Submitted by Tiburon from Shark Bait. Click here to read more of her great parenting stories.
People ask me all the time what the most difficult thing is about having a child with diabetes. That is an easy one - LOWS (or low blood sugar).
The lows are difficult and scary and unpredictable. They can strike at any time. Day or night. They can come on very quickly and without warning. You could check blood sugar right before bed and have the exact same number 2 nights in row - and one morning they will wake up totally fine and the next morning they can wake up low.
I should have known something was up this morning. Alarm bells should have gone off when I came downstairs and saw the basement door open and an empty Gogurt wrapper on the counter as I was walking out the door to the gym. I should have known it was from Ethan. I should have put two and two together. He was obviously low in the middle of the night and had a snack. Which meant he would probably be low this morning.
Instead, I was basking in the fact that he was sleeping in. And nobody was screaming and fighting. All the while his blood sugar was tanking downstairs - just a few feet away. By the time I woke him up he was nearly unresponsive. He was combative. He was mean. He was nasty. He was lethargic. He was slurring his speech. He was
47 isn’t even really that low for him. But it is low enough. He has been in the 20’s before. When he is in the 20’s he passes out. He can have a seizure. He usually blacks out and doesn’t remember anything. I am pretty sure he was on the verge of a blackout this morning. He doesn’t remember me waking him up - he doesn’t recall how he got upstairs - he doesn’t remember checking his sugar or picking out breakfast.
But I remember. And it is a sick feeling. And it sucks. And it is the number one reason they need to find a cure.
Type 1, right?
I have a child with type 1. Middle of the night checks are SO important.
If you haven’t checked out http://www.childrenwithdiabetes.com/ may I suggest you do??
SO much can be learned there!