Our Shedding CGM

It was at a Halloween party two years ago this month that we met a family that we absolutely love. They had a two year old at the time who had just recently been diagnosed and they had some questions about insulin pumps and toddlers. We got along so famously that it wasn’t a month later we were invited to their son’s birthday party. They live in the city, so we don’t get to see them as often as we’d like, but we get together every 3-6 months.

When their son was diagnosed, the Father in this family took the lead on their baby’s diabetes. We all know that men look at things differently than woman. Not better…not worse…just totally differently. It was a hard thing for this loving father to learn that diabetes makes NO SENSE AT ALL. Men just want to fix things. And finding that there was no way to fix his son’s insulin levels to have even numbers, all the time, has been a big frustration. (We have all been there, heck, we are all still there, right?) Their little boy has been on two CGM’s. They found that one is more accurate than the other, but unfortunately it has constant sensor problems. So, at this time, he isn’t using either. Of course, his/our insurance doesn’t cover it, and he has spent a lot out of pocket to try to give his son the best possible life.

Now, OUR family doesn’t use CGM’s…yet. 1) It is not covered…and 2) We have a big, hairy CGM roaming our house that goes by the name of Lawton.
So where am I going with all this?

This last Sunday we had the chance to get together with this wonderful family and had a nice dinner together at my sweet mother in laws. After the meal, we sat at the table and talked shop. (Diabetes this, diabetes that, with a sprinkling of school and cancer related subjects.) As we were sitting there, Lawton came in and walked up to the mother; he did a little dance and walked away. (Repeat 3 times.) Finally he came in; walked up to the mother, and then left her and walked up to the father. There, he sat, and alerted him. We were all in shock. It was definitely an alert. A very intense alert. But not to Ryan and me, it was FOR SURE meant for him.

“Maybe he just recognizes that your son is diabetic, maybe he just smells the insulin.” (That was me making excuses, because we just ate dinner and JUST had bloused the kids, so the chances were slim.) But Lawton, he would not budge, so we did the obvious. We tested his son…and sure enough…HE. WAS. LOW!

I don’t know why it always shocks me. He alerted us that day twice, and the day before five times, but to go out and alert on another child is amazing to me. AND It’s not the first time he’s done this, he has alerted on my brother in the past, who is T1 and lives in Washington. AND, he has even alerted on my mother who is Type 2.

He is absolutely super fantastically awesome! (Is that English?)

We are so enormously blessed to have this dog be part of our family.

My husband asked J the other day if he would trade Lawton for a cure…

J didn’t hesitate…

He said no.