Our lowest of the low happened a few weeks ago I believed. We had just finished eating a pasta dinner, linguine to be exact and I in my ultimate wisdom had just finished injecting Cara with the precise amount of insulin to correct her high blood sugar that she had before dinner as well as to cover the huge amount of carbs that she was eating for dinner.
Thinking that all was dandy I let the girls (Kylie, Cara and Kirstin) play tag throughout the house, while Connor and myself cleaned the back room. When right in the middle of Cara tagging Kylie, Cara stopped, looked at me and stared walking in my direction with a very confused look on her face. In a very quiet voice she said "mom I'm hungry". Immediately my diabetes radar went off, "I'm hungry" is the low blood sugar cue that Cara gives me when she is low. So I immediately walked past Cara and into the Kitchen to get her meter to see what was going on with her. In the back of my head I could hear thump, Ah, heavy step, heavy step, thump, thump, thump. As I turned around to look for Cara I realized that she was not right behind me as she always is when we go get her meter and that was the moment that the thump, Ah, heavy step, heavy step, thump, thump, thump registered.
CRAP.....Cara was unable to walk, she was only able to take 2 steps and she would fall down to the ground. My heart started pounding as I pick my baby off the floor and carried her to her meter. I brought her to the dinning room table and took her blood sugar...... 2.3 our lowest of our low. My heart dropped and my hands started shacking I grab her the closest thing that was available a nice tall glass of apple juice. As I handed her the glass she looked at me and said "that is not my cup" grrrrr of course..... she can't walk but she is concerned about drinking out of the "wrong" glass. I ran and grab and new cup and poured some juice and she drank the whole thing down. I carried her to the couch and sat her down and gave her some dry cereal (the kids favorite snack) As Cara's blood sugar rose I asked her how did she feel? she told me that she was really dizzy and her legs hurt and it was hard to walk.
The thing that just brakes my heart about this disease is that I caused this low drop in Cara's blood sugar, I gave her too much insulin, I was the reason she could not walk and I think that is the main reason why diabetic parents can never rest....sometimes WE make mistakes but when you make a mistake with a diabetic child it could be deadly!!
1st Side note, I HATE pasta dinners!! First for some unknown reason to me they (the pasta company) gives nutritional information for DRY pasta. WHO EATS DRY PASTA???? Second pasta causes havoc on blood sugar. So why do I make pasta dinners? because it is fast, it feeds the whole family and it is easy!!
2nd side note, so sorry that it has been so long since my last post, we all are doing great but we have just been very very busy. Unfortunately I have just have not been able to get "my" time lately which includes blogging and facebook. I will be catching up with all of your blogs very very soon and I miss you all. I hope you all have had wonderful numbers and great health xoxox but knowing type 1 diabetes I'm sure I will be reading a lot of crazy stories!!
8 comments:
It's scary as hell. We've been on the high side and trying to wrangle Jonathan back in. I caught him at 4.0 tonight. Not 2.8 I know, but was heading in the wrong direction none the less.
We can only do what we're trained to do and what we learn about our children as we go along. Cara is lucky to have such a great mom that can, in the scariest of situations, react quickly and appropriately. Great job!
Hi im tracey, new to your blog! My son is a type 1 also, he is 4.
Sorry you both had to experience such a scary low!
It totally does your head in when their levels are all over the place!
and yes, I hear you on the pasta thing!! Grrr ... nightmare trying to count it etc!!
Hi Nicole,
My name is Connie, I am new to blogging but not new to diabetes. I have two young daughters ages 2 and 4 years old. Both of my girls were diagnosed with type 1 diabetes 11 months apart. It has been a crazy, scary, emotional journey so far...we are almost 2 years into living with this disease.
Reading this story brought back a horrible memory that I have of my daughter Miss E, she had a similar situation happen to her when she was 3 years old and it scared the heck out of me. I remember her stopping in her tracks and telling me that she felt all wobbly, the next thing I knew she had fallen on her bottom and all of the color was drained from her little face. My hands were shaking so bad I could hardly test her blood sugar! I know how you must have felt when Cara had that low...just reading your story right now caused my heart to start racing, and brought back that feeling of anxiety.
I am so glad that she is okay. Pasta can be so tricky sometimes! I recently had a horrible episode with my two year old and some popcorn :( Hers wasn't a low, it was a terrible high...and I felt so guilty. I think as moms we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to always get it right...with type 1 diabetes that is very hard to do.
Sorry for the REALLY long comment :) Your story really hit close to home for me.
I am soooo sorry! Those blasted lows are the worst. And even though I know we shouldn't feel bad or guilty (obviously we are doing the best we can with the information we have) I still do! It is so hard to see them struggling and feeling bad. Hugs to you and to sweet Cara!
I clicked on your blog and I was all spaced out for a second...like I was lost. "Where am I?" I said. I know you changed your blog, (which I LOVE) but I completely forgot that you had, and it has been awhile since I've been here!
So glad you posted an update. Your story hit home my dear. A lot of guilt for our mistakes for sure. A lot on our shoulders! Too bad we aren't REAL pancreas'. Just plain ol human. You are doing a great job! ((HUGS))
Hi Nicole!
Good to hear from you...so sorry that it was a "record low" though. It is so easy to blame ourselves for these CRAZY numbers...you are doing a great job taking care of Cara.
The pasta thing has started throwing us for a loop as well...immediate lows with highs a few hours down the road...I have been playing with combo boluses. It is crazy because I only feed Joe like 1/2 a cup anyways...and still wild blood sugar swings.
I like the part about the "cup"...I could see Joe doing that too, especially when low.
Take Care!
This is very familiar to me. Our lowest low was after eating pasta at a restaurant. The experience included Caleb telling me he couldn't see very well and felt like he was going to die.
I completely and totally and utterly relate to how you feel that you are to blame. I feel the same way. However, I will tell you what I force myself to remember, that this is NOT our fault at all. It is not our fault that our children have diabetes. Our children have broken pancreas' and we are doing all we can to act as an artificial one for them. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Regardless, it's not our fault, even when our judgments are off the mark. It is the fault of diabetes. Sometimes I sit back and think about the complexity of it all and am amazed that we get it "right" as often as we do.
On another note - do you have Dreamfields in your area? I have found it much, much easier to manage, although I know everyone reacts differently to foods.
Oh wow!!! How horrible scary! I've had a low with Tristan once where he was falling over also... like he kept tripping on his feet. It's very scary.
Fortunately for us pasta doesn't seem to be much of an issue. He had some spaghetti last night.... a few hours later at bedtime he was a beautiful 110..... I know we are lucky! ;) What works for us is a salter scale. I cook the spaghetti, weight it on the plate with sauce, push in the right code and get the carbs. It also works really well for pizza.... but don't give Tristan Poptarts! LOL :)
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