"Mommy, I Feel Low"

I should have figured...

Yesterday was a great day, with unusually great blood sugar numbers....despite disconnecting from her pump for a few hours while she played in the water. So last night when Charlotte asked for a piece of cake for dessert, I gladly obliged and simply bolused accordingly. An hour or so later as I was telling her it was time to get changed for bed, Charlotte uttered the dreaded words, "Mommy, I feel low". I asked her to grab her meter so we could check her sugar...she obliged and quickly brought it to me.

Shunk! 5,4,3,2,1...48 

Crap! As if the number wasn't bad enough in and of itself, I knew it hadn't been that long since she had eaten her cake and been bolused for it...she still had a good bit of insulin on board! I grabbed her a juice box and she quickly gulped it down. I let her hang out for a few minutes so I could keep my eye on her and make sure she was coming back up. And then just as I was getting ready to ask her if she was starting to feel a little better, she looked at me and said "I feel tingly all over"...I could read the worry in her eyes. She's had bad lows before, but she's never mentioned feeling tingly or looked worried like that. With that look and those words, panic set in. Knowing she was already really low and had insulin on board, I was afraid things were heading south quickly. I was afraid....afraid that she was about to have a seizure or pass out...or worse! I offered her a 2nd juice box, but she refused. I told her she had to have something else now...she opted for a squeezable applesauce pouch. I brought her to my bed where she sucked down the applesauce. There was no way that I was letting her out of my sight. We snuggled together as I waited for the time to pass to re-check her sugar. As we talked she told me that she'd never felt tingly before and that it scared her a little...and she also told me, "when I'm really, really low I feel like I don't know where I am" and that being disoriented like that makes her feel scared. She usually doesn't like to talk much about how her diabetes makes her feel (emotionally)...so hearing her share these thoughts and feelings tugged hard on my heart. I wanted to take her fear and sadness away! We snuggled some more and I told her that we are doing everything we can to help protect her from those kinds of lows. (Side note: we were taking a break from her Dexcom since we've had issues with losing her sensor sites when she goes swimming...Dexie is going back on this afternoon). Charlotte seemed somewhat reassured by my words. Fifteen minutes passed and we rechecked. 

Shunk....5,4,3,2,1...89

Better. But still not where I wanted her to be. Over the next two hours, I continued to check and her blood sugar continued to slowly rise. I could see her starting to feel better and she seemed reassured as she saw the better numbers pop up with the subsequent checks. Her worry gradually washed away and she drifted peacefully off to sleep. I stayed up a while longer watching and listening to her breathe...and to check just a few more times.