Well written, great to see this getting attention.
My daughter is 4, and was diagnosed at 2. Her blood sugar today has already been both 16 mmol/L (288 mg/dL) and 1.6 mmol/L (28.8 mg/dL). It's a constant struggle.
1.6 is not a normal occurrence. She was 6.7 and bolused 15 minutes before lunch (as per usual) and for whatever reason today she dropped incredibly fast. Treated before she reached that low, but metabolism can only work so fast. Here in lies the challenge of being someone else's pancreas.
Just a note to anyone reading this who doesn't know much about Type 1 diabetes - and in all honestly, why would you? However, if someone says they or their child has Type 1, please don't start talking about your experience with Type 2 or gestational diabetes. Don't get me wrong, they're serious medical illnesses in their own right. However, it's sort of like someone saying they have debilitating rheumatoid arthritis and responding with how you broke your arm this one time. A broken arm can for sure cause life-long problems, but they're not the same thing. And just as someone with rheumatoid arthritis can also break their arm, someone with Type 1 can in fact still get Type 2, or gestational diabetes (if they're capable of childbearing).
1.6 is scary. We have seen 2.3 and his hands were shaking and he was really sluggish. Some days are rollercoasters and some days we keep him perfect.
Today our average was really low because for some reason over the last two days his insulin requirements have dropped. Some days we have to give him double the insulin just to get him below 12.
The chaos is real
Do note that all blood glucose meters get pretty inaccurate when it goes below about 4 mmol/l, depends a bit on the exact test used and varies wildly with environmental conditions. Consider it "low" from that point onward. The meter manufacturers will tell you it's always within the ISO bounds but that is under controlled conditions with new test strips accuracy goes out the window the lower you get and the less favorable the environment is.
From my personal experience with bolus is that it can vary wildly with injection site especially for slower working insulin, I used to get massive hypoglycemia from time to time with actrapid simply to injection site changes.
The times I've had crazy fast drops from a bolus have mostly been when the needle went too deep and made it act more like intramuscular than subcutaneous.
In the early days(I was diagnosed in my teens so always self managed) I used more injection sites, but have found that the only ones that work predictably for me are the abdomen and the sides of my butt. Something about the consistency of the fat there. Trying shoulders, arms or further round or down the thighs I would get big variations in speed from one injection to the next, even with 4mm needles.
My daughter is 4, and was diagnosed at 2. Her blood sugar today has already been both 16 mmol/L (288 mg/dL) and 1.6 mmol/L (28.8 mg/dL). It's a constant struggle.
1.6 is not a normal occurrence. She was 6.7 and bolused 15 minutes before lunch (as per usual) and for whatever reason today she dropped incredibly fast. Treated before she reached that low, but metabolism can only work so fast. Here in lies the challenge of being someone else's pancreas.
Just a note to anyone reading this who doesn't know much about Type 1 diabetes - and in all honestly, why would you? However, if someone says they or their child has Type 1, please don't start talking about your experience with Type 2 or gestational diabetes. Don't get me wrong, they're serious medical illnesses in their own right. However, it's sort of like someone saying they have debilitating rheumatoid arthritis and responding with how you broke your arm this one time. A broken arm can for sure cause life-long problems, but they're not the same thing. And just as someone with rheumatoid arthritis can also break their arm, someone with Type 1 can in fact still get Type 2, or gestational diabetes (if they're capable of childbearing).