Type 1 diabetes demands your respect whether you think it deserves it or not.
Respect, according to Merriam-Webster online, is an act of giving particular attention. Type 1 diabetes demands that it is given particular attention at any moment of the day. People that assume otherwise are seriously mistaken. There are people that feel Type 1 diabetes will work with their plan, and that is just not so. Type 1 has it’s own secret plan, and we are just along for the ride.
Let me explain. People with Type 1 diabetes can have a seizure if their blood sugar drops too low. The key is that there is no number that a person will or will not have a seizure. Some people may have a seizure if they are in the 30s, or 50s, or even 60s. I think you get my point. If a person with Type 1 diabetes tests their sugar and they are in the 50s, regardless of what you may believe, that person could possibly have a seizure.
You may say to yourself, 50 is not that low, and he probably won’t have a seizure, but unfortunately you do not have that power over Type 1 diabetes and the human body. A seizure can happen at any time. Every low, no matter how low or not too low, needs to be treated with the utmost respect. All lows need to be treated with glucose within seconds. It is not up to us as caregivers of this disease to determine how low is too low and how fast it needs to be treated. Low is low and it needs to be treated immediately.
Along the same lines, a high is high and needs to be respected. No one knows how fast a body can go into DKA (diabetic ketoacidosis). Just because a body has seen numbers in the 300s does not mean that that number is acceptable. All numbers out of range need to be respected and dealt with immediately, if not sooner, as they say.
The biggest mistake that I see people make when dealing with people with Type 1 diabetes is an exaggerated comfort zone. Once you see a low that does not cause a seizure the comfort level rises and then you are opening yourself up to more disastrous situations. Once you see a high where there were no ketones and no DKA your comfort level increases and you think all high numbers are nothing to sneeze at.
There is no comfort zone with Type 1 diabetes. All lows are serious. All highs are serious. Type 1 diabetes is in charge. Sometimes it complies and works with our ratios, and basal settings. And then other, more serious times, it does not. It doesn’t comply and it reminds us that if we don’t give it the respect it deserves it will turn around, slap you in the face, and make you respect it.