It's All Relative

Diabetes is an interesting disease because "doing everything right" is such a relative term. Other T1 mom's can attest to this. We can do everything right and still get bad numbers. It is probably one of the most frustrating things we deal with. You can do everything right, learn all the carb counts and still not be doing it right.

Raising a Type 1 child can be an interesting process. A lot of the care we give Sydney becomes second nature. It's not the way the average 5 year old lives, but we make it work. We deal with the highs and lows (both physically and emotionally). Sometimes we wing it and sometimes we have a plan. Sometimes for brief moments, every once in a while, we forget that she has diabetes. She runs and plays and doesn't drop low. She doesn't have a nagging mother checking the color of her lips or watching to see if she is walking funny--both indicative of a low. We love those brief moments--probably because they come few and far between.

I've mentioned before that diabetes doesn't take a vacation. The nights can be especially rough because I want to be sleeping but I know there is a little girl who needs me to be there for her. I don't know how many times she has dropped low during the night--I lost count a long time ago. Lately it's been happening a lot. 2 nights ago she had to drink 4 juice boxes. She just kept staying low. The sun was shining all day and we were outside a lot and I'm sure it was the sun and running around affecting her sugars hours later. This is our first summer dealing with her pump and summertime. It is different than daily injections. We are slowly figuring it out though and will, hopefully, be old pros before long.

Yesterday evening we were working on the JDRF float (pics to come!) for the 4th of July parade and she came and told me she felt low. She was 37--very low. The rest of the night she struggled getting into the normal range. It was a long night. I decided to document one of the many, many checks. The flash brightened the picture but really it is dark in there. My kids would never sleep if the light was on...we use the hall light to see. Friends have commented that it is odd Syd will still usually take a decent nap most days. I think it is due to all these blasted night time checks. Even if she doesn't wake fully up, we are still disturbing her REM sleep and it will wear out a 5 year old.

~At night we check her toes. Her fingers look so mutilated, I like to give them a break when I can.



~Her little toe and drop of blood.


~She is 60 which is low...not as low as she has been but it needs to be treated so it doesn't go lower.


~Trying to wake her up enough to drink a juice box is often a challenge. If she is really low I wake her up all the way so I know she can and isn't too "out of it" because of her low. If she is moderately low, like 60, I just wake her enough to get her to drink the juice box. Notice her faithful sidekick Daisy-the-Pump attached to her shorts? Syd is also getting a killer farmer's tan. lol


Then we repeat this little ritual a couples times a night...day after day. I cling to the hope that one day we will cure this disease and I can let her sleep through the night without disturbing her REM sleep.