So yesterday we had a scary incident with a very low blood sugar with Max. These "lows" just pop out of the blue sometimes, with no explanation for it.
I had bought a new meter that was very cost effective--the test strips being only $10 for a quanity of 50, which is great! But the meter kept malfunctioning off and on, basically not reading his blood or saying it couldn't get a reading. This would happen off and on, and because I just bought the meter, I didn't want to give up on it yet, thinking perhaps we just hadn't figured out all it's little quirks. Plus, like I said, it was really great for saving money.
But then last night as we were doing Family Movie night, we gave Max his bolus for supper (bolus meaning covering the carbs he's going to eat with insulin) and almost immediately he became weak, flushed and nauseaus. We had just checked his blood sugar and for once the meter was working--it said his blood sugar was 103 which is a good reading. His blood sugar had been good and steady all day, so the reading made sense to me, but the symptoms that he was having did not.
He also was not doing his usual shaking that he normally does, so I wrote off a possible low blood sugar off the list.
But he was getting worse, more flushed, sweaty, saying he was going to throw up. We encouraged him to eat his pizza since we had given him his insulin, and he forced himself to eat even though he felt like it was going to come up.
When he had to lay down and couldn't find the strength to sit up, I became more worried. Despite the fact that the meter said his blood sugar was normal, his symptoms were alot like that day in the doctors office when he dropped to 53. I contacted my support group on FB and let them know Max's symptoms and immediately replies came pouring in saying it was all signs of low blood sugar and I should give him a snack.
I wrote back saying that the meter said his BS was only 103 and that he wasn't shaking. But I gave him a cheese stick with fruit snacks anyway.
He began to do a little better but despite this, the moms in the group encouraged me to recheck his blood sugar anyway. I rechecked--this time using our old meter that has been more trustworthy and was shocked to see that it was 73!!
Ok, 73 in itself is not really a scary number--it is low and should be treated, but not an emergency low. But the shock came from thinking the other meter had given us a good reading only five minutes before. If he was 73 now when he was doing better and feeling better--then what was he when he was nearly passing out??? I will never know, because of that stupid meter, but because his symptoms were so extreme, his numbers may have been in the 40s or even 30s.
As dumb as it sounds, I felt cheated and lied to with that other meter. You learn to depend on these things and trust them--you are literally trusting your child's life in technology, which is a little scary when you think of it, because technology can always fail you. But we've become so dependent on technology and it's sophistication, that it's hard not to.
Anyway, I wanted to throw that meter away, but I didn't. I don't know what I will do with it--I don't want to bring it back because I don't want it to be sold to someone else and have the same thing happen to them, so I guess I will just hold on to it.
But back to the story--after giving him fruit snacks and a cheese stick, we assumed he would be fine now. Nope. Soon, he was starting to complain of nausea again, so we checked his numbers again. It dropped down to 66, which was a first for us. A first, meaning that normally when we treat his blood sugar, it goes up and stays up. This was a first that it wasn't coming back up.
I gave him Skittles, and more protien. The protien helps stabablize the numbers and keep it from dropping again. I learned this thanks to my Mom's group.
I waited fifteen more minutes and checked again and this time it went up to 81 which is ok but not great in my book. It was still too close to teetering on the edge of dropping again. This time I made him drink half a glass of milk--he hated that because he hates milk--and when I checked again in 15 minutes, it was up to 91. To save his fingers, I told him we would wait for the bedtime check but if he felt any symtoms to tell me immediately.
"What if it goes down again and won't come back up?" was the question we all had. We've never been in this situation before and it was scary. I didn't like that it was so close to bedtime either. "Go to the emergency room" was my immediate solution but then I realized that this wouldn't really do any good because they would probably do the same thing that we've been doing, and his numbers could drop even more because of the stress. This is where I reach out for past experiences but realized all my past experiences for scary solutions was before diabetes. I had no experiences for post-diabetes. Overall, it was just a very helpless feeling.
"We'll have to break out the glucagon," Dennis piped up. I didn't even think about that but realized he was right. The thought of using the emergency glucagon made my stomach turn--I guess because it meant "emergency" even though it could be treated at home. I felt nervous thinking of jamming a needle into Max's leg and wasn't sure if I would know how to do it. They send you home with video tutorials and a fake needle to practice with but that was about all the training I had with glucagon.
Thankfully Max never needed to come back upstairs for more sugar. I could hear him singing his anthems cheerily away through the vents. Normally his singing can be a bit loud and grating on the ears but tonight it was a welcome relief of "normal." We didnt' need to break out the glucagon after all.
When I checked his numbers again before bedtime, it was all the way up to 188, thanks to all that sugar. I was ok with it and we didn't give him a correction, for fear it would cause low numbers during the night.
We need that CGM. I say this nearly every day, and for sure, every time his numbers dip low. A CGM could save his life. It for sure will save us a lot of stress.
This morning, Max's numbers are still a bit high but coming back to within normal range. We are back to normal for today. Such is diabetes. Normal and then "not normal" with no warning. But we are making it fine.
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