What started out as a simple blog post to educate people on one of the difficult realities of having a diabetic alert dog, has turned into something no one wanted.  And I mean NO ONE.  It’s been a stressful few days.  With a lot of support.  And unfortunately a lot of really uninformed people distorting facts and the issue at hand.   Maligning my name and the mom’s name.   And the girls’ name.   Yes.  Maligning the five year old girl.  Unbelievable.    But guess what?  Life goes on.  The girl is still a type one diabetic.  The girl still needs my help.    The mom and the dad still need my help.  And priority #1 for this whole family is keeping each other safe.   And healthy.  Physically and emotionally.    And that’s what we will continue to focus our energy on.

With that being said……it was a long afternoon.  The girl returned home from school.  With a wacky blood glucose.  Or at least the start of a whole string of wacky blood glucoses. Or is that glucosi?

The girl and the mom went outside.  The girl was riding her bike around, enjoying the weather.  The mom was checking email.  I was smelling the air.  Typical.

Then I smelled that the girl was dropping too fast.  I pawed.  She was 126.  The girl got a 1/4 of a glucose tab since she was being quite active.  But no cheerios for me.  😦  I wish I could talk in these situations.  To tell the mom.  Yeah, I know she’s technically in range right now, but in the time that we’ve discussed this, she’s dropped out of range.  But alas, I cannot speak.  Some day.   Wait.  I speak with my paws.  And my drool.

Then I alerted about 8 minutes later.  This time the girl was 76!    This time I got cheerios.  This time the girl got a full glucose tab.  This time, if I could speak, I would have said I TOLD YOU SO!  BTW, she’s awfully happy for dropping so much.  This is why I need to be around.  When she’s busy, she doesn’t know what’s happening inside.  I do.  The girl went back about her business.  I hung out with the mom for a bit. Until I smelled that the girl wasn’t coming up the way she should have.  So I pawed again.  This time the girl wasn’t so happy.  She said I was interrupting her playing.  But there was a reason.  She was DOWN to 73 at this point.  Another full glucose tab for her.  More cheerios for me!So now you can see that the girl was back in her “secret tree” but I had to alert again! Again.  Seriously.  This is nuts.  I pawed the mom.  Again.  And I was right.  Again.  The girl was the same.  73.  After glucose tabs.  And she should have come up at least a bit.  This time the girl got ANOTHER glucose tab.  And I got a huge hug.  And……wait for it…..A piece of CHEESE!   Can you tell I was excited?  Yeah.  I know it’s not very refined to lick my lips like this.  But people, it’s cheese! And the girl wanted to give me cheese too.….two pieces of cheese!  SCORE!  Man, this alerting thing is sweet!  After that, the girl went back out to her secret tree to play.  The mom and I went with her.  About 10 minutes in, the girl still wasn’t coming back up enough.  So I pawed.  Check out this action shot!The girl checked.  All by herself.  She’s good at focusing when she wants to….which is awesome.  I’m proud of her.  And I got more cheerios because it was an appropriate alert.  She was still below 100.  The girl also got another glucose tab.  And good thing.  90 minutes later, just before dinner, the girl was back to 85.  Pfew.  I’m tired.  But the girl had pasta for dinner.  And god knows that food is unpredictable.  So, game on Darwin.  Game on.  As usual.

As a side note, I heard the mom talking to the dad about these drops.  They talk about diabetic things A LOT.  But they were hypothesizing that the girl’s numbers for basal and bolus must be off, because the girl didn’t have many carbs today.  Interpretation: she’s not getting enough insulin for food, and the insulin she gets all the time is too much.  BUT…..the mom and the dad can’t change anything till they test it out again. In a more controlled environment.  AKA, the girl at home.  And they don’t give her any carbs.  And see what happens to her blood glucose.  This type one diabetes is non-stop I tell ya.  I’m glad I’m here to help.  I wish every T1D had a Darwin.