Maybe you’re going to work to prove how tough you are. Maybe you’re sending your child to school so they can get that coveted “perfect attendance” award. Maybe you’re just going to the mall because you’re tired of being cooped up in your house. Bottom line, if you are out in public less than 24 hours after throwing up from a stomach bug… I hate you.
It’s not because you gave me a virus that made me beg for death. It’s not that I had to change my kids’ sheets and towels, doing multiple loads of laundry that I wouldn’t normally have to do. It’s not even that I had to sleep next to a vomiting toddler for an entire night.
Despite our greatest efforts, your stomach bug infected my son who has type 1 diabetes.
Let’s call it “reverse carb counting”
T1D is a serious disease that requires constant monitoring of what is ingested in order to correctly give medication. Do you think that maybe a virus that causes him to vomit up that food could cause a problem?
When I fed him and gave him insulin, only for him to throw up, I had to wonder… how many carbs were not digested? How much did I just overdose my child because of this?
Who ever thought one day you’d have to guess the carb count of your child’s vomit? Seriously!
But of course, when there’s a virus ravaging your system, that’s not the only thing that will affect blood sugar levels. So, despite having no food and continued basal insulin, his blood sugar rose.
It went up and up and up. No matter how much insulin we gave him, up it went. All the way to 26.7 at one point (480 mg/dL for those following along in the US). That’s well above the ideal range of 4-7.
But that’s not all…
Blood sugar isn’t even the worst thing to worry about when a person with type 1 diabetes is sick.
Ketones.
The level of ketones in your blood indicates how acidic your blood is. As you can imagine… acidic blood is bad.
Ketones can develop quickly with high blood sugars or illness. And, if not treated, they can turn into DKA and kill in a matter of days.
Think I’m being dramatic? Take a few minutes to read about a young man named Will Hauver. As you can see, I’m not exaggerating. It happens quickly.
So, when I saw a 5.8 on my son’s blood ketone meter (1.5 indicates a risk of DKA) I was terrified.
And I was angry
Because you needed to go out in public, he had to stay home from school for a week.
Because you “felt fine”, he almost had to go to the hospital.
Because it’s “just a stomach virus”, he could have died.
We worked through it and he’s ok now. He went through more insulin in that day than any other day in the last 5 years!
So, to each and every person who thinks it’s ok to go out in public with a stomach bug: I hate you.
If you or your child are experiencing any of the following symptoms, you are still contagious for 24-48 hours after the symptoms are gone:
- Fever
- Vomiting
- Diarrhea
- Strep throat
These symptoms may not be a big deal to you, but to many people living with type 1 diabetes (as well as many other conditions), it is very serious and can be a matter of life and death.
Don’t knowingly spread your sickness to the rest of the world.
~ Leah
PS – If you are one of those jerky employers who makes employees come in when they’re sick, or fire them because of too many sick days… I hate you even more. It’s not ok to make your employees choose between their livelihood and my child’s life.
Hi.
I’m a Grandma of an 8 year old boy. He has a CGM and pump but he still has highs and lows when he should’nt. At school he sometimes get to low and the people who care for him forget to give his snack when it is due so he gets either very low or high and my Daughter or Son in law have to call and remind them , and one time they forgot his insuline and my daughter called the principle and he denied having forgotten. I think that they don’t get it or don’t want to have to get it.
It’s deplorable that in 2017 the school authority don’t know how important and life threatening it could be for a child when you don’t care.
I also have my son who is now 43 with Type1since he was 17. So in that way we are lucky to have him as backup if we need it. I’m also thankful that our youngest daughter and my husband and myself are able to understand the importance and that we can figure out his glucose and carbs.
It sounds like your grandson is very lucky to have so many family members who are already knowledgeable about T1D. It’s so great that you and other family are able to help out!
It can be really difficult for school staff to understand. So many people think T1D is no big deal and don’t realize how life-threatening it can be. In many Canadian provinces, it’s not even mandatory for school staff to do anything for a T1D student. Even though it’s 2017, there is a long way to go for school support and safety.