Sick of Juice?

When Betsey was first diagnosed with diabetes, she was under the false assumption that she could have sweets, as much as she wanted, especially soda, diet, because she could just give insulin and everything would be OK. During her hospital stay, there was an abundance of diet ginger ale and diet coca cola, beverages we never have at home. David felt sad, guilty, overwhelmed, helpless, depressed, anxious - pick an adjective - and he allowed her to consume an awful lot of soda when I was not there.

The assumption grew more so when she got the pump. Sneaking little bits of food here and there, bolusing for it through her pump to cover the carbs, and she thought everything was good. But that's not the case. Just because she can give insulin to cover whatever she eats doesn't mean she can eat what she wants, when she wants.

Juice was in the same category as soda. We never had juice in our house, except for orange juice to go with breakfast daily. Juice boxes were always a treat at birthday parties or as a sweet drink in summer. Now with diabetes, juice is like medicine for Betsey. We have stashes of the stuff; Juicy Juice, Minute Maid, Capri Sun, Motts, Apple & Eve.... we rotate them and keep several kinds "in stock." We have a special spot for the juice boxes, a place where any of the little people in the house can have them readily available in the instance someone needs to get one to Betsey because she feels too weak to get one herself.

Even all of our friends' little people know where the stash is and who it is for. Some of the younger littles will still ask when they're over, "Juice box?" to which I always reply, "Those are for Betsey." And they know it's for Betsey. I think they think one day I'll just let them. It's too tempting for them to see this array of colorful fruit juice boxes neatly lined up and right at their eye level, begging them to grab one. Like those candy bins in the grocery store, where you lift the cover to use the scooper to grab a sizable amount and fill a plastic baggie--those beg for you to lift the lid and grab just one.

Last night I heard Betsey's sensor alarm on her pump going off. Waaaawooowaaawooooooo. I went in to test her. It was about 11:30pm. Low. 57. She was a little restless so she must have felt the low but the overwhelming need for sleep at that hour was winning and allowing her to partially sleep. I grabbed 2 sugar tabs from her DB and put one in her mouth and when she finished it, stuck the other one in her mouth, made sure she chewed and swallowed, put on a temporary rate for an hour to allow her blood sugar to rise a bit.

Around 1:30am I heard the alarm again, and it's vibrating too, so it must have been going off for a few minutes. Low again. 65. Going back through her sensor on the pump I noticed that she came up to around 80 after the sugar tabs earlier, but never fully recovered and dipped low again shortly after. She was mumbling nonsense and was quite restless. I decided to get her a juice this time; easier to get down at that hour. Usually we have a small stash upstairs for cases like this, but the supply was all downstairs.

I grabbed one. Didn't look at the flavor.

I jostled Betsey to have her sit up and drink the juice. She didn't want it. She was ornery. This low blood sugar thing while she's sleeping is not what she wanted to deal with at this hour. I got her to take a few sips, and she tried to just lay down. She had to have the juice at this point-- it's medicine to "make it better." I had to really try and wake her, more than I usually do, and she got combative. She swung her arms, flailed about... She complained she didn't like juice. Not that flavor. Didn't want it.

I ran down to grab another one. Different kind, different flavor.

She barely drank another half, but I figured half from one, half from another, that would be fine. I put another temporary rate on her pump to slow down insulin delivery through the morning so she could rest easier. 15 minutes later her blood sugar had come up and she was sleeping soundly.

She is sick of juice. What?

Who gets sick of juice? What kid? A diabetic kid.

Juice is no longer a treat. Sugar tabs, which taste better than a sweet tart, are not a treat. They're not even "good" anymore. We've tried all the flavors, have tried many juices, even resorted to smarties or other hard candies to teat a low. Doesn't matter what it is. It all gets old and it's all sugary sweet and tastes the same after a while.

And we're only 4 years in.....