As a Diabetic your blood sugar can get pretty low and that is a big fear of mine.
I get busy, forget to eat, and soon I'm low.
A child of a Diabetic probably has those same fears. If one of my kids is the only one around when I get low, they should know what to do for me.
I have had the talk with all of them. I have 4 kids. My oldest daughter is 17, then another daughter 14, another son 14 and my youngest son is 8. I have gone over different scenarios with them and have tried to prepare them in case my blood sugar drops significantly low.
If I say or yell "low", get me some juice. If I seem angry or irritable, get me some juice. My 14 year old step-son is blind and he knows exactly where the juice is. We have practiced together and he takes action and responds very quickly.
I have no worries at all when it comes to my kids knowing what to do and doing it!
That was definitely the case on Saturday. If my daughter Haley, my oldest, hadn't acted fast like she did, I probably would have ended up on the floor in a bad way.
All of my days are pretty busy. Saturday was exceptionally busy due to the fact that I was hosting a ladies purse party at my house that night.
My cleaning started around 7am. I took down all the bins in the garage and started to transform my house for Fall and Halloween.
There was also a big football game at my other daughter's (Hanna, the 14 year old) High School that she had to go to with all her friends. I had to fit this into my busy day as well. Oh yeah, and I had to fit the Diabetes in there at some point too.
I took off my cleaning/interior decorator hat around lunch time and put on my taxi/chauffeur hat. It was off to the game with the four teenagers.
"Da Pump" kept alarming for me to check my blood sugar and I kept resetting it. I convinced myself that I was fine and I would check it when I got home.
Of course once I got home the cleaning/decorating hat went back on. Dusting, vacuuming, re-arranging furniture, laundry, and changing the sheets.
Then it started....I was starting to feel shaky. I knew it was coming. I finally listened to "Da Pump" and checked my blood sugar. It was 68. 'Not bad', I thought. I've definitely been lower, and with all the amount of work I had been doing I would have expected it to be lower. I quickly stopped, ate half a sandwich and moved on.
I was waiting for the shakiness to stop. I was NOT hungry. I didn't want to eat. The shakiness continued and so did I. Diabetes was not fitting into my schedule today!
My daughter Hanna continued to call me from the Football game. "Mom, can just one more friend spend the night tonight? You already said yes to three friends, what's one more?" My answer of course was "NO" and she was not taking it lightly. The more I said no, the more she begged. I finally just hung up on her.
Along with the shakiness was coming the irritability. My daughter was lucky she was at the game at that point. That was her protection from me. If she were home who knows what might have happened. haha
I continue with my cleaning venture. I just have these last bit of dishes to do and then I'm done cleaning. It's off with the cleaning hat and on with the taxi hat again, I thought.
My oldest daughter "Haley" is the only one home with me. I honestly was not sure where my eight year old son was. He travels through our neighborhood going door to door looking for his friends to play with.
As I'm washing the dishes it's happening again. Or maybe it just never went away. Regardless, I had a feeling that I waited too long. I'm sweating now and starting to get really confused.
I don't really remember much after that.
Apparently during this "Low" or hypoglycemia episode, I was yelling at my daughter Hanna who was at the game. My daughter Haley heard me and I wasn't responding to her. She told me that I was leaning over the sink staring into space and mumbling.
She instantly grabbed some orange juice and started pouring it into my mouth. I'm surprised I didn't fight her on that.
I slowly started to come back to the world.
I turned to her and she was standing in only a towel with her hair dripping wet. I asked her what she was doing? Her response......"Mom, I just got out of the shower and heard you rambling on" I ran downstairs and knew you were low. I gave you juice and glucose tablets until you started to come back.
My first thought was "Thank God you were here"!
Then I started to think about how scary that must have been for her. That is alot of responsiblity for a kid to be under.
Haley acted fast and got the job done. She did an amazing job and I'm so proud of her.
My day had to keep moving on. Except I moved alot slower. Once I've had an episode like that it just makes my day alot harder to function in.
The cleaning was done, girls picked up and the party was a success.
Thanks to Haley!
