Friday, August 22, 2008

Freaking Out

This morning Daughter’s blood sugar was 94. This is a perfect blood sugar for morning. Her Endo wants it below 110. Below 70 is considered low. It’s been a while since Daughter’s was that low in the morning. She came and in and showed me the meter and announced she couldn’t go to the workshop today with a morning blood sugar that low. I explained to her that it was a perfect number and that Endo would be very pleased. I reduced her breakfast insulin a little bit to help ensure she wouldn’t go low this morning.

Unless we’re having eggs for breakfast, Daughter needs to eat extra protein with breakfast, as normal breakfast foods don’t have enough protein to carry her through the day. I have provided a variety of options for breakfast protein, but what she has decided she likes most is cheese. She dutifully recited what she needed for breakfast this morning. When she came in to hug me good bye, I asked her if she’d had her cheese. She assured me she had. I asked her if I’d find evidence (I buy individually wrapped cheese sticks for her). I wasn’t supposed to ask that question.

She told me it wasn’t fair that she had to eat cheese. Cheese isn’t a breakfast food. She couldn’t possibly fit another bite into her mouth. (She’d had two slices of raisin bread without butter and a cup of milk.) I listened calmly and repeated that she needed to go get her cheese. She stormed into the kitchen to get her cheese.

Skipping her cheese would have greatly increased the chances that she would have had a low this morning. I have explained this numerous times. Yet she goes from being afraid to go to the workshop because she might have a low to doing something that greatly increases the odds that she will have a low. Does she recognize the inconsistencies here? Of course not. That would require some understanding of cause and effect.

Still, she is doing much better than she was prior to the hospitalization. She made it through a softball game last night without an anxiety attack. She played second base the entire game (fortunately no balls came her way). She made it to base twice, once on balls and once on a hit (okay, an error). Her team won, though she didn’t know that and we don’t know the score.

4 comments:

TobyBo said...

Too bad General Foods or someone doesn't come out with special breakfast cheese. It wouldn't be too surprising if they did. My oldest (no diabetes) HAD to start her day with protein as a teen... she would eat a cheese stick first thing or she got sick to her stomach. I lost weight a few years ago and now HAVE to eat a much higher proportion of protein or I feel crummy. I carry almonds and jerky.

Hope she will figure out what is good for her, and do it.

Reverend Mom said...

Toby,

Thanks. The frustrating part is I have explained this to her a number of times, and she can even repeat it back to me. Doing it is something else. I don't know if it's rebellion against the disease, acting out the thought that she doesn't deserve to be healthy, or sheer laziness.

So how is your oldest going to handle her need for cheese at college? Did she take a refrigerator?

Peace.

TobyBo said...

LOL, her roommate does have a fridge... but she has outgrown the need for AM protein... it lasted 3 or 4 years in her teens... My DD was blessed with a roommate who comes with everything because *her* sister just finished college. :)

But you really would think with all the protein-based diets, some manufacturer would market specific high-protein breakfast foods. I guess other than breakfast meat and eggs. Any chance of her going for eggs? boiled ones, maybe?

Reverend Mom said...

Toby, She loves eggs, as long as I scramble them with potatoes, seasoning, cheese and various other goodies in them. I don't think she'd go for a plain boiled egg. At various times we've tried the pre-cooked breakfast sausage (in a number of varieties), beef sticks, etc. She keeps coming back to cheese sticks. I may buy some sausage for her again this week, so she can have some variety again. I'm not real good in the mornings, so fixing a big breakfast on a regular basis is not likely to happen any time soon....

Peace!