The point of this blog...my kid, of course.

Chamberlyn's T1 Diabetes D-Day (Diagnosis Day) was October 19, 2010. I decided to start writing her story almost nine months later because managing her diabetes is what our family does best. We have our "highs" and "lows" when dealing with this confounding autoimmune disease, and I hope our posts can provide some insight on the daily life of a person with T1 diabetes.

Sunday, July 24, 2011

The "LOW" down on Blood Glucose Levels

When Cham's BG level is low she has several key phrases that she uses with us to let us know.
1 - "Mom, I feel low." - When she can verbalize it, I know she's at about 60 - 70. She can feel her BG level drop and knows to test and treat it with carbs.
2 - "My legs feel jiggly." - When she says this, I know she was busy doing something else and wasn't paying attention to her body. She's let it go on too long and is in the 40 - 50 range.
3 - "My head hurts." This is a new symptom that she's developed recently, and it occurs mainly when she's swimming and her level drops. I think it has to do with being in the water, then getting out, and her body recognizing the need for carbs.
4. "I'm hurting." When she states this, I know she's pretty low, because she starts cramping and she has no other way to say it.

Sometimes, she gets really irritable, whiny, and cranky. This type of low occurs when she's playing in her room, chilling in front of the TV, out to eat and can't get what she wants (big ice cream sundae) and after dance, at times. I feel like it creeps up on her and when it does this, she gets overwhelmed with this emotional response. We call it her "alter ego," because she is most definitely not herself. The first time she threw a fit, I thought she was being bratty, so I griped her out. After we understood it as a low, from then on we just say one phrase..."go test." It's crazy how just giving her a juice box can return her back to us. Seriously, it's like the juvenile version of Jekyll & Hyde.

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