I think for any parent, the thought of going to a birthday party brings mixed emotions. As a parent, you realize that there really isn't any GOOD time of day to have a party. What do you do?!
We had a birthday party on Sunday for a friend of Ellee's. She was so excited to see her friend (after not seeing her for about a year) AND she was excited to go bowling (a new found love)! The party was from 3-5:30, a really odd time to adjust for eating schedules, especially since we usually don't eat dinner till 6. It's funny because I had read about other T1 families talk about how much they eat in terms of how many units of insulin you need... and I'm realizing how true it is!! I gave El 3 1/2 units at the end of the party... about 100 carbs of food! Her usual shots of Humalog at a meal are 1-2 units, occasionally she'll be a little piggy and eat 3 bowls of cereal and get 3 units at breakfast. But for her to eat 100 carbs in the afternoon is VERY unusual!
Another thing that makes a non-pumping T1 mom cringe when it comes to birthday parties is that everything is so spread out. When we went for El's last check up with the Endo, her A1C was higher than desired. While we were keeping her numbers in a good range, we were waiting too long after she got done eating to give her a shot and the Endo made it very clear that we should give it to her a lot sooner. In essence we were "chasing" her BS levels. While the end result is the same, her A1C will be higher because of the higher level of BS until the insulin kicks in and starts bringing it down. Yesterday (like most birthday parties), it was close to 2 hours from the time Ellee started eating till I was able to give her a shot. She started with a couple chocolate covered pretzel sticks, then the pizza came and she had two pieces... then waiting. Ellee was anxious to have cake and ice cream and I was anxious because I wanted her to finish eating so that I could dose her. I hate to guess how much she would eat because it would be my luck that she wouldn't eat it all and we risk going into a Hypo because I gave her too much insulin. So, I opted for the chance of a higher A1C and waited to see what she actually ate. Good thing I did because she didn't finish all her ice cream.
Another dread about birthday parties for T1 parents... the goody bags they take home. Okay, so this is a dread for any parent, especially when you get the noise maker toys like the "hand clappers" that was in El's bag! We got to hear that for half the car ride home. =( The other dread is the candy that is in there. Kids love it, parents hate it. Parents especially hate it when you've dosed your kid for all the carbs you plan on them eating for 3-4 hours.
Oh well... life goes on! Hopefully good control all the other times will make up for what seemed like a long afternoon! *sigh* Yet another advantage of using an insulin pump. We will definately be checking into this in a few years!
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