Here is the story i have copied off the site!
This boy is giving his mother gray hairs.
Yesterday, Sean was sneaking brownies and let his BG go HI. He ate a meal and took insulin with sliding scale at 10 p.m. last night. He took his Lantus at the same time.
When I got up this morning, I decided to check his BG before letting him sleep any longer (today is a school holiday). He woke up when I came in the room, but he was grouchy and argumentative (even more so than normal). Something in me knew that something was wrong. I asked him if he felt low. He yelled, "I don't know. Leave me alone."
I told him I needed a BG reading. He gave me his hand, but didn't like my less-than-expert handling of the lancet, so he grabbed it to do it himself. Somehow he lost the lancet in his covers, and when I asked him for it, he started yelling at me again, "I don't know where it is." He fought me when I tried to pull back his covers to look for it. So I asked him again, "Do you feel low?" Again, he said he didn't know.
I was concerned by now. I found the lancet and drew some blood. It was very watery, like it gets when he is low. I was sure he was having a crash, but the glucometer read 101. He said, "See? I'm fine. Go away." I should have trusted my instincts, but 101 seemed like a safe number, so I went downstairs to get him something to eat.
To my surprise, he got up and followed me down the stairs. I'm glad he did, becausee when he got to the bottom of the stairs, he collapsed and started seizing.
I was already in the other room, but my youngest saw it happen and went for his dad, who then called for me. I was there in seconds. (My husband told me later that he had smelled a sweet, fruity smell on Sean's breath, which confuses me, because I thought that was linked to high blood glucose.)
The convulsions only lasted a few seconds, then Sean seemed to wake up. I knew that the glucagon I had given him the last time had made him horribly ill, so -- since he seemed to be conscious -- I used the tube of glucose gel first.
He started coming out of it very slowly. Since I had already used the gel, I wasn't sure if or when I should give him the glucagon shot now.
Over the next 15 minutes, he faded in and out, sometimes able to answer questions and sometimes not. As soon as I could, I took another BG reading. It had been 15 minutes and the meter read 140.
But he still wasn't coming out of it. I wished then that I had used the glucagon, but didn't know if I should now that he was up to 140.
As soon as he could follow our directions, we gave him apple juice. He didn't want it, but we managed to get a couple of boxes down him. When I tested again, he was at 121.
At this point, I called the diabetes hotline and spoke to the nurse. She told me that it sounded like he was coming out of it, but that I should ALWAYS use the glucogon if he has had a seizure, even if he seems able to take the gel.
She said it is normal for him to take 20-30 minutes for him to "come back" after a seizure, so the time it was taking wasn't unusual. She stayed on the phone with me until he was lucid. She then told me to monitor him and call back in an hour.
An hour later, his BG was 168. Despite the fact that we didn't give him glucagon, he got very sick, anyway. (So next time he gets the shot right away.) And he has a horrible headache. He's just gone to sleep, and if this is anything like last time, we won't see much of him today.
I called the nurse back as she had asked, and again, she stressed to me that I must ALWAYS use glucagon with a seizure, and that it was time to have a Come-to-Jesus meeting with this boy about his keeping a chart, monitoring his numbers more closely (he's been lax), and ACCEPTING HELP FROM PARENTS. I told her she was preaching to the choir, but that we'd try again.
He already has an appointment with his doctor on Thursday, thank goodness.
I am just shaking mad at myself. I SUSPECTED -- with good reason -- that he might be low after last night. I KNEW he was acting strangely. I SAW that his blood was so thin it was watery. And I STILL ASSUMED he was okay just because the glucometer read 101.
I'm just thanking God that I went and woke him up when I did. Even though I didn't catch all the signs, my going in there did prompt him to get out of bed. If he had still been asleep, no one would have known.
Has anyone done a study on the stress level of parents of children with diabetes? I'd bet good money that we have shortened life spans.
__________________
Katherine <><
---------------------
S, 14, T1D dxd 3/31/07
R, 13, Hashimoto's
S2, 7 - asthma; T1D antibodies