Mother Chronicles--Lessons learned. :)

Mother's everywhere have had, at one time or another, to deal with learning parenting lessons the hard way. We had yet another one of those experiences last night. This particular time dealt with diabetes. I've heard it can happen to infusion sets. I've read about this happening to other kids with infusion sets but for some reason it didn't dawn on me that this is what was happening to Sydney. I will chalk it up to sleepless mommy brain but, lesson learned, now we know.

It happened yesterday--site changing day. We moved Syd's insulin site to her arm. There were no tears. The process went smoothly and we were glad to be done for 2 more days. My niece Ashlyn is a 7 month old magnet for Syd. She gravitates to the baby. So, naturally, when Ash started fussing Sydney picked her up. Ashlyn saw Syd's tubing hanging from her arm and decided this looked like a fun play toy...she proceeded to yank on it. It didn't rip out but Syd said it hurt. She put the baby down and went on playing. We didn't think much of it.

Dinner time! Blood sugar was 273. That was quite high for Syd's dinnertime sugar but that happens with diabetes so we gave her insulin and went on our way with our evening. Bedtime. Blood sugar was now 387. Wow...I couldn't believe it was still high. More insulin was given. We were sure this would fix the high b.s. issues. Around 11 pm I went to do a b.s. check. 490!! Holy high! I couldn't remember the last time she was that high. Then the light went off and it dawned on me what probably happened.

When Ash yanked on her tubing it pulled the cannula out of her arm (even though it didn't rip off it lifted the tubing enough to cause trouble) and when it tried slide back in her arm, it kinked the end of the tubing and she hadn't been getting her insulin all evening. That was the only explanation I could think of for having that high of a b.s. So we drug her out of bed at 11 pm to put in a new site. Syd was a champ though. No tears and no complaints but she did have some dirty looks for me. However, being that high is not a comfortable feeling (so I'm told). I am sure she knew that she would feel better after her new site was inserted. It worked! By 2 a.m. she was back down the 180s and she was 115 at breakfast. So, note to self, don't let Syd hold Ashlyn when her tubing is exposed and, if it does happen again, next time it will dawn on me quicker and we won't let her b.s. get to nearly 500 before changing her site. :-)

How about some of you other moms, do you have any "lesson's learned stories" to share so I don't feel so silly about my screw up? :-) Share away!!