Today’s vocabulary words are:

high & low

When a diabetic, whether a type 1 or a type 2, is talking about being high or low, they are referring to his/her blood sugar. Most diabetics are given a target range where their sugar should be. For Luke, this range is 70-150 right now. We will eventually lower the top number to 120, I believe.

If Luke goes below 70, we say he’s low. When he’s low, he needs to eat or drink a fast-acting sugar such as Smarties, juice, regular soda or glucose tabs. Just last night we had a middle-of-the-night low that we treated with a juice box. It worked perfectly and he was back in range for the rest of the night. So, yes, sugar can and has saved Luke’s life on many, many occasions.

If Luke’s blood sugar is above 150, he is high. I don’t even think about what “Are you high?” sounds like to strangers anymore; however, when I do, I have to laugh. It’s not what you think, people! Ha ha! When Luke is above range, treatment depends on how far above range he is. Most of the time, when Luke is above range it’s because of what he had for a meal or a snack and the insulin just hasn’t fully done it’s job, yet. We can be pretty certain that his sugar will come down soon. Drinking fluids and casually walking will bring it down faster.

Occasionally, he will have a crazy, out-of-the-blue high that just won’t come down. We’ve really only had a couple of these highs. For these highs, we can do a correction through his pump. That just means he will deliver extra insulin.

Type 1 Diabetes is so unpredictable, though. Just when we think we have things figured out, something changes. So we just take it one high and one low at a time.