Halloween Night Scare

After a fun night of trick-or-treating,

Batgirl Josie, Ellie the witch, and friends.

we let the girls have some of their candy which resulted in a high blood sugar for Josie, a 416. I expected it and gave her a 1 unit correction (enough to lower her approximately 250-300 points to put her in a safe range for sleeping.) 30 minutes later, her CGM alarms that her blood sugar is falling. I go to check and am horrified to see a 46 pop up on the meter. She still has enough insulin active in her system to lower her blood sugar at least 200 more points. She is not safe under 80 and so a 46 minus an additional 200 points would, to put it bluntly, end her life. Just as I’m grabbing juice boxes to start counteracting all the insulin and low blood sugar and to save my daughter’s LIFE, I notice Ellie (who was still awake from all the candy and was jumping around on the bed) lying flat on her back and making this weird gurgling sound. I quickly realize that she can’t BREATHE and I have no clue what happened! I start yelling for Eric because I already have an emergency with Josie and now something is wrong with Ellie. He comes running in, she starts hyperventilating and screaming that she thinks she broke her back. He quickly accesses her, she is able to move her toes, fingers etc, while I coax Josie, who is getting worse by the second, to please keep drinking her juice...

In the end, we found out Ellie was trying to do a flip in the air and didn’t make it- landing hard on her back. It must have knocked the wind out of her and we think her severe back pain resulted from the jolt and a maybe some pulled muscles. She is going to be sore but fine. Josie’s blood sugar came back up after 2 juices and a pack of Smarties and she is fine too. In hindsight, I should have taken in consideration all of the walking she did while trick-or-treating, which can cause a later drop in blood sugar, and should not have given her as much insulin as it usually takes to lower that high of a number. But regardless of how it happened, the reason I'm choosing to share this is to show how there is never a break from Type 1 Diabetes. For not one second can we ever let our guard down to this unpredictable disease. Diabetes emergencies can happen in a split second and, when they do, the entire world must stop and your only focus now becomes to save your child’s life. Even when something else crazy is happening- like your other child, whom you love just as much as the one your saving, is crying for your help and may have just seriously injured herself. I have never felt more torn than I did in that moment.

Tomorrow, November 1^st, kicks off Diabetes Awareness Month and so I am going to try and share some of the more behind the scenes glimpses of this disease that a lot of you may not realize goes on. Life with diabetes is truly 24/7 and, although we are pretty adjusted now to the daily care it requires and do have plenty of "good" days, the seriousness and the scariness of it never goes away. The reality of tonight, if I had not heard Josie's alarm and been there to start treatment in time, if Ellie truly was seriously hurt and I wasn't even able to help her...is scary. I know we all have our own challenges we face, our own fears, and these were mine this Halloween night.

Each diamond represents a reading taken every 5 minutes. Josie dropped from over 400 (the highest it reads) to under 40 (lowest it reads) in 6 readings or 30 minutes! You can never predict a fall like that but must always be ready to treat one- day or night, no matter what other craziness may be going on...