Numbers In My Head

I’ve never been good with numbers. Edit that: I’ve never been good at memorizing numbers; handling numbers I’m great at, a knack which naturally lent itself to my BC livelihood as a bookkeeper. But, I have a total numeric memory capacity of exactly two telephone numbers. Three if it is absolutely essential. Papa Bear, on the other hand, has a virtual rol-o-dex in his head. It’s bloody amazing how many phone numbers he can remember.

So, I’m standing there in the endocrinologist’s office, doing T-Bear’s intake (height, weight, blood pressure, etc.), and the intake nurse is asking me all of these questions relating to numbers. What is his insulin-to-carb ratio at each meal? What time is each meal, and how many carbs is he eating per meal? What is his sliding scale correction ratio, both daytime and bedtime? What have been his average low and high since his last checkup? And, I’m supposed to rattle all of this off, right off the top of my head, like I can remember this stuff.

The funny thing is, I did remember it. Sure, I’ve got my cheat-sheet with complete hour-by-hour directions for T-Bear’s care and feeding taped to the fridge and in his camy kit, which I refer to as I’m going about testing, feeding and dosing. But, actually, when it came right down to it, I was able to rattle off all the right answers off the top of my head. Go figure. I guess repetition is the mother of memorization.

Now, the really good news is, T-Bear’s numbers have been really good the past week or so. He’s put on seven pounds since his last check, and he’s back up to his normal fightin’ weight. With much tweeking and adjusting, the ped endo nurses and I seem to have zoned in on the perfect combination of unsulin, carbs, timing, etc., even though we’ve kind of ditched the nutritionist’s eating plan and settled back into a more natural eating plan for T-Bear. Here is what T-Bear’s magic numbers look like:

Carb Grams per Meal: Breakfast 30-45, Lunch 45, Snack 30, Dinner 30, Bedtime 30
Unsulin-to-Carb Ratios: Breakfast 1:15, Lunch 1:12, Dinner 1:12, Bedtime 1:30
Sliding Scale Correction over 150: (BG-100)/50; Bedtime= (BG-100)/100
Lantus 10 units daily

So, there you have it. Diabetic health by the numbers.