Another bump in the diabetes learning curve

My son came home from school yesterday and we talked about what he had done during the day.  He told me about having whipped cream thrown at him by little kids and showed me the treats that he had been given.  After our chat, I asked for his meter.  I looked through it and saw that once again he had not bothered to test after his breakfast.  His first test was at lunch time and he was 23 (414). I was not impressed.

"I am guessing that not only did you NOT remember to test, but you also forgot to bolus your breakfast didn't you?"

"Now Mom, would I do that?" He asked innocently as he began scrolling through his pump history.  "There is a bolus here at 7:30.  Oh wait, its just a correction. There doesn't seem to be a breakfast bolus.  Oops."

Once again I reminded him to test AND bolus.  He went off to do his thing and I was left to shake my head.  I felt a little guilty because I knew that I hadn't given him the carb count for his meal that morning but I also know that he is pretty good at knowing it on his own.  End of guilt. He messed up.

Before I went to bed that evening, I asked him what his bg level was.  I use that number as a gauge of when I should set my internal alarm clock to get up during the night. He said he was 4.1 (73).  I asked him what he was going to do about that. He said that he had had a glucose gel.  I thought that that might have been a bit much since he had eaten a snack not long ago and asked him why the gel?

He replied, "Never drive when you are under five and never sleep if you are under six!"

Well he could certainly regurgitate the information that I have given him over the years but when would he actually use a bit more of it? I responded, "Great, you can remember the rules but you can't remember to test and bolus in the morning?"

I rolled my eyes and left him to deal with his four (72) while I headed off to read.  The next morning he asked if he had been high the night before. I said that he was.  He said that it had taken him a lot of glucose to move past 4.1 so he was glad to see that at one point the sugar finally kicked in. Poor kid. What a thing to have to worry about before he could think about sleep.

The missed test and bolus in the morning didn't kill him. It could have been worse--he did correct the high before breakfast and did correct before his lunch. We still have a long ways to go but its also good to know that we are making some progress. I still wish however that my son and I did not have to have any of this knowledge--that it was not so important for him to have to learn.