While the family and I are still new to this whole diabetes thing, we've already had plenty of face time with something we call 'stubborn lows'. This is a low blood sugar drop (say, 35-45 range) that for some reason - no matter how much sugar or how many carbs we throw at it, doesn't seem to want to leave.
Last night after what I thought was a pretty standard measurement for home made chili (ie: mostly beans, and some meat) - I gave Sierra her dose of insulin and left her home with Frank so I could go teach my kickboxing class. No problem. After class I peaked at my phone before cleaning up and had a text that said she was 39. Whaaaat? Ok - so this is probably my fault. I probably over-estimated the amount of beans in her near-cup serving, and maybe over guessed her insulin amount. Granted, I went on the cautious side and even included a few strawberries 'just in case', but apparently that plus a minor correction (additional insulin we add to her meal shots if she's over 150, basically) was too much for her yesterday.
By the time I was home 20 minutes after said text message, she'd had 4oz of juice (normally this alone would boost her to at least 80-110) and a 14g (carbs!) sugar free chocolate pudding snack pack. The test results? 53. Really? REALLY? It's 8pm here, by the way, and no only is my child jacked up on sugar from juice she rarely gets, she's also low, and that is a big process in and of itself.
Based on a few past scenarios, we didn't want to shove TOO much at the problem - when we've done that and for some reason it's taking longer for her body to absorb the carbs we're throwing at her, when we do our 2am finger poke she's always skyrocketed above 200. So we were cautious, but nervous. We gave her 9 teddy grahams (is it funny we literally count every cookie now?) and a few ounces of milk just in case.
Bed time verdict (45 minutes later!)? 91. We do NOT like putting her to bed under 100, but we also don't like waking her up to a 200+, either. What to do, what to do? These are the games diabetes can play, and they're so frustrating, confusing and leave you feeling somewhat helpless to 'fix' the situation.
We went ahead on our gut that between the 50-some-odd carbs she'd gotten to try and bring her up she was bound to be high by 2am, and put her to bed (finally) at 9 - but she was still pretty wound up. She was out by 10. Whew.
Max was kind enough to decide last night was a good time to wake up at 11 and need some rocking to fall back asleep (cold?), so that was cool. I didn't need sleep anyway. Why would I need sleep.
At 2am the alarm goes off, I drag my sorry butt into her room where our usual game of her whining about not wanting to do a poke and my grumbling response of 'I know, ok let's do it hurry up I'm tired and cold and you need to go back to sleep' takes place. If you hadn't noticed, while I feel really bummed for my kid - I also have a pretty hard stance about the fact that it is what it is, and we just need to do what we need to do and that's that. Makes it sound simple, and that's not to say I don't have plenty of "why us, this sucks, I hate this for her, I hate this for me, I hate this for our family" moments - generally it just is what it is. I have to do this, she has to do this, so the less whining and the more adapting the better if you ask me. It's not like we have an option, so let's suck it up and do what needs to be done.
(Geez, I'm kind of a hardass huh? She IS only almost 4... still, I know how quickly kids can adapt, and I know this is no fun - but I know she can do it. So I try to remain somewhat stoic during the night episodes, the last thing I need is an hour of coddling and letting her know I think it's a big pile of poo that she got dealt this crappy hand in life at 2am, we can commiserate about it sucking another time - like daylight.)
Anyway, sorry, long story short - she was 76. MF'er. Really? REALLY? After that many carbs? Come on! Stubborn, f'ing, lows! So then I get to wake my whiny toddler up further, by shoving a juice box in her face and having her chug it down. Normally, technically, we 'should' wait 15 minutes and test her again, but I knew cooperation wasn't going to flow, and I knew that the juice would hold her until morning. At least I was pretty sure it was.
Thankfully, this time I was right. She woke up at 180. Guess the juice worked better at 2am than it did at 7pm. No idea why, but that's diabetes.
In October of 2011, our 3 year old daughter Sierra was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes and spent three nights at the local PICU. These are our stories, experiences, and our life as a family of four moving forward.
That is one of the things that I find so frustrating about D. When we are fighting those stubborn lows, she will inevitably be high later, but I can't just wait it out...I have to give her the carbs! One thing I've learned is not to give her anything with protein or fat in it until she has come up from the low. It takes longer to break down and get into her blood stream, and then it can "stand in the way" of the other pure sugar that I'm pouring down her throat. So, for us, it usually works best to give her the juice (or other pure sugar!) and then when she gets above 80, give her the protein/fat food.
ReplyDeleteHope you can catch up on some sleep today!
Been there, done that! Especially in the honeymoon stage when the pancreas starts randomly throwing out insulin. It's totally irritating! :) I was almost relieved when Adam's pancreas crapped out totally! And as far as the waking up in the middle of the night...I promise there will come a time when she will sleep right through it. I was so amazed when I'd read that kid wouldn't even wake up, but sure enough, Adam does now too. I sneak in, sneak out...no drama! I've even given him shots without him noticing.
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