Before I launch into this post, I would like to say that I am so very proud of M for trying field hockey. She loves lacrosse, and decided that she would like to stay conditioned so that she would be in good shape for the high school lacrosse team in the spring. Joining another team so that she could stay in shape seemed an excellent idea.
She had never played field hockey before.
After two weeks, she told the coach that she would like to try the goalie position. The coach assigned her a mentor to show her the ropes, and the following day she was playing goalie for a full Junior Varsity game. WOW! Talk about fearless.
You would think I would have learned all of the coping strategies necessary to deal with her participation in field hockey this fall, after all of the exciting experiences we had last spring in lacrosse.
Well, high school sports are really different from middle school sports.
First of all, in high school, they have practice or a game every day.
This means that M is never home before 5:00 pm on a school night. It also means that two times per week she isn't home before 8:00 pm.
For most parents, this inconvenience means setting aside another plate for dinner, and a grumpy kid trying to get his homework done before 11:00 pm. For many other parents, it means driving forgotten gear to games or packing extra snacks. It also means a lot more laundry and a higher water bill as your teen showers twice every day.
For me, it means all of these things, but it also means not knowing how M is doing that day until she comes home with a headache, or nausea, or battling a low bg that won't go away. All three of these situations occurred during M's first week of school.
Headache- Cause: who knows? Dehydration? Her bg seemed fine, although she didn't test it very often. She is supposed to test it 6 times per day. But, because of the tight schedule during the school day, she managed to test it only once during school, leaving her with tests before school, during lunch, before the game, and after the game/dinner.
Nausea and seemingly ceaseless low- Cause: High bg 437. M "just didn't check" her bg before the game. After the game, that 437 set off a roller coaster for the next 24 hours.
- correct 302
- eat and bolus 258
- bedtime check 198
- 6:00 am 49
- 6:20 am 98
- 8:00 am 62
- 10:00 am 81
- 11:00 am 160 (yea!)
- lunch 215
- 2:00 pm 173
- 7:00 pm 245
- 9:00 pm 181
These are hard-learned lessons for a fourteen-year-old. M is starting to remember how sick diabetes can make one feel. That nausea didn't go away for a long time.
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| These ups and downs are not as fun as they sound! |
Thinking ahead, maybe we will need to designate another "official" time for her to check her bg during school. Then she might be able to stay on top of her bg levels before they develop into crazy bg swings.
In the meantime, I will try to concentrate on cheering M on during a game, rather than searching for evidence of a diabetic crisis looming on the horizon.
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