A Day in the Life of Matthew

Two months ago today, Matthew was diagnosed with diabetes. He's made an amazing adjustment. He feels better. He looks better. And best of all, he still has his happy spirit. Kevin and I are trying to follow in his footsteps. Here is a peek into our "new normal."

7am Wake up and check Matthew's sugar. If it's not a school day and Matthew is really tired, I'll just check his sugar and let him sleep in. Usually he's bouncing out of bed ASAP.

7:30am We count his carbs for breakfast. We weigh and/or measure everything so the carb count is correct. We give insulin and add a correction of insulin if necessary. Don't think we've ever had to correct at breakfast.

8:00am Get ready for school

8:30am/9:00am Take Matthew to school or he'll do his assigned work at home.

11:30am/12:00pm Matthew checks his sugar. We count carbs and give insulin. Add a correction of insulin if necessary. If Matthew is at school, I go there and give him his shot.

Afternoon Pick Matthew up from school. Usually you'll find his head is buried in a book, he might be building some robotic creation or he's playing with friends. If he's playing outside, he'll check his sugar.

3:30pm/4:00pm Occasionally Matthew wants an afternoon snack. If there are carbs, we count them and give him another shot of insulin.

5:30pm/6:00pm Dinnertime. Check sugar. Count carbs and all that jazz. Give shot. You get the drill....

8:00pm Bedtime shot. He'll also check his sugar at bedtime. Matthew must be at least 100 to go to bed. If not, he needs to eat about 15g of carbs.

10:30pm/11:00pm Kevin and I check Matthew's sugar right before we go to bed. He rarely wakes up.

3:00am We check Matthew's sugar again to make sure he's not dropping. Some nights, we'll check him a couple of times. If he is going low, we give him some juice. Believe it or not, sometimes he sleeps right through it. Other times he will fight us and not want to drink. I won't lie to you. This is tough on both me and Kevin. But diabetes doesn't end just because Matthew is sleeping. We still have to check.

Throughout the day, I'm frequently checking over his logbook. I log every single carb that Matthew eats, along with the amount of insulin given. I journal it all and look for patterns. Should I have given more insulin? Was it too much? Should I have given it sooner? Did a particular food make him go high? Or low? The questions are never-ending.

This is a typical day, but of course, some days are different. If Matthew has soccer, we test at least 2 extra times. On other days, there are different activites, like BSF and the schedule changes.

One things that never changes....he gets at least 4-5 shots every day and he checks his sugar about 9-12 times each day.

Here's a little video of how many needles we've used in just 2 short months. Believe it or not, at this point Matthew has had over 250 shots. He asked me yesterday how many shots I've had in my life. I guessed many....25....30....I don't know. I'd give anything to trade places with him.