My daughter is brittle.  Diagnosed at age 3 but I am sure she had it since newborn, (she could not tolerate formula) has been on the pump and tryed every method to control her BS's.  She still has frequent bouts of Keacidosis and is hospitalized.  During the time she was on the pump, she was sick constantly.  Now she is on lantus and takes shots of humulog everytime she eats.  Stress can bring on a 600 easily.  So, yes, I think there are 'brittle' diabetics.  She is on 175 units of insulin a day and on sick days, 25 units every two hours.  She is 15.  I would like to someday see other diabetcis acknowledge there there are indeed some that are indeed brittle, rather than lay guilt and blame on them.  All it does is make them feel more hopeless. 

 

LostWoods

Hello,

 

I'm new in the group. I'm a brittle diabetic, and it was explained to me as, hard to control in other words your body has a mind of it's own. And most brittle diabetics are really skinny they have a very hard time gaining weight. I've been fighting with that for years. A year ago I was having problems with my pump the insullin was not getting into my body. I called minimed and they asked if I was a brittle diabetic, I asked why and the guy told me that because of me not haveing alot of meat around my stomach I was hitting something that was not suppose to be hit and that's why I was having so many problems. Just thought I wwould share.

 

autumnwolf1975

Sorry Brenda I'm with all the other "brittle" diabetics and have been for more than 17 years.  I don't consider "brittle" a negative term but use it to identify the constant ups and downs of blood sugars no matter how hard I work at it and I do work hard to keep it under control.  I've had more endocrinologists than I can count and that term was used in that particular field.  So Kimberly it depends on who you ask but I guess there's quite a few "brittle" diabetics out there.

Hi, my 7 year old has hard to control numbers...drives me nuts but seeing this made me feel better because it sort of gives it a rhyme and reason! Talk about guilt...being the parent of the diabetic is tough because if your child's numbers are high you get from people who know nothing about the disease, 'Why is she so high? Can't that be controlled?" etc....and before you know it your wondering if your doing an awful job and feel like a terrible mother/caretaker!

Lostwoods, I saw a couple of times that you wrote you were sure your daughter had this since she was a baby...I asked my endos at the Joslin Center if that were possible when my daughter was diagnosed at 4...could she have had this as a baby? They said absolutely not. That she couldn't have had it for more than a few months without it being diagnosed...you can't have it for years and not know it because you would go unconscious from the high blood sugar not being controlled..the most you can make it when it first kicks in is a few months without insulin before you would be DKA. So, your daughter didn't have diabetes until right around the time she was diagnosed. They say that you are born with a predisposition for it and actually programmed for it to kick in at a certain age but other things can influence when it kicks in, such as a virus...our children may have been genetically programmed to get it at like age 22 but maybe caught a bad cold which kicked the immune system into gear in a way that triggered it to attack the pancreas earlier than it was going to. But no, they didn't have it since babies...most likely not long at all before diagnosis. Hope this clarifies that for you......

Aria

Thank you Granny for your post.  For so long I blamed myself, even my daughter for not being able to control the diabetes.  It just made everything worse.  You hit it on the head Granny when you said blame and guilt go along with it and yes, my daughter even tryed concealing her less than good numbers as a result.  The latest in the blame game is one of her teachers this year acusing her (sarcasticlly) of not being able to control her diabetes, as if her lack of control is intentional.  This came after a bout of large ketones for a week following several hours of high stress which threw her off.  Yes, that is what I would call 'brittle'.  Basically, blame and denial accomplishes nothing.  She was able to acquire BS stability after many days and barely avoiding the emrgency room.  So for all you 'brittle' diabetics out there, keep with it.  You arent alone, and no, you arent to blame. 

 

Lostwoods

Brittle is an older term that was used to describe patients who had difficulty keeping their blood sugars at a consistent level even with routines that would suggest they should remain constant.  Although some doctors and publications suggest that there is no such thing, only 'non-compliance' and 'misunderstanding', that too is incorrect.  I believe the term used by doctors now is labile rather than brittle, but fundamentally, it means that blood sugar levels do not respond in a predictable manner even with customized treatment plans.  Insulin pumps may help address this, but truly labile patients find that even this is not a panacea, only a pancreas transplant will provide long-term stability.

The term "brittle" is not a type of Diabetes. I for many years was considered brittle. Not until I started going to an Educator did I understand that brittle meant that I was not managing my Diabetes.

Betty