Diabetes Blog Week... Day 1

In case you don't know... Karen organized this entire Diabetes blog week. Today's topic is "A day in the life . . . with diabetes". So here it is~ a day in the life with us...


Today is Monday morning. I am EXHAUSTED because I have not had a full nights sleep in over 7 months. Why? Well because my diabetic child tends to drop A LOT in the middle of the night. Were talking he could be 250 at bedtime and 60 at 1 am. This terrifies me. The many what ifs. What if he goes low and doesn't wake up? What if I sleep through my 1:00am alarm? What if I go in his room one morning and its too late?


On most nights I get lucky. Lucky is when I get to go to sleep at 1 am without setting my alarm to go off in another two hours. Last night was one of those unlucky nights... at 7:30 the night before his bg was 52. Justin was thrilled because he got ice cream... ice cream always raises his numbers- but not last night. An hour later at 8:30 he was 80. My heart sank because I knew what the night may have in store for me. So I treat again... this time with a nice size banana drizzled with sugar free Hershey's syrup and whip cream. Justin loves that!

The 1 am alarm rings... he's 72; after 8 oz of juice(18 carbs) I set my alarm for 3 am.
The alarm sounds again... the meter now reads 78. I decide that 4oz(9 carbs) of juice should be fine because at this point... he had his insulin more than 7 hours ago.

The alarm rings at 6 am. It is now time to start my day... I am standing in the kitchen trying to function. I start putting lunches and snacks together... 1/2 of peanut butter and jelly sandwich for his first snack... this must be clipped to his math folder so that he doesn't forget it when he leaves for AGP. Forgetting this would not be good... believe me... we know what happens when it is not eaten.


Then there is snack two... neatly packed in a hard container so it doesn't get crushed and zipped in the front pocket of his book bag so that his teacher can find it if Justin is not back to class before they leave for specials... he must eat this before any such P.E.- not doing so would not be good... believe me... we know!



At 6:20am I wake him up. He is not thrilled because he too has been disturbed multiple times over low bg and he has not had a good nights rest in a few days either. That is not how it should be for my 9 year old growing boy.



He still drags himself out of bed and slithers to the kitchen... all this to poke his finger and check his bg for the 3rd time this morning (because 1 am and 3 am wasn't enough).
You would think that after all that juice his bg would be high... NOT.SO.MUCH! It rings in at a low 51. There goes the what ifs... What if I didn't give him any juice at 3 am?

He has to decide what he wants for breakfast so that I know how much insulin to give him.

All this before 6:30am.

By 7:10 am we are piled in the car and on our way to school/work. You see, I had to go back to work this year because the cost of medications and the hidden expense at the grocery store caused by Diabetes have been making things a bit tough at our house. I decided to substitute teach because I needed the flexibility for doctors appointments, school field trips, to make sure I was available when changes needed to be made and also to make sure I would be home for him in the afternoon. At this point his care is out of my hands. I have entrusted my child's life in the hands of his teachers and a wonderful school nurse for the next eight hours. Do I worry? Sure I do. But we must move forward and trust that he will remain safe.

Justin has to check his bg two times while at school. We catch several lows that way... even after snacks.

Let's jump ahead... It is now 4:00. The kids have convinced me to take them to the pool. Before we can leave we must check bg level. It's 105. Good, but not going swimming good. Justin eats 2 cookies (18 carbs)... not that he minds :) and we head out.

An hour later he is getting cranky. Everyone around me is thinking he's a total B.R.A.T.
But I know better. I know what's going on. D is lurking.

Once again we check... 50. He eats a couple glucose tabs and we start to gather our things to head home. It's almost time for dinner anyways.

Dinner has passed and Justin is in the shower. He told me he wants to go to bed early because he's tired. I know he is. I wish I didn't have to wake him up two times last night. But that's the nature of the beast. The beast we live our lives with everyday.

Justin will check his bg at least one more time tonight. With any luck... We will get "lucky" and at 1am... We will BOTH get to sleep.


Because tomorrow... we get to do it all over again.