My 21 year old daughter is in grad school and lives on campus. She has been a T1D experiencer since she was 8 years old. Lately her numbers have been quite unsteady during night time so much so that she does not sleep till 5 am fearing a high or a low and then dozes off during the morning hours. Although she does not want us to help her with suggestions, I would like to know is there a good rule of thumb which works to keep the blood sugars steady through the night?
When she was younger, we would have dinner consistently at the same time and may be have a spoon of peanut butter before sleeping. This kept her going through the night and we would pop into her room to take care of her highs and lows.
A cgm like dexcom would really give her peace of mind. Since I started on mine, I don’t mind going to bed in the 80s. My sugars draw a flat line all night.
I have an insulin pump that is constantly making corrections, but even just the cgm will make her anxiety lower. It will alarm if she goes low or high.
She can also set it to allow other people to see her data.
5 Likes
And parents can also “follow” and help out if needed.
Dexcom can also send readings to watch, and will make it more consistent for her to be aware of bg and which way it is trending.
1 Like
Thanks for those suggestions. I did not give the full picture.
She has Dexcom and shares her numbers with us. We generally call her when she is very high or low, but there have been times when she was deep asleep and we had to call her friends, and even the campus security once. As she is older now she does not want us to call any one. I am wondering if there are any modes of eating or what she puts in her mouth in the evening that might help her see the constancy. Seems like we have been trying forever and sometimes it works and sometimes it does not. We have not yet figured out a sure shot way. Also, she eats low carb meals (about 20 grams of carbs per meal) although not keto.
Everyone is different, there are so many factors.
Is she using a pump, or MDI?
If not using pump, would definitely consider it.
As @Timothy mentioned, I also use Tandem pump, with dexcom, and let it help keep me from highs and lows.
Does she have a good endo or cde she can get appointment with (maybe online), to help identify changes to dosing?
Books like Sugar Surfing and Think Like a Pancreas may be helpful for her to read.
Or does she know what to do, but too occupied with school, etc that she doesn’t think about/plan her choices/activities.
Before I had my looped pump, my nights were all over the map.
I would wake up at 60 one day and 200 the next. I pretty much eat the same thing.
The one awesome thing about having a loop is taht it shuts off insulin when you go low and increases it when you go high.
So you don’t need to wake up to correct it, the pump does it for you.
Even if she slept through an alarm, her insulin would be stopped until she was back in range.
I don’t know how anyone sleeps through the alarms though.
1 Like
I’m going to chime in pro Tandem w/ Control-IQ, too! Honestly, I don’t know how I survived college. That kind of lifestyle is just not conducive to good control. Crazy hormones, crazy stress, crazy diet, crazy sleep schedule, crazy weight changes, crazy nights with drinking and whatnot… It all makes management difficult. We’re unpredictable on the best of days, there’s just no balancing all those complications.
Control-IQ is life-changing, though. Since it’s always watching over you and adjusting basal rates, it takes on a lot of the management burden for you. And it’s incredible peace of mind for a good night’s rest knowing it’s got your back.
This is the kind of major thing that’s worth moving mountains to get your hands on. I can understand where she’s coming from, trying to assert her independence… But she sounds overwhelmed. This would be a great tool for her.
I managed to make it through college using Lente only, and urine glucose testing which was always high! After college, new town, new job, small town Dr (no endos), but was told to use regular if urine was 4+. So huge contrast to using Dexcom, Tandem + CIQ !!
I was diagnosed with t1 in my last semester at university.
Really don’t see how I could have managed it through high school and first year away. I was on nph and regular. I had a giant finger stick machine that sat on my desk and I only tested in my dorm. I really only tested when I felt low or super high
1 Like