This is something that most parents of type 1 diabetics know, You will get up at night to take care of your child. This is a fact you accept right from the beginning of diagnosis, like it or not. When I was with William's mother I got up with him every night for the years that we were together. There wasn't much help and it was exhausting and draining on my soul. I remember her asking how I could fall asleep so fast when I went to bed. I was so tired all of the time it was hard for me to stay awake. Maybe the right question should have been how do you stay awake? I used to wait until 11:00pm to check William. Then I would get up at 2:00am to check him again. That was if things were going as planned through the night. If he was really low or really high then I was not getting much sleep that night.
William now has a continuous glucose monitor (CGM). It is helpful at night and during the day. It allows me the comfort of knowing that I will get an alarm if his blood sugar is going in the wrong direction. William is good about telling you when he feels low. He is not so good about telling when his blood sugar is high. His old pump had alarms but they were only on his pump and not very loud. This was especially true if William was sleeping on his pump. I had many nights where I would hear phantom alarms and go in to check him. This time around I purchased a separate monitor that I can keep next to my bed. It wakes me up and allows me to sleep more soundly. The CGM is still integrated into his pump and will alarm, but having the one next to my bed is awesome.
This week I have had most of the week with late nights and many wake ups. We have noticed over the years that as you get closer to the last day before a site change the insulin becomes less effective. If you go past 3 days then all bets are off. We have also observed that when you change a site that the new insulin is more potent and you may see more low values the first day. So this week was a little of both. When I changed William's site this week the insulin had gotten less effective so his numbers where higher than normal. They were not terrible but it was frustrating that no matter how much insulin I gave him he was still floating around 200. I changed his site right after breakfast before school and then he was low at school the rest of the day. Tuesday night was great. William hung around 112 all night long. Then yesterday he was low again all day. I gave him food for free and it still had not effect on his blood sugar numbers. I spent last night correcting low blood sugars and keeping him above 80. Some nights this is a real fight and last night was one of them.
I would rather loose sleep than loose my son. I gladly give my sleep time to keep him healthy. It does get tiresome at times, but he is my son and he is worth it. There are many nights where I go in and check him or adjust him overnight where I am sure he doesn't even know that I was there. As he has gotten a little older I have noticed that it is a little harder to get him to wake up at night if I need him to eat something for a correction. This makes me worry about when he gets older and if he will wake up on his own to take care of himself. I have to admit it does scare me thinking about that. I know that William is not the only diabetic on the planet but he is my son and I will always worry about him. We are really looking forward to the days when we do not have to worry about diabetes ever again. I wish for this in his lifetime.
Interrupted sleep is better than no sleep,
Your Loving Dad
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