It Blends In So Well

The tricky part about raising a child who has diabetes is determining whether your child is acting up because he's a kid, or because his number is out of whack.

Brendon had breakfast no longer than 2 hours ago and he was begging for a snack. I said no because it was so soon after his meal.

After much begging and whining, he said he felt low and went off to test himself.

He typically uses that tactic in the hopes that if he's low, he'll get something to eat.

"I'm a 28."

"You mean you're a 128." I thought he was trying to trick me into giving him a snack.

"No, I'm a 28."

(This scenario played out once before. And he really was low!)

OK, his number was actually 28.

In the meantime, he's chatty and I can see that his actions and behavior are exaggerated. And he's acting in a way where he knows he's misbehaving, and he's studying me to watch my reaction. I don't know what word to use for his behavior, and at that moment, I know he's not in control of his actions. He's pretty much on autopilot.

Funny how once you know your child is low you know his actions are clearly a result of the low.

I got him 3 juices because he still had 2 units on board which made me nervous, so over correcting would be fine with me.

He started drinking one juice box and tried scooping up the other two to bring with him so that he could watch TV while he drank them.

I took back one because I only wanted him to have two to start.

He sat on the couch watching Spongebob and after finishing the first box, he yells, "Hey mom! Catch!" and throws the box at me.

Of course my reflexive response is to catch it, but I have a wicked stiff neck from a sleeping incident (just my luck that I turn over in the middle of the night and I wrench my neck, thereby causing me to be in constant pain and I can't move my damned head) and I cry out in pain.

You all can laugh, because as I'm writing this out, I'm laughing too.

The plan was to check him at 10:30, during which time he was up to 125. So, he's out of the woods now.

There is a difference between childish misbehavior and low blood sugar misbehavior in how the behavior is played out.

With the childish misbehavior, he's usually rowdy or whiny. With the low blood sugar misbehavior, he's the same way, but it's like he's challenging me and there is little emotion behind his misbehavior, like he's being deliberate about it. For instance, when I'm setting up his test kit, or while he's drinking his juice, he'll pick up papers laying on the counter and toss them in the air. He'll fidget and touch everything he sees within arm's reach. Sometimes he'll look me right in the eye and say something mean.

But the difference in behaviors cannot be seen until you actually know that he's low.

It's like looking in a foggy mirror and you can see things, but you can't make out what they are until you clear the fog from the mirror. I really don't know how else to explain it.

I'm having a hard time explaining all of this, so forgive me if I haven't been clear or made any kind of sense.