SICK DAY

I used to try to fake sick when I was a kid and I did not want to go to school. My mom would come in and put an old glass thermometer in my mouth and then, since it is virutally impossible for any mother to wait out the three whole minutes that the glass thermometers took, she would leave the room.
Then I would put the thermometer up to a lightbulb for a little while and stick it back in my mouth before she came in a whimper. Sometimes it worked, other times she would say, 105, huh? Get dressed!
One of my friends told me she used to chew up doritos and spit them in the toilet and then tell her mother she threw up. We never bought doritos, so I could not use that one. I had another friend who would take a glass of water into the bathroom and shut the door, wait til her mom knocked on the door, and then dump the glass in while making barf noises... Then flush the toilet and put the glass in the cabinet. Her mom fell for it every time. I had still another friend who would put on elaborate make up and powder to make herself look sick. It worked until her mom would see that it was make up and send her off to school.
The point is, we all tried to fake sick once or twice.
But for a child with Diabetes, there is always that self doubt in the mothers mind... "is he really sick.. he seems fine?" and the everlasting guage of illness--the blood glucose level.
Kids with Diabetes Rarely get the chance to put the thermometer up to the lightbulb... The true test is the BG, (oh! you are 104, you should be fine, or OH NO< you are 402!!!! you are sick!!!)and there is no arguing that... or... is there?
For a kid with an insulin pump and a desire to stay home and play his webkins, there sure is. A couple of days ago, Nolan was low in the middle of the night due to a miscalculated dinner out. So, we treated the low, tested, treated again, and went back to bed.
The next morning, he woke up high. I had called school to tell them we would be late due to the late night and midnight lows, and so both boys slept in. (yes, Patrick woke up too because Nolan was a little loud with his low, actually combative, and it is lucky that I tested him as early as I did because usually I wait an hour more)
The boys ate breakfast, and I told Nolan to bolus for 40.
Then a while later, he was low again.
I called school to tell them we'd beb even more late.
I fed him milk. Still low. dropping. 65 now. more skim milk, the obligatory 15 minutes, re-test, and it was 59.
"How much did you bolus for breakfast?"
"um..... 40?" he looked guilty.
I held out my hand and he reluctantly placed his pump in it.
I pudhed act, bolus, act, down. down, down, bolus history, act.
last bolus: 4.9 units. 100 carbs.
I looked at his figety eyes and waited until he met my stare.
"why did you do this?" I asked him.
" I wanted to stay home with you" He said sweetly.
"do you understand the repurcussions of this?" I asked.
"yes" he said, and then recited verbatim the consequences he has learned of taking too much insulin, coma, seisure, brain damage, death.
We went to the kitchen and I scavenged for sugar.
The fact is that we don't keep a whole lot of sugary stuff around, and we'd burned through the glucose tabs during the actual low last night.
I had to hurry, sugar, sugar... Damn! Peanut butter, but if you want to get BG up with that, you may as well call the ambulance and have them pick him up now, cause it takes forever. We did not even have any chocolate, not that that would have been good either! No hard candy! FOUND SOMETHING! Hot cocoa mix with 23 carbs! I poured some in hot water and made him guzzle it.
We waited the longest 15 minutes in the world. 78. whew!
He was 108 when I took him to school.
I lectured him, told him that he could not use the pump if he ever tried that again, it would be back to shots... and that he was going to be losing his webkins for one week. He has to show me his boluses from now on, no more trusting.... losing independence. The point was taken. We talked about it for a long long time.

The thing is, if I would have had an insulin pump at his age... I would have tried the same thing.
But for easter, I am buying him a thermometer and a light bulb.
Its so much safer.