The Sleepover...
Scott Benner
When the mother of Arden's friend recently inquired about having Arden spend the night at their house, I responded...
"That would be great, but we'll need to talk first..."
I did my very best to convey that the overnight hours would be unpredictable. I couldn't be certain if this random night would be stable and easy or random and exhausting... The family was up for the challenge. When I dropped Arden off at their home, I went inside to go over a few things. Honestly, with the advent of Dexcom's cloud service there isn't much for the host family to do besides understand insulin, bolusing, high BGs, low BGs, what those CGM arrows mean, the importance of a juicebox and of course... a real-world understanding of what could happen in a low BG situation and how to handle it.
In other words we just had a horrible frightening conversation that I tried to make sound very matter-of-fact, because mostly it is. The parents were, to their great credit, still on board and so I left with the understanding that I would help Arden via text during the evening and they would need to be reachable over night if Arden needed insulin or carbs.
What followed can only be described as "not optimal"...
After riding an unwavering BG during the late evening I had Arden take in a small snack to be on the safe side, her BG was in the 105 range prior to the snack. Small snack, no insulin - I was hedging my bets.Everything was going great until about 1:30 in the morning when her BG began to slowly descend. So I texted Arden to see if she would respond and she did, "Temp basal, off for 30 minutes should stop the drop" I told her. Not long after a text arrived from the host mom who could see Arden's BG on her phone thanks to the Dexcom Share, "Arden's BG is falling" - I told her that we handled it and that I would let her know later if there was more to do.
What followed was one of those low BGs that wouldn't respond to carbs, you know, the ones that even I am a bit unnerved by because they are unpredictable, require way too much in the way of carbs and nine times out of ten incur a huge rebound high - and well, all of that happened over the next 3 hours. The host mom and I said goodnight around 4:30 am.
The next day was mercifully a Saturday and Kelly stayed with the kids as I face planted on the first piece of soft furniture that I could find.
A few days later I called the mom to thank her for all that she did to facilitate the sleep over. When I tried to say thank you she stopped me to say that it was her pleasure. She spoke about wanting Arden to feel welcomed and for her not to equate her type 1 diabetes with the sleep over. It was a lovely call. She went on to say that she didn't understand how intricate diabetes management was prior to that night and how she gained a huge appreciation for the disease. Then she offered to have Arden spend the night again "any time".
