Friday, June 1, 2012

Angels and alarm clocks

"Mom, I am going out on bike for a bit!"

"Did you test?"

"Did I test? Mom, would I engage in strenuous physical activity without first testing my blood sugar levels? Of course I tested!"

Insert eye roll! "Yes you would!" I yelled to him as he headed out the door. I do have to admit however, that he is improving. He still forgets to test. He still is not keen on testing or showing his pump in public but he is getting better.

When he goes out, I still have moments of panic.  Will he deal with a low when he is with his friends or will he find himself in trouble? Did he remember all of his supplies? Are his pockets filled with glucose? Does he have his phone? The moments of panic are fading a little more quickly. I am starting to have a bit of confidence in his abilities but I am sure that I will never be 100% free of worry.

My son returned to the house after an hour, full of sweat and ready to jump in the shower. "Don't forget to test!" I reminded him. It was his turn to give me the eye roll!

That night I went through his meter. I had been slack in checking but all had seemed good. I knew that with increased summer activity problems were soon going to arise but once again I debated...lower the night time basal and risk him going high or let it ride? He hadn't been that active...or so I thought. Perhaps the day of studying and being a lump would offset the activity in the evening and he would be good to go. I left things alone reminding him to test before he went to bed.  His meter had shown that he was staying up a lot later than normal and was testing before he went to sleep so he should have had a good gauge of his night reading before he pulled up the sheets.

I went to bed, resetting my internal alarm clock to a little later than normal.  It didn't work. I woke up at 1.  My son was still up. He had tested and was 6.8(120ish).  Why is it that you always assume that they will drop during the night? I liked 6.8. It was a nice reading but I didn't trust it. He was going to drop. I reset my internal alarm until 3 or 4am and back to sleep I went. On cue, I was awake by 4.  On cue, he was 4.1(74). I gave him a large glass of apple juice and crawled back into my bed for 15 minutes.  A retest revealed....that his blood glucose level had not moved. CRAP and thank goodness I woke up! More juice, more waiting and finally, close to 6am, he was back in range. I drifted back to sleep with plans of changing his basal rates in the morning.

I hate diabetes but once again, I am so grateful that I have those guardian angels that wake me up before we reach extreme lows.

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