MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) - The house was dark, the kitchen shadows menacing as, one wee early morning a couple weeks ago, 4-year-old pajamaed Kody Blosser steeled himself against the monsters, hurried down the staircase and made his way along the treacherous path to the cabinet where the juice boxes are kept.

Working quickly, he found a Capri Sun, punctured the pouch with its tiny straw and ran back to the bedroom to rescue his mom.

"At 4, he's still afraid of the dark," said Tiffany Blosser, 29, her voice tender with gratitude as she told the story of her son's courageous expedition - an act of valor that may have saved her life.

"He said, 'Mommy, I knew your sugar was low.'"

Blosser, of Morgantown, has been living with Type 1 diabetes for 16 years. For eight years, a pump has been delivering insulin hourly to her body through a tube in her abdomen. Lately, though, her blood sugar levels have been fluctuating so frequently that an accessory to the pump - a continuous glucose monitor - has been added to send her advance warning when her levels are headed too far up or down.

But so far, that hasn't been enough.

Blosser said that, this summer, before she got the sensor, her husband Scott took a three-month leave from his job at Cumberland Coal to help monitor Tiffany's nighttime readings. The Blossers also taught their children how to read Mom's symptoms.

"What's happening now, after nearly 17 years, is I'm starting to get what's called hypoglycemia unawareness (HGU)," Blosser said. "Typically, you notice it when your blood sugar drops. You get double vision or mental confusion. It's almost like you appear to be drunk.

"Now I'm going into that low range, and I'm not experiencing symptoms that let me know it's happening."

"And it's happening more when I'm asleep."

Blosser said the monitor (or sensor), which she has been using for only about a month and a half, sends an alert through sound, vibration or both when it detects a low blood sugar reading. The alarm, however, does not always wake her up at night. And so, when her coal miner husband is working a late shift, Kody or his 7-year-old sister, Hayley, sleep with Tiffany in case she needs help.

The night of Kody's journey for the juice, mother and son were alone. Scott was at work and Hayley was visiting her grandparents. But the children teamed up to help their mom another night about nine months earlier.

"Toward the end of December, we'd had a birthday party for Hayley, and one of her friends stayed overnight," Blosser said. "I was in bed and I must have knocked something over."

Hayley remembers that night exactly.

"Me and my friend were sleeping," she said. "My brother didn't want to sleep alone, so he was with my mom. He woke up and he thought that Mom's sugar went wrong, and he came and woke me up. We got a cup and we got her some orange juice."

Sarah Edwards, a registered dietitian and certified diabetes educator with Ruby Memorial Hospital's diabetes program, is certified to teach patients to use products designed to monitor their blood sugar levels and manage their diabetes. Although she does not know Blosser, she understands the problem and said patients and doctors work together until they determine the correct settings for the equipment. And those settings change with need.

"Sensors will alert patients when they're starting to trend down," Edwards said, referring to a person's blood sugar levels. "With hypoglycemia unawareness, they're not going to feel that drop.

"If they don't feel it and all of a sudden it's in the 30s, that could be dangerous. A person can lose consciousness."

Edwards said a sensor is one of the best ways to alert a patient with HGU of the situation -- and to wake the patient or someone who is with the patient. She added that the readings will give doctors the information they need to make adjustments to the equipment.

"In fact," she said, "recently there was a big that study showed that sensors helped people control their sugar, so insurance companies are starting to pay more 1/8for patients who need to use them."

"In many cases, people with Type I diabetes are candidates for IP (insulin pump) therapy because they're more sensitive to insulin than people with Type II, who can sometimes control their diabetes with diet and exercise."

Edwards sympathizes with Blosser's problems with HGU at night and said the data from the equipment should help her doctors make the adjustments needed to alleviate what's happening.

"The point is that you want enough warning time," said Ellen Cernich, a clinical manager with Medtronic, the company that makes Blosser's diabetes monitoring equipment. "For people who can't feel their 1/8sugar3/8 lows, we would want the settings higher 1/8so they can3/8 feel their buffer zones."

Cernich added that, besides conferring with doctors about adjustments to their monitors, patients who have trouble hearing the audio alarm should consider using both sound and the vibration device, which attaches to the body.

Blosser said she does. But she adds that her sensor likely needs that adjustment.

Everyone said that, for new monitor users, finding the right setting can take some time.

"I don't think people have a very good understanding of the situation unless it's happening in your own home," Blosser said.

Meanwhile, she has her guardian angels.

"I think my family is remarkable," Blosser said. "My husband does this all the time. But to have a 7-year-old and a 4-year-old do what they did, it's amazing."

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Information from: The Dominion Post, http://www.dominionpost.com