The Low Lows

Grace's sugar has been running low-like real low. Starting on Saturday we began to see number in the 60's, 50's, and even once in the 40's. We had had a super busy day. Grace and I went for a nice 2 mile bike ride, came home, and it was low. I figured it was from the activity and didn't give it much more thought. I gave Grace a juice box which typically brings her number back up quickly. It did and we moved on with our day.

We spent the afternoon at a friends' house and the kids were nuts swimming. Grace stopped for a snack so I checked her sugar and it was 56. Ugh. I gave another juice box and patted myself on the back for my wise investment at Costco of approximately 1 billion small juice boxes. Grace felt better and assumed her fish-like existence in the pool. About an hour later I noticed her sitting very still in the pool looking very, very washed out. I called her over and asked her to check her sugar (she usually insists on doing it herself). I kept staring at her thinking "My God she is grey." Then I saw her hands were shaking and she couldn't actually take her sugar. I finished for her and saw our lowest sugar to date: 44. That one sent me into a panic. You treat it the same way--a fast acting sugar like juice but jeesh-that was just too low. I've read that the scariest part of hypoglycemia is the confusion it creates. You would like someone in hypoglycemia might think, "Hmmm, I'm confused-I bet my sugar is low!" The confusion can actually lead to inaction because the person doesn't even remember they have diabetes and they need to act quickly. This is where diabetes gets scary and why you need to surround yourself with people who recognize the signs of trouble. Each time Grace's sugar came back up but it makes it hard to enjoy a pool, wine, and good company when all you do is stare at your child for the slightest sign of trouble.

I wrote the day off assuming what we saw was a function of lots of activity. But the lows have persisted. Not quite as low as Saturday but barely anything over 100. We decided today was the day to check in with the doctor. The doctor ran through the numbers and asked me what I thought was going on. He explained that sooner than we think, we will be making the call on insulin doses. That we will be the experts on Grace's diabetes and, believe it or not, we'll barely be speaking to him unless we need a script refilled. I said given how long the lows have been going on, maybe her lantus insulin was too high. Lantus is the bedtime insulin that regulates Grace's blood sugar for 24 hours. He concurred, felt this was the correct first step to take and said we'll talk in 2 days. So we are going to adjust the lantus down and see if that helps. While pleased that I *may* have figured out what's going on, this is nothing I ever wanted to be an expert in. As Grace once said to me, "Why couldn't you have been the helpful kind of doctor?" Seriously, kid.

I'm in a little bit of a panic over this with school around the corner. Grace doesn't always realize when her sugar is low. She has a new teacher this year and I'm not sure she will realize when Grace's sugar is low. I'm really hoping we can fix this thing before school starts. The last thing Grace needs is a rough start to school when the kid is already worked up about it as is. Hopefully, this adjustment will do the trick and we'll soon become those experts.