Battle with a Bug

This morning Blaine woke up earlier than normal, before 8 am, so we checked his BG.

273. What?! That's too high for the morning.

I looked at his log last night. He was 111 before bed. He had done what I like to refer the “low stagger” up from the basement around 9 pm. He’d been playing xbox with his cousin Hugh after dinner.  He threw himself into the kitchen island where I was standing, almost collapsing, and stated "I feel low".

He's consistent with the low stagger so he really didn't even need to tell me he felt low. I already knew. We checked his BG. It was 51. Yes, he was definitely low. He had a juice box and two glucose tablets. I knew with a number that low we’d be checking again before bed. He needs to be at 100 prior to going to sleep.

One of my original biggest fears was him dropping too low while he slept, not being able to get to us to let us know, and then slipping off into a diabetic coma during the night, and me not being able to wake him in the morning.

We checked again 30 minutes after the juice. He was up to 111. I gave him the long lasting nightly insulin and we headed to bed. I reassured him that he’d be fine as he slept. After our advanced diabetes class he is now aware of the same risk factors I already knew. I had hoped to shield him from some of these things a bit longer. I emphatically told him that I was not worried at all, stated that he was 111 which was perfect for bedtime and told him to sleep tight and that I’d see him in the morning.

So, imagine my shock with him being 273 this morning. A few thoughts began running through my head: is he always that high around 8 am? He’s been sleeping in until 10 am most mornings. It could be that he is spiking every morning and we never knew. Now I need to check him the next few mornings at 8 am to confirm or disconfirm that hypothesis.

Turns out Blaine had another hypothesis. He told me that while taking a shower this morning he had a battle with a bug.

Blaine: I had a battle with a bug this morning.

Me: You had a battle with a bug?

Blaine: Yes. I had a battle with a bug just now, in the shower.

Me: I see. You think that raised your blood sugar?

Blaine: Well... (He's looking off, thinking back on the battle.) It was pretty intense.

Those stupid centipedes. I’m called once a day to kill a bug during the summer. I guess he tried to tackle killing his own bugs today. We've found that adrenaline will raise his BG at times.

Then he returned to eating his 21 mini-wheat’s and cup of milk (FYI-58 carbs). We used his current correction calculation (BG-100/80) plus carb ratio (1unit:30 grams of carbs). So he had 4 units (273-100/80 + 2 units for food).