Diabetes is 24/7/365. Diabetes does not sleep. I check my son while he sleeps. Sometimes once, sometimes twice, sometimes I set my alarm for every 90 minutes. All depends on the situation.
Last night was no different, except I checked the wrong kid. It was dark. My daughter was sleeping where I thought my son was. I checked the finger that I thought belonged to my son. I was wrong. The number that popped up was 72.
I then proceeded to check the correct child’s finger. The number that popped up was 71.
When I realized the 72 belonged to my daughter, the child without diabetes, I breathed a sigh of relief. Not that I am concerned for my daughter at this moment, but it was nice to see a nice fasting number in my child without diabetes. I told her to go back to sleep and moved on to the child actually with diabetes.
When I saw the 71 that belonged to my son, the child with diabetes, I too breathed a small sigh of relief. I hate seeing unexpected highs or lows ever but especially in the middle of the night, but the difference is, I could not tell this particular child to go back to sleep. I could not move on. I had to make a decision.
While a 71 is a beautiful number right before my son eats, it is a bit too low for other times of day and it is definitely too low (for my liking) while he is sleeping.
So, in the dark (obviously dark because I just checked the wrong child) while I am 1/2 asleep myself, I have to decide what to do. Do I set a temp basal? Which means cutting back the settings on his pump for a temporary amount of time. Do I give him some juice? Which means making my sleeping son drink…period. Do I set a temp basal and give a small amount of juice?
None of these are the right answer, but I still need to pick what I think is the best response while thinking about the time of night, the amount of activity he had during the day, what the last thing he ate was. These are just to name a few of my thoughts, I also have to think about if he is sick, stressed, worried, growing, whatever. Some moms of kids with diabetes will even say we need to worry about the moon and the tides…
So a 71 is a 71 is a 71 depending on too many things to list. If you don’t know the back story behind a number than a number really is just that…a number.