As the alarm clock went off at 6:30 yesterday morning, my whole body felt trashed and really wanted and needed to sleep. I had ridden the bike for 1.5 hours the night before and had just crashed as soon as my head hit the pillow. My wife had gotten up at around 1:30 am to check Adele's sugar. This always wakes me up. She tells me where Adele's blood sugar is at. Since I'm the one tasked with doing the last check at night before I go to bed she consults with me to see if we need to give Adele insulin to correct a rising blood sugar or if she needs to eat to avoid or correct a low. She was 5.1 (92) coming down from 6.9 (124) when I went to bed. I told my wife to set a temp basal on Adele's pump stopping her basal insulin delivery for 1 hour (the pump automatically starts injecting insulin again after the hour has expired). My wife then asked me if she should also eat a bit and I said no. I was very tired and just wanted to sleep. She should be okay. But then in my tired, half-asleep stupor, I started second-guessing myself. Will no basal for 1 hour be enough to avoid going low? She doesn't have her Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) on so there are no alarms that will go off if she does go low.
The next thing that I remember is the alarm going off again. It was morning. The absolute first thing that came to my mind was Adele's blood sugar. Was she low? Was the diminished amount of insulin at 1:30 am enough to have avoided her to go low? Her basal is much higher prior to waking up to avoid the typical morning blood glucose rise (dawn phenomenon), if she was already lowish, was she now dangerously low? I listened, but couldn't hear her moving around in her bed. Half asleep, I found myself doing lots of math in my mind trying to convince myself that she was okay. My brain was telling me to get up and test, but my body was just laying there motionless. I was awake, but really still mostly asleep. After hitting the snooze button a few times I finally threw myself out of bed and headed directly to Adele's bedroom to check her blood sugar. She was 7.4 (133). My guesstimate last night was good...
For any non-gamers out there, you might think that this is an isolated incident. You may think that it's one of those nights that every parent goes through every once in a while like when their child is not feeling well with the flu and/or fever. For a Type 1 gamer, this is our reality pretty much each and every night.
7 comments:
You took the words right out of my mouth or my blog post I should say. I'm working on one about all the worrying and second guessing that goes into T1 parenting! WOW it really is funny how we are ALL going through these same things!
Great night time math thinking!!
AMEN!! I wish it was every once in a while. A good nights sleep would be welcomed for sure.
Glad it all worked out :)
wow i love the way you guys are tag teaming your daughters care that is great . Yeah a good nights sleep is awesome when you can get it . LOL !!
Before Lawton...my life was spent awake in bed second guessing every move. I know!! Did I feed to much, did I bolus too much...did I did I??? I used to have to talk myself down. "Meri, you have kept them alive this long, trust your judgement and go back to bed!" (That worked sometimes...but not enough.)
I usually do the night checks, my hubby has to get up at 4 in the morning usually, so I feel bad making him get up, especially because he usually can't get back to sleep. But the other night he checked them, and I didn't even wake up to the alarm! It was the best sleep I can remember having in forever.
I feel your pain Mike.
I can totally relate to this. I get alot of unsleep every night.
The brain...the brain keeps going and the sugars keep rising...every now and then D will throw us for a loophole. That's why we lay there spinning around and around.
Night after unsleepable night.
We can all relate, I think, Mike. I tell people that aren't raising a T1 child that it is like nighttime feedings, only my baby is fourteen years old.
The funny part is that even on nights when his numbers at midnight indicate that he will probably be fine until morning, I still wake up at around 3 am without an alarm ,and there is no way I can go back to sleep until I get up and test his blood.
My way of thinking is that it is a small price to pay, is sleep, for the health and safety of one I hold so dear. Like the song says, "I'll sleep when I'm dead".
Wow this sounds EXACTLY like us...every night. My hub does the pre-sleep check because I usually fall asleep before he does. He has been out of town all week and I forget how nice it is to have a helpful husband who takes his roll seriously and knows his stuff too. Anyway glad she was perfect! Good job!
Thanks for your comment on my blog too! I appreciate all the advice! I'm going to add Adele to my blog roll!
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