Real life with Diabetes: "It's my hormones!"

Puberty: when your kid starts growing taller, growing facial hair, and their voice changes.

But if they are diabetic, that's not all!

Puberty is playing havoc with Jared's blood glucose control.

We started noticing it several months ago...unexplained highs that were happening more often. As time went by, they were happening so much that his A1C climbed to 8.5%. Not good! Jared kept saying to me, "It's my hormones!" Yep, I had to smile about that, but it turns out he was right.

At Jared's last clinic visit, his (awesome & smart!) doctor said with a smile, "We need to start treating Jared like a big boy now." Haha! That meant change all his basal rates and insulin-to-carb rations. That has helped a lot.

Now we're experiencing the other side of the coin. It's a scary side. He's gotten up two of the last three mornings with very low blood sugar. 30 (yes, 3-0!) one morning, and 48 the next. If you're diabetic or know one, you know that this is bad. Once again, we received untold blessings because he could have very easily not woken up or had a seizure (which has happened before and is awful), especially at the 30. But somehow he woke up, came upstairs, tested, and took care of himself with juice and fruit. I was sitting at the kitchen table, saw him come in and test, and then saw him going for juice, so I said "Are you low?" He said, "Yep." I said, "What are you?" and he replied "30." I honestly said, "How are you functioning?" Jared just said, "I don't know" and went about his business. He's definitely learned how to take it as it comes.


I've learned that puberty sends a wrecking ball into diabetes control. I'll be glad when he's out of it!