Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Obsessive?

I'm getting worried about O She is obsessively checking her blood sugars. Yesterday, between 7 a.m. and noon, she checked 12 times. A couple of checks were only three minutes apart. She says that she always feels low, but she's not low, she's usually nicely in range. I don't know what to do about this. I talked to her endocrinologist the other day, who suggested an appointment with their counsellor. Unfortunately, the cousellor isn't available until Dec. 7th. At the beginning of the year, I chalked it up to nerves because she'd just started in middle school and just started checking her sugars in class, but it's only getting worse. She was checking 4 - 5 times, then it bumped up to 7 - 8 and yesterday and the day before was 12. There's no need for her to check that much.

I'm hoping I can convince the endo to get her on to a continuous glucose monitoring system. It has a sensor that goes under the skin and alarms when your blood sugar goes too high or too low. It takes a reading every 5 minutes. I've left a message for the endo and when she calls back, I'm going to run this by her. Beside the fact that O is running thru (expensive) test strips like there's no tomorrow, she's got to be missing class time by checking like this. She does it in her seat, but it's still a distraction. I hope to god I can convince them to give her this and that the insurance company will agree with me so I don't have to try to scrape up the money somehow. I'm sure they're outrageously expensive since the technology is so new. I also called the company that's making this new CGMS to see if I can get any advice on how I might finagle one of these beauties.

When I called my husband to talk to him about it (because I'm upset and worried about her), he said he thinks that O is just bored at school and doing this because it's like a toy. Right, after 8 years, I'm sure she's still fascinated with checking her blood sugar. He said she just wants to eat glucose tabs, so she's checking in the hope that she's low. He thinks I'm overreacting by calling the endo and he started doing his typical not-letting-me-talk thing and dismissing everything I say with a "whatever". Thanks for the support there, dear. Jerk.

I wish the endo would hurry up and call me.

3 comments:

Kerri. said...

Welcome to the O.C. my friend.

Jess said...

Is the glucose monitor akin to the insulin pump?

Oh, a quick thought: has her seat assignment changed? Could she be under a heat duct/blower/vent that is making her feel warmish and dizzy?

The next time The Boy needs support on something, flip him a candy and tell him to....you know.

Whatever.

Anonymous said...

The monitor has a sensor that's inserted like a pump site, from what I've heard. It alarms if your bg goes above or below a certain range. I can't even begin to tell you how badly I want one of these puppies. No more middle of the night testing! Whoohoo!

The Boy is so in the doghouse right now. He's being a tool. And not a useful tool, either, one of those dumbass tools you find in the junk drawer and think "Why the hell did I buy this thing?" Oy. And vey.