Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Evidence of the low

Grace had one heck of a low last night. She was smooth sailing along at a steady 104 BG, heading straight east arrow, on the Dex. I had just looked at it about ten minutes before it happened. Then, she walked into the room. With those eyes, I can always tell by the eyes. The ones that say 'I'm a little dizzy and starting to go out of it, I'm looking around for something but I don't know what...' THOSE eyes.

"I'm feeling a little dizzy" Grace says, as she holds her PDM, strips and 'pricker.'

I press on Dex's little button and up pops 54 BG, with a south arrow. Yeah, the one that points straight down into hell. Cause that's where you are about to go with a low that comes on this fast.

Literally, looking at the Dex graph dots later, it looked like she stepped off a cliff from 104 to 54.
50 point BG drop in about 10 minutes. Whoa, that's some kind of ride.

Beeeeeeep.
31

Did your heart just stop? Cause mine did when I saw that on her PDM. The lowest she has ever gone was 27 and it was not pretty at all. 31 I have never seen, and would like never to see again.

I hit 'suspend' on her PDM and hit '1 hour.'

Thirty one.

Then it happens in slow motion. Grace lays down on my bed and says 'I am really dizzy' and I grab the Juicy Juice that sits in her room, tear off the little straw and puncture it into the little box of juice. All that happens in 5 seconds. She slurps it down, while I open the glucose tabs and hand her two grape ones. She puts them in her mouth and starts to munch, only she tells me that she needs to lay down to chew.

Sweetie, lay down, it's OK, just keep chewing, is what I say to her. Just keep chewing. Chew.

I run downstairs and grab a banana, and a Clif bar.  I know she will eat these.

She wolfs down the banana and the bar. And lays there, opening and closing her eyes steadily. I lay down beside her and hold her hand, stroking it, telling her how lovely she is, how wonderful she is and how it will all be over soon. That the numbers will go up and she will be OK, sometimes it takes a few minutes.

"I'd like half a peanut butter sandwich, and some more juice."

I run down to make the quickest sandwich I can and open another juice. She eats both, sitting up this time, slowly chewing the sandwich. Proclaiming it the best sandwich in the whole world.

As she eats, I write it down, to remember the carbs. Cause with my gal, these carbs will add up, and in an hour or two, she will be sky high if I don't remember what she ate and start adding it up.

So far we are at 90g carbs.
It's been about 20 minutes. Grace rechecks and she is 77 BG.
We lay down and talk, and recheck in about 15 minutes and she is rolling with a 114 BG.
I turn back on her basal insulin in her pump. I give it the respect it deserves.

And with everything in my being, I give her 45g of carbs 'free' in that I don't dose her for them, but I ever so gently input that she had 45g to eat and I hit 'enter' on her pump. Giving her the thing that sent her to the 31 in the first place.

And I keep the list, as a reminder.




6 comments:

Sandy said...

We haven't had a low that low in a while thanks to the CGM but when it does happen, it all comes back so quickly. Me SCREAMING at hubster to CHEW CHEW KEEP CHEWING SO I DONT HAVE TO GET THE NEEDLE. Its so scary and sad to watch.

Anonymous said...

Brings tears to my eyes thinking about the many times my mom did this with me. I swear though, if she says my name just the right way (with any hint of panic) when I'm low, it makes me lower (read: closer to passing out). Good job keeping the soothing voice :)

Jennifer said...

Ugh. The worst. I clocked a 26 last week that had me slurping juice like I was stranded in a desert. What a pain.

StephenS said...

Wow... good thing you were there. Hard to imagine where these things come from sometimes. Add in a growing child and it's even crazier. Glad everybody is okay.

PancreasticMom said...

How does it happen so fast? Crazy. I had tears in my eyes reading this. So scary and, yes, Mom has to act fast yet keep calm. Good job:)

k2 said...

Totally sucks and I'm so sorry you both had to go through such a horrific and fast low!
And I'm incredibly proud of you both - And love you both so much!
Xoxo