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When you arrive at the hospital in an ambulance I found, the check-in process is pretty perfunctory. There is the obligatory show of insurance cards and a few things to sign, but they want to get you to a room and into care pretty quickly. I was just feeling glad to be there in this… Continue reading Hospital times: my mom

Kaelan spent three and a half days in the hospital. It was all pediatric: there were a good number of children his age (8-12) around him, several of whom were in cancer treatment. I was anxious about my son, but every walk around the ward brought some tentative tears that I had a hard time… Continue reading Hospital times: my dad

what I learned When I was in the hospital, the doctor and the nurses there started explaining to me what diabetes was, and how to treat it. I learned the mechanics of treatment, but exactly how it all worked, and how to compute what to do in different circumstances took me a long time to… Continue reading Hospital times: our pancreas

How we T1Ds control blood glucose: a general idea Since our blood sugar isn’t auto regulated by our pancreas anymore,  we need to do ourselves the job that our pancreas used to do. When our blood sugar is high, we need to inject insulin, not made by our pancreas, but in a lab. When our… Continue reading Hospital times: how we T1Ds manage glucose

Why carbohydrates? Food is primarily composed of three types of substances: proteins, fat, and carbohydrates (there are more pieces to it: you also need, among others, vitamins, trace elements and fatty acids…). Carbohydrates are primarily sugars, sugar alcohols, fibers, and starches. Most things that end in -ose are carbs (lactose, fructose, glucose, etc.) Our body… Continue reading Hospital times: why carbohydrates?

Insulin: basal and bolus The insulin story is more complicated. Our body uses energy all the time, even when we sleep, and there is a fairly constant rate of glucose being released at rest in the body every hour. So we need some insulin every fraction of an hour, at a certain “basal” rate. For… Continue reading Hospital times: the insulin story

Ketones When we are too low, there is a simple remedy and protocol (carbs, and glucagon).  But, when we are too high, there are two levels of seriousness. When we don’t have ketones in our bloodstream, we are at no risk to go into DKA. When we have ketones in our bloodstream, it means we… Continue reading Hospital times: ketones

Hydration Almost everything that can go wrong with us T1Ds gets better with good hydration. If our BG is high, it gets lower with good hydration. If we have ketones, they get better with good hydration. If we are peeing glucose, we can pass more of it with good hydration… When we are sick, hydration… Continue reading Hospital times: hydration

Injections I didn’t like injections at first. But injections are not a choice I have: I need them whether I like them or not. So, at the hospital, when I was told I would have to get injections every day, I decided that it would be easier if I did it from day one, and… Continue reading Hospital times: injections

How much insulin, how many carbs It takes a while to figure it out, and you won’t have to worry about it for another few months. In most cases, the doctor at the hospital will tell you: