Good morning Sally, please find my thoughts in line to yours below in bold 🙌
On Aug 13, 2018, at 6:47 PM,
Hi Cliff - responding to you alone because I need to get some direction for helping Sarah through some challenges. Some background is that as she has seen how good “good” can be, she’s lost tolerance for days that aren’t good….I think dance is a very challenging part of any girls life, similar to doing the impossible I too felt this challenge growing up. Competing in Triathlons, the failures at races due to diabetes only made me push myself deeper at times. The key is striking a balance within the extreme….. On top of that she has put a ton of work into her food management and planning - take a look at MyFitness Pal if you haven’t recently…..this longer term will not be sustainable and she will get a handle on things without it.. She is at her weight goal and feels really good about that accomplishment, and she is ready to start shifting into maintenance mode so that she feels more satisfied with her calorie intake……the is HUGE. Setting out to hit something and doing it will only empower her… New goals must be created and forged……I will tell you that what she has accomplished is no small feat….. This summer has been so full of travel and her ability to stick with a schedule has been a source of frustration because of the impact on BG..this is normal. Kaitlyn is doing her best and life gets in the way of perfect blood sugar - though we must let it so we can “live”! …….. After two weeks of back to back travel, last week she had a dance intensive from 9-2:30 five straight days. Despite a significant step up in activity, she really saw very little BG benefit, which sparked confusion and stress…..understood. Kaitlyn operates on a low amount of insulin and small changes are needed ongoing to direct things. …... She works out every day to varying degrees but is just not able to get herself back on track. You know how this goes - it’s a vicious cycle…..I do. The only saving grace is that “day to day” life in the future whatever career Kaitlyn chooses to do which is less extreme she will be able to navigate MUCH more easily. The dance extreme is more challenging. I do believe its worth it in the end as it will give her a sense of accomplishment - deeper control of diabetes and makes her happy….. - the higher the daily dose, the more stressed she is over taking extra insulin, and the more stress there is the more she will require. She also did so much work to lay out pre-constructed meals so that she didn’t have to allocate so much time or thought to food, but she is spending more time than ever on it as she tries to figure out what we could be doing wrong…..perhaps a “go bag” of things would be helpful of non perishable items that does not take quite as long of a time to prepare. She is getting her routine down and will get better in the future as long as the prep does not take as long this will reduce stress…. This entire system I have put in place for you and Sarah takes time to learn the rules and you understand them quite well. The key now is to make it more easy and sustainable. Add to this all the college work and you have one tightly wound teenage girl. …right, being a kid is important! ….Sarah needs to have one cheat day every 7-10 days. This will hit a reset button that is critical mentally. This could mean a cheat sack / food or not counting carbs/calories for a day. A real mental breather…..We’re not having a good time right now. Not sure what to do the get back on track. …hope this helps shed some light and know that diabetes is tough, there will be bad days, we just want 90% of them to be good so we can get back to life ; ). ~Cliff
Sally