In that instance i would just feed him the meal, give the food enough time it starts to raise BG and bolus after he’s flattened or rising a bit. I wouldn’t treat with fast-acting carbs unless I was at a restaurant and there was no idea on when the food would come.
honestly, sometimes I treat the low with a glucose tab or jelly beans and then immediately (like 5 or 10 minutes later) give a little insulin for the glucose tab, then feed Samson his meal with the normal bolus. I know for sure the insulin takes 15 minutes to kick in, so unless he has IOB (usually at this pint he’s at negative IOB if he’s ready to eat), I think it’s very unlikely he won’t rise quickly from the glucose tab. Unless he’s got a tumy bug.
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Disregard…I see it. Eyes aren’t working today. Sec, and let me see.
Serious Low (below 54): 1.3%
Low (below 70): 4.4%
In Target (between 70 - 180): 70.5%
High (Above 180): 25.1%
Serious High (above 250): 6.6%
I didn’t even realize this existed…but it’s great information. I’ll add it to my list of data to check regularly.
well, so I guess for me the first step was noticing his face and looking at it very carefully to recognize what he looked like when he was low. His eyes have a sort of glazed, drawn look. Sometimes he looks shaky. And his skin almost always feels clammy and cold. A really bad low he’ll get ravenously hungry. He also will trip sometimes or just seem a little loopy. So if i noticed those things I would test immediately and the ask Samson if he feels low…and then if the number came up low I’d say “oh, looks like you’re low.” I guess my half-baked logic is that by associating the feelings with the number he might eventually come to recognize a set of experiences as being “low.”
Nowadays he rarely tells us he’s low unprompted (unless he’s panhandling for treats) but if I ask and he says yes, he is right about 70% of the time. It’s still not perfect though. He definitely feels “low” sometimes when he’s just hungry. And I’ve noticed that being high and dehydrated he confuses with low too sometimes. So it’s a work in progress. But since you mention the Dexcom isn’t as reliable at catching lows for you guys, getting him to recognize them better is probably a good line of defense.
That’s not half-baked logic. It’s perfect logic.
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This may go down as one of the best funniest dia quotes around. It is so true, even with the older kids. I had one T1 parent tell me that we need to find sugar that no one in the house really likes, if you want to have any around when your T1 needs it.
So, the serious low is too frequent but I am guessing in three months you can get it down to half that! I wouldn’t worry about the “low” category as you’re close there and it will probably naturally decrease as you work on the serious lows.
You guys are doing a great job. Remember that most people with Type 1 diabetes are spending less than half their day in range!! And that’s adults without all the physiological challenges of toddlerdom!
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I noticed in Clarity it indicates 0% for both Serious low and Serious High. What’s the actual range that’s acceptable for Serious High? 0% for either of these just isn’t practical.
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I think with that one you just aim for as low as possible, and the A1C is the more telling number. For us, time every week above 250 is unavoidable and we just do what we can to minimize the time spent in that range.
We don’t have solid evidence that a short-lived, random super-high here and there is all that bad for people IF overall their A1C is decent. So my aim is always: decrease serious lows, increase time in range and secondarily, decrease lows. Also note that the AGP report is showing the reference ranges for NONDIABETIC people. So the reference ranges for T1s I’m sure are different.
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Ditto. Some people are just stupid.
Having battled hormone highs for the last year, I am frankly amazed how many high excursions you can have and still have a relatively good A1c re: 7.0
Personally I find the A1C meaningless if you are on the Dexcom.
What is your Dexcom algorithm. % of time in range, or do you aim for something else?
@ClaudnDaye @ErinElizabeth, this is worthy of a party! You’ve been working so hard, and you are seeing the fruit of it! Thank you for posting your successes and discouragements along the way. You’re doing a wonderful job!
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