Diabetes Blog Week - Making the Low Go

I have 4 things on my "grab here first" shelf in the cabinet that houses all of our supplies for the girls. I have 3 things on the list for my hubby as it seems to take about double the amount to get him back on track without another crash an hour later.

Whenever we are going to be in the car for more than a local ride, we take our "car kit" with us. This stays packed with everything we need for all 3 of my T1s and a few snackies for me too. We use a large cooler lunch box/bag and we have enough juices, nuts, dried cranberries, fruit leathers, sugar tabs, cake gels and bottled water to get us by for at least 1/2 day. Plus I always have extra supplies in my purse, just in case. We also have an extra tester and pokers, syringes and alcohol wipes, plus hand sanitizer to use in a pinch.

For the girls, we have sugar tabs, Juicy Juice 4oz. juice boxes, unsweetened applesauce, and cake gel. Cake gel has been a necessity more than once with each of the girls and when they are super low it is the fastest way to get their sugars up short of glucagon.

Our rule is simple - whenever we go to Walmart we grab a bottle of sugar tabs, both girls will eat them and they are very quick to find while digging in your purse while in traffic and you can leave them in the car without them melting during the summer too. Cake gel I seem to find at Hobby Lobby more easily than I can find it in a grocery store or even a store like Target or Walmart, weird but true. I always buy the smallest ones I can find and I keep them in a bowl on the "Grab Here first" shelf.

For Wayne it is a little more difficult. Lows will wake him up out of a dead sleep (thank God for that)but he is usually very uncommunicative. He is usually half asleep and depending on how low he is, he can struggle with putting words together. I have learned to recognize the look and the little beads of sweat on his head. I usually start with a glass of juice (15g) and while he's working on that I make him a PBnJ. I cut it in half and he usually eats the first half and then puts the other half on the nightstand in case he wakes up later. We have gotten in the habit of stocking his nightstand with stuff for him - juice, peanut butter crackers, applesauce and sugar tabs(this is a last resort for him, he hates them). I feel better knowing that he has stuff close by so that he can help himself if I'm not home.

Milk has worked with all my T1s, but it usually upsets their stomach after the fact so it is our very last resort. I know people that this works really well for, so for anyone reading this blog that might be gathering information it is certainly noteworthy. Regular soda is also something that people use, we have made the choice not to give our girls soda so this isn't something we have done - but I know with Wayne it works really well once he gets back the taste of the full sugar soda (he loves his Diet Dr.Pepper).