Thankful for Technology

Since the girl's diagnoses, Techno and I have waffled back and forth with 'middle of the night' testing.

I want to test EVERY night; multiple times a night. Why? Probably because of fear and my need of control.

Techno, on the other hand, feels it's not necessary unless we've seen some 'wacky' numbers throughout the day -- especially before bedtime.

He knows I need a full nights sleep to function well the next day.  I know that my mama's heart needs to know I'm doing all I can to help protect our girls.

Dilemma.

With the Continuous Glucose Monitors now available to both girls, those middle of the night 'checks' are less necessary as the CGM will actually alert us to these lows and highs we fear.

YEAH for technology.

The sensors they wear on their person submits a signal to the iPods we have in their room which then sends a signal to our iPhones alerting us in the middle of the night if numbers raise or lower outside of their 'acceptable' ranges.

This week was our first 'scare' and thankfully we DID in fact have a CGM on Selah.

Her blood sugars were on the high end after dinner and most of the night.  She sat in the mid 200's throughout the evening and into the early morning hours.  Her alarm continually went off to alert us that she was above her 'suggested range'.  After being awakened half a dozen times or more for elevated blood sugar numbers, I. Didn't. Hear. the low blood sugar alarm at 4 am.

Fortunately, Techno did.

At 4:15 am, I was aroused from my slumber by my phone chiming at me.  In a state of grogginess, I picked it up and stared at the screen.

52.

Wait?  52?  That's LOW!

What a wake up call THAT was.

Within moments, I was fully awake and slipping on my lounge pants and heading out the door.

I noticed the lights in the living room were on and heard little voices.

I had barely noticed that Techno was NOT in bed as I leapt awake.

He had already gotten Selah up (which woke the other 2 littles) and had checked her blood sugar and given her juice.  They were now just waiting the 15 minutes to 're-test' and determine the next steps.

Her actual blood sugar had been 60.

Better than 52, but still too low for comfort.  Especially at 4 am.

The scary part of this for me?  She continued to be high-ish all through the night.  We most likely would NOT have checked her as the fear of a low was minimal.  Plus, if I HAD decided to do a middle of the night check (and we hadn't had the CGM on her) I would have checked at 2 am and gone back to sleep.  Her blood sugar didn't fall until later.  Gasp!

Had we NOT had the CGM on her; I would not have planned to get up at the right time to check her.  Our morning could have been MUCH MUCH more grim.

If blogs were audible you'd hear my sigh of relief right now.

 >>>>SIGH<<<<

Since this first 'middle-of-the-night-low', we've experienced 3 other nights like this with both girls.  Especially Trinity - having at least 2 lows a night needing to be treated.

I'm so very thankful for this technology.  It's not a cure.  It's not full proof.  But... it is a tool.  It does give us information.  It does alert us to 'warnings'.  It's a way for us to keep better tabs on their glucose levels.  It's a means for us to take even better care of our precious little girls.

I'm not always a tech fan.  I get extremely frustrated when technology doesn't work as it's intended.  But..... I'm a HUGE fan of THIS technology and all it can do to protect our girls.

Dexcom with Share.... YOU ROCK!!!

We are ever so grateful we have access to this technology.  To this life saving information that kept our girls from going dangerously low...

in.... their...... sleep.