6 hours. The worst years were 13 to 15. Get your naps in during the day or early evening.
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