Sugar Surfing

It's a bit like flying to me, or maybe riding a roller coaster. The difference is that every once in awhile, someone switches the track without telling you.  Your body is leaning the left but you go right.  Sometimes, the roller coaster stalls at the top of the hill, doesn't move and you just sit there, a little nervous for hours, wondering how the employees are going to get you down.  Sometimes, if you are paying close attention, maybe sitting near the front, you see it coming and can adjust.  On good days, you go up and down, moving with the train. Gliding.

A Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) helps us see those track changes coming.  We still have a few highs and lows, but less, and with more control.  Over the past few weeks, his BG averages a normal, non-T1D blood sugar.  We were already employing some of the methods described in Dr. Stephen Ponder's new book, "Sugar Surfing", describing using a CGM to attain better BG control but this book answered many of the questions I had and gave me more confidence to add insulin in to ward off a track change or worse, jumping off the track altogether.

Throwing away the fear is the most difficult part of parenting and treating a child with T1D. There is the certain knowledge that you are giving a drug that can seriously harm if not kill them.  I have been hearing people in the DOC (Diabetic Online Community), reading blogs like Arden's Day and SixUntilMe, and hearing the message, "Be Not Afraid". You hear many scary stories, many and it does happen.  More frequently, many T1D live long and productive lives and focusing there seems more psychologically healthy.

This book, while we wait for the ride to end with a cure, shows how to move from a static management of T1D to a more dynamic management.  I've heard of medical professionals say that such focus isn't healthy, that one has to "live one's life".  I don't think we look at our CGM any more than people today check their cell phones, probably less.  And, William is paying more attention, making more decisions, and becoming more confident in those decisions.  "I'm just surfing, Mom," he'll say.  The only caution I have is that at his adolescent age, his mind often loses focus and he forgets to check or correct.  That's where I come in.

BUY THIS BOOK!

Yesterday, I wrote that this book not only made me think differently about diabetes management, but also about how we grade and categorize starting early in childhood.  Because this post is getting long, and William is at BG 81 and great time for breakfast, I'm putting that thought off until tomorrow.

Note:  I know some insurance and Medicaid doesn't cover CGMs.  This needs to change.  They'll pay for those little blue pills but a device that keeps your child safe at night, reduces long term complications, no way.  Not medically necessary.  Makes me want to become a CGM lobby!