When my son’s blood sugar goes low, we treat it. It comes back into normal range with one or two “doses” of sugar. But this time, it didn’t. It wasn’t because of his diabetes, it was because of something he did. He caused a low that could have given him a seizure. He caused a low that could have put him in a coma. And he did it for one simple reason.
Before we get into all that…
This is Jordan.
He is almost 7. He has had t1d now for 4 years.
He does a lot of his own care.
He knows how to check his blood sugar levels. He knows what numbers are too high and need insulin. He knows what numbers are too low and need sugar.
He knows how to give himself insulin.
He knows what snacks to eat when he’s low. He knows how to read the nutrition labels and carb count if he wants a snack. He knows how to dose for a meal.
He learned these things gradually and is very responsible with them. He is aware of the possible consequences if something goes wrong.
Something went wrong anyway.
The Scenario
Our house has 3 floors. On the main floor is the living room, dining room and kitchen. Upstairs are the kids rooms and the bathroom. On the top floor is our room.
Jordan has an insulin pump. It is attached to him 24/7. It carries an insulin reservoir in it to deliver insulin into his body when needed. We have to input numbers, it does the math, then we manually “ok” the amount and voila, insulin delivered.
His particular brand of pump has a detached remote meter that comes with it. We can check his blood sugar on the meter and do the rest of the pump commands remotely from the same meter. We rarely use the actual pump to bolus.
We have to check his blood sugar several times during the night.
Mostly because of the distance between us and him at night, we keep his meter on his dresser in his room.
It was a normal night.
We had dinner, Jordan had his shower, we watched tv for a bit and the kids went to bed.
Before dinner, he had a perfect bs level of 6.9.
Before bed, another beautiful 6.7.
Then it started. At quarter after 7, Jordan came downstairs telling us he felt low. He knows what his lows feel like and is very good about reporting to whoever is in charge.
He checked his blood sugar and was now low at 3.9. That is a quick drop and getting into dangerously low numbers, so we gave him a snack and sent him back upstairs.
Usually, that’s all we need. We check his bs again after 15 or 20 minutes, sometimes a bit longer depending on the situation and it’s almost always back to normal.
Not this time. This time, he came down again, telling us he had checked his finger, he was still low and needed another snack.
Another snack, back to bed.
I would later find out that he hadn’t checked at all, but that’s another story.
Several hours passed, with regular checks.
His blood sugar wasn’t coming up and we couldn’t figure out why.
When my husband checked him around 10:45, he had dropped to 3.1. He woke Jordan up and gave him a juice box this time. That is more than we would normally give, we usually give half a juice box, but now the low had been sticking around for 3.5 hours. This is not good.
15 minutes later, I checked to see what was happening. He was only at 3.9, far lower than what I was expecting.
We had never had this happen before. His lows are usually pretty basic to treat. We had been taking turns checking his bs so I didn’t have all the pieces to the puzzle. My husband had a crucial piece.
Wasn’t it weird?
He asked me, “wasn’t it weird how Jordan kept coming down every 15 minutes?” They check him 15 minutes after a low at school, but we have never religiously stuck to the 15 minute rule at home.
Jordan had seemed very concerned about re-checking at the correct time, as if he knew something we didn’t.
He went to Jordan’s room and grabbed his blood glucose meter. The meter keeps a log of all the blood sugar levels and the amount of carbs that we have given insulin for. He went through the log over the last few hours.
There it was, plain as day. Jordan had given himself insulin.
At 8:00, Jordan gave himself enough insulin to cover 43g of carbs. To put that in perspective, we have less than that for dinner most nights. Then, apparently thinking that wasn’t enough, he dosed himself AGAIN, this time 81g of carbs!
He now had enough insulin in his system to cover 124 grams of carbohydrates without eating anything!
We woke him up. We asked why he had done that. WHY?!
WHY?!
Why would you do that? You know that can kill you?
And do you know what he said?
He said he wanted a snack.
HE WANTED A SNACK!
Instead of asking for a snack, he gave himself enough insulin to land himself in the hospital or worse, knowing it would cause him to NEED a snack.
So he got a snack
My husband stayed up with him, pouring honey down his throat and checking his bs half a dozen times.
They talked about how dangerous giving insulin can be when done incorrectly.
They talked about trust and consequences.
They talked about how upset and terrified he had made me.
And then they ate more honey.
By 1 AM, his blood sugar had stabilized back into the mid 5’s range. We all got to bed.
Like I said…
My son is only 6. He’s had t1d for 4 years.
He acts like a 6 year old. He’s testing boundaries and experimenting with lying.
He’s trying to make his own choices, sometimes the wrong ones.
He knows how to give insulin… and what it’s for.
He knows about highs and lows, and he knows not to intentionally cause them.
He’s learning these things gradually. And he knows we’ll be there for him if something goes wrong.
But for now, his meter is staying in our room.
~ Leah
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I like this story because it teaches you how to be responsible and not to lie. I lie about eating food sometimes but my parents are always there with me and want me to survive. D.Bell 4 yrs T1D