An Ordinary Evening??

W just woke up to use the bathroom. That isn't a strange event, especially for a diabetic. However, instead of heading back to bed, W came over and stood by the front door. I asked him what he was doing, and he kept telling me he needed t use the bathroom. He was fairly irate that I was questioning him, and was clearly confused. Then, he tried to open the door, which just happened to be locked for the night. I have never been more thankful for a locked door! The fact that the door wouldn't open seemed to frustrate and confuse W more, as did my asking where he was trying to go. He tried to tell me he needed to get something, but wasn't able to form a coherent sentence. Events like this are unfortunately not an abnormal occurrence in my house. The strange behavior W was exhibiting could be chalked up to being half asleep, or it could be due to hypoglycemia. Hypoglycemia is the medical term for low blood glucose, or low blood sugar (LBS). Sugar is what gives your body energy to function, so there is always a certain amount of sugar in your blood. This level will fluctuate during the day, but the normal range is between 80-120 mg/dL. Because they cannot regulate their blood sugar themselves, diabetics must regularly test their blood sugar. The frequency of testing depends on the type of diabetes. Most people have seen the "check your blood sugar and check it often" commercials, but we will discuss blood tests in a later post because they really deserve a rant of their own. Needless to say, for T1Ds, lots of testing is required--before every meal and before bedtime are an absolute minimum. LBS occurs anytime blood sugar falls below 80 mg/dL. Symptoms vary from person to person, and may vary depending on how low the low is. The most common symptoms I have seen or heard are: -confusion -extreme, ravenous, insatiable hunger -pale skin -sweaty (like shirt-drenching) -shaking, dizziness, fainting -loss of coordination -incoherent speech, mumbling -walking around but unaware of surroundings -anger, irritation, frustration -seizures -loss of consciousness -death This is a pretty frightening list, and every low is a scary experience, for both the diabetic and the parent or spouse watching. Fear of hypoglycemia is a major reason why people don't change their diabetes as well as they should, particularly if you are a parrent managing things for your child. There aren't a lot of numbers between ok (80) and death (probably 20 and under--I'm afraid to know the exact number). I will talk more about this fear and ways to overcome it in future posts--this is a HUGE part of my daily life. :( As the "health partner" for two T1Ds, I spend a lot of time watching behavior. Specifically, I look at the subtle differences that only I would notice by knowing my guys so well, all in the hope of knowing what "normal" is for them so I will notice when they are not normal. I also watch and try to learn what symptoms each one tends to exhibit whe they are low, and of course they don't have the same symptoms. But I am terrified of hypoglycemia, so I can't help but obsessively watch them. Again, because this fear is such a huge part of my life, we will come back to this topic and the events that solidified my fear forever. :( So, back to W's strange behavrior. I'm sitting here watching him and absorbing the strangeness, and I immediately think that he may be low. So I ask him to go test. This suggestion is met with further combativeness and frustration, it he heads to the kitchen and washes his hands. Then I hear him complaining and slamming things around--apparently he can't find his meter. I know that it is in his room, so I go and grab it for him and he does his test. The meter reads 102. Technically, that's not low. However, it's not that simple. I know that he has been running high lately (we will discuss high blood sugar in another post). When you are high for a few days, your body adjusts to that and it starts to feel normal. The when you drop back into a normal range, your body reacts like it's having a low. This is likely what has happened to W. Either way, 102 is too low for the middle of the night for him, so I decide to give him a snack a before sending Hhig to bed--4oz of apple juice and a big spoonful of peanut butter. As he sits next to me on the couch eating, I can tell he is feeling better, and he asks me about what was going on. We both end up giggling about his fight with the locked front door. :) All in all, that's a good night. But sitting here writing about it, my heart hurts because I hate that this was a normal night in our world.