7 units (making a droplet about the size of Abraham Lincoln's head on a penny) is currently the total amount of insulin Josie needs to stay alive over the course of 24 hours. This is what her pancreas (before her very own body starting attacking it for unknown reasons) would have put out, as needed, all on its own- with no thought from anyone else. Now, in order for our little girl to survive, it has become my job, using my own brain (along with some mathematical formulas given by her doctor) to decide exactly how this tiny amount gets distributed into her body throughout the day. She needs some of it, given in 1/20th of a unit increments (or that drop divided 140 times!) injected under her skin every few minutes with an insulin pump. The rest is divided up and given by me (either with a shot or through her pump) with each meal and whenever her blood sugar is too high. I have to decide how much to give, each time, based on what she eats, her past and predicted activity levels, whether she's sick, going through a growth spurt, or is even just stressed or excited at that moment. If I'm wrong, she can experience very dangerous low or high blood sugars. We have to prick her fingers and test her blood every few hours to try and catch these. 7 units of insulin, just a tiny droplet on a penny, is life saving to our little girl. However, if this tiny droplet were unknowingly injected into her all at once, she would die within a few hours of a severe low blood sugar. If it were withheld from her body for 24 hours, her body would become so toxic with ketones that she also would not survive. She depends on me to get it right for her. This is the balancing act we face, each and every day, for the life of our four year old daughter.
