very low

I was working on my paper for a class I am taking and I suddenly hear her alarm alert me from down the hallway.  Every night, we check our kids, atleast twice each in the night to make sure their blood sugar levels are  within range.  My husband had gone to bed and I thought he had checked her.  When I got up to check her cgm and why it was alarming, I'm wondering if it is going to say she is low or high.  Her target number is 130.  Under 70 is dangerous and over 200 is too high.  I guess she must be low because last my husband said, she was 80 and needed milk to drink.

I quickly walk over and look at the screen.  It should have a number.  When their number gets too high, over 400, it will just say "high".  When she is under 30 it will just say "low"  and if they go any lower, that is very scary and very dangerous.  Lows can lead to passing out or even seizures.

When I look at her screen, it says "low".  I don't even recheck her blood sugar levels with her meter.  I just quick grab a juice and get her to drink it.  She responds and drinks so that eases my mind at least.  The cgm is not always accurate so it is possible that the numbers were off.  After she drank her juice I finally tested her and her meter said 78.  So I don't know how low she really was but her cgm stated 50.  After a little bit her cgm adjusted to 86.  And then I gave her a drink of milk.  I will have to go check her again when I am done typing this to make sure she stays over 100 to sleep.

That was a scare.  We never get rest.  This follows us everywhere we go.  This is way we educate because type 1 diabetes is not a matter of sugar and blood tests, it's a matter of life and death.

continuous glucose monitors for managing diabetes

This is some new technology for us.  Each of our children with diabetes at different times finally received a cgm (continuous glucose monitor)  that they wear in addition to their insulin pump.  This gives us a continuous reading of their blood sugar levels.  It gives us a range that they should be in and alarms us when their glucose levels go to high which makes them sick or too low which is dangerous and can cause them to pass out or worse,  This gives us some piece of mind when we are sleeping and while they are in school as we can text their teachers and ask how they are doing.  A good range for them is above 70 and below 200.  As you can see in these screen shots, this particular moment our daughter's on top was in range and she was holding at around 129 which is great.  Our son's on the bottom, was dropping fast and he was 69 and going down which is not good.  That is when he requires juice or smarties to get him back above 70.  We have had many episodes where he is sleeping at night or even in the afternoon where one of them drops and then we need to sit with them and get them to come back up with juice.  Most recently when  he dropped low, he refused juice and I finally had to grab frosting and put it in his mouth  to get him to respond enough to be willing to drink juice.  So here it is.  Some peace of mind with a little technology and a little more in depth look at life with type 1 diabetes.