Trials and Misfires

I have a confession. It's a secret that I have kept hidden for as long as I can, but I can't hide it anymore. So here it goes...... I am not perfect. 

If you know me you are laughing your head off right about now because you know how totally true this is. My house is a mess, I rarely take care of my appearance, I occasionally swear in front of my children and have been known to yell. These are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to my list of flaws and I am ok with it. Yes I can be judgemental, but if you say you're not then you are lying. I screw up sometimes and burn an entire cookie sheet full of roasted chickpeas or forget what you told me five minutes ago, but I can deal with that.

The one place however that I should NOT be screwing up on is what to feed my kids to keep them from getting sick. The last few weeks have been a horrible mix of  birthday parties and bad decisions on my part. I had been doing pretty well on keeping an eye on Ashley's carbs and sugars and while her blood sugar was still slightly elevated in the mornings it wasn't something to panic about yet. Her morning fasting levels were maintaining in the 110-115 range and she was feeling pretty good.

And then, it was my husbands birthday. The day before his birthday and the official celebration with his family we decided to go run some errands and get ready for the celebration. While we were out we had planned to go to Chick Fil A for lunch, but when we got there the parking lot was packed and we couldn't even get into the area to see how busy it was. So, on the spur of the moment we decided to go to our favorite sushi place instead. Sushi= yummy and healthy right? I mean, it's fish. Fish is good right? Well, yes fish is good, but the mountain of white rice it is served on is not such a great thing for Ashley. 

We left the restaurant and ran errands for another couple hours. Ashley was starting to act weird and hyper. This is really not that unusual for her because she is 11 and 11 year-olds tend to be weird and hyper anyway, but this was different. I told her to go running with the dog as soon as we got home because this normally helps her calm down and burn off excess energy from being in the car and running errands. We had a Girl Scout lock-in that night and I knew she was excited, so I though that was part of the problem too.  When she got back from running she was pale and sweaty, but hey running with an 80 pound lab will do that to you. An hour later though she was still pale and sweaty so I decided to test her blood sugar. It had been 4 hours after eating lunch and she was at 160. I can't even imagine what her 2 hour numbers were like. The rest of the day was a mixture of trying to give her protein so she wouldn't crash and spike all evening. The lock-in was fun, but she obviously wasn't feeling herself and was much more emotional than she is normally. Lesson learned- white rice=BAD bad bad.

Since then Ashley has had a couple similar incidents with a Sprite and a cupcake, but at least I can now look at her and tell that things aren't right. She gets pale,slightly green and sweaty.  Honestly, I am at a loss on what to do for her. Her fasting blood sugar is elevated, but not enough to qualify as full blown diabetes. Her post-prandial numbers are high, but not high enough to fall into the diabetic range. She runs almost everyday and if she doesn't run it is because she has been walking the streets for hours trying to sell Girl Scout cookies (of which she has only had one this year). Some days I think she is ok so I let her eat a cupcake at a birthday party and she gets sick and feels miserable. Other days she is fine.

I know that we will have many days of trials and misfires until we figure out what foods make her sick. There are going to be mistakes and constant worry. Is this "just" prediabetes in an active, thin child or is this the beginning of Type 1? Either way it is scary and uncertain. This is the area where I really need to stop screwing up because I can't keep watching my big girl get sick.