Post-Thanksgiving Lows

We don't do Black Friday shopping, so today we slept in. I woke up at 8 to LOW on Dex. No alarm from Nightscout. Does it look like compression low? No. 

I rushed to his room. Didn't even wait to watch for breathing. Touched his arm. It was cold, so I rubbed it and he woke up. Huge sigh of relief. I looked at the receiver and the sensor had been stopped. Why did you stop the sensor? Shrug. Are you low? No. He pointed to the juice box trash beside the bed. Not sure how many are from last night.

I noticed the sensor sitting there. Why did you pull your sensor? Another shrug.

I waited for my heart to restart then slept a bit more while I had the chance. 

#SingForNicole

Seth was sick last night.  I was up most of the night making sure his blood sugar stayed in a safe range.  My mind automatically went to this story....

It happened again a little over a week ago...a life cut short by type 1 diabetes.  This time, it was close to home.  Nicole's family lives less than an hour from us. I have no details, other than she died in her sleep.  About 5-6% of all children and young adults with type 1 diabetes die in their sleep.  That sounds pretty rare, and it is.  But it is enough to cause many sleepless nights for d-parents.

Nicole was a huge fan of the band One Direction.  She had tickets to attend their concert this summer.  After she passed, her sister began a campaign on Twitter to ask the band to dedicate a song to Nicole at that concert.  I hope they do.  Nothing good can come of a child dying from this terrible disease.  We can only hope that awareness can be raised.  Awareness of how terrible this disease really is.  Awareness that we desperately need a cure.

I don't want to sound all gloom and doom.  We have a good life.  Seth and I were discussing just a few days ago that for the most part diabetes is just an inconvenience in life.  Some days are rough, like last night.  But most days are just regular days, interrupted only by the nuisance of carb counting, blood testing, and insulin injecting. A cure would relieve us of those inconveniences, as well as rid us of the constant fear lurking in the background.  But until that happens, we will continue to KDA every day.

Fear

Fear is one of those things type 1 parents don't talk about much. Especially not outside the type 1 circle. But, I said I was going to try to give insight into our life. So here goes.

We do not let fear run our lives, but it is always there. Every minute of every day, lurking in the background.  Is high blood sugar causing permanent damage? Will he go low when he is alone, or asleep, or out with friends and not come back up? How will it affect his relationships? College? Jobs? The list goes on and on.

This morning,  for example,  fear overtook me for a few moments. If you know me well, you know I am not at all a morning person. The snooze button is my friend, or enemy, depending on your point of view. Every morning, my alarm goes off about the same time as Seth's.  When he hits snooze, I relax a little and doze for 9 more minutes. Or more. Well, this morning, he didn't hit snooze. I bolted out of bed. I don't remember my feet hitting the floor until I was in his room. He didn't want to wake up! As I was deciding what to do next, Jason showed up wondering why I was running across the house before 7 am. He hadn't left for work yet. He got Seth's meter, and by then Seth was sort of awake. Tested blood sugar. 149. What a beautiful number! He was just sleeping because he was tired and didn't actually have to get up. You know, being a normal teenager. He just forgot to turn his alarm off for this morning.  But because of D, nothing will ever be normal again.

My heart finally returned to normal rhythm. All is well in the world again. For now. It never truly goes away, it just fades to the background for short periods of time. Then it rears its ugly head when you least expect it. 

KDA isn't just a motto,  it's our life. Every day is a fight, and we fight with all we have  in us every day. Until a cure is found, we continue to KDA.