One of the scariest things for me as a spouse of someone with t1 diabetes is worrying about them being behind the wheel. When we're together, I drive. Mostly because I get horrible motion sickness and it's just better for everyone if I'm driving rather than getting nauseous, but partly because I worry that he might go low.
He tells a story of being in college. He was going on a date one night and his blood sugar went low while he was driving. He was aware that it was dropping but wasn't present enough to take care of it himself. So his solution was to stop the car at an intersection, exit the car, and lay down in the street. Without saying a word to his poor date. His lying there stirred up some attention and finally somebody noticed his medical ID tag and knew what to do for him.
We laugh at that story but sometimes it's downright dangerous.
When we'd been married just a few years, my younger sister came to live with us. We had two small children and she was a Senior in High School. She was doing the running start program and the college was near where Dave worked and they'd often drive together because our house was pretty secluded.
One time they were driving home and he was driving. She said he wasn't making sense while he was talking but she didn't really know what was wrong. It wasn't until he drove right past the turn off to our house that she started worrying. She tried to get his attention but he was out. He was driving on "auto pilot" with no awareness of what he was doing. When attempts to get his attention failed, she reached her foot over and pushed his foot off the gas and stopped the car herself. Somehow (personally, I think angels helped because I've tried moving him before when he's out and it's hard) she managed to switch seats with him and she drove him home. She left him in the car and I took juice out to him and sat with him until he came to.
I fully believe she saved his life that day and I'll be forever grateful.
Another time I got a phone call about an hour and a half after he left for work. He just said "I don't know where I am. The car hit a curb and popped a tire. The last thing I remember was the garage door closing at our house." He had driven a good 45 miles on the freeway and he didn't remember it. He was able to tell me some landmarks around him and I helped him figure out where he was. He was closer to his work than to me so I called his office and they sent someone to go help him out.
I've learned to live by the phrase "no news is good news". It crosses my mind daily that he could drive low today, but I figure as long as I've heard nothing, he must be safe. Because if something bad happened I'd be getting a call from the police, fire station, hospital, morgue or something along those lines.
I've learned that silence is good. And that he should check his blood sugar before getting in the car. :)
Showing posts with label diabetes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label diabetes. Show all posts
Friday, August 06, 2010
Sunday, June 06, 2010
Diabetes - it's not always drama
My last diabetes post was pretty dramatic, and a lot of the time, it is. But sometimes...sometimes I just can't help but laugh. A lot. At Dave.
When I know he's in the safe but stupid zone, it's okay to laugh. This is when he or I noticed he was going low and got sugar into him before it got scary, but we still have to wait for him to come up out of the low, so he hangs out in the "drunk" zone for 20 minutes or so.
There was the time he squirted Pam all over the babies swing because it was squeaking.
There was the time he was in the car and the door was open, keys in the ignition, so it was beeping and when I went out he was repeatedly hitting the dashboard to try and turn off the alarm clock.
There was the time he went in to our friends house and hugged his friend and was all "I love you, man" (seriously...total cliche, I know)
There were times he would hold his food up to his face and closely inspect it before eating.
There was the time he was annoying me, so I just pushed him off the bed with my feet to snap him out of it.
The funniest was fairly recently. He had been watching Star Trek as he went low and he started trying to have a conversation with me. It didn't take long before I realized he wasn't all there and I actually started recording the conversation with my phone. The TV was on static or something similar at this point. It distracted him and he looked over at it and was all "it's not working." I told him it wasn't on and that wasn't good enough. We debated for a couple minutes on whether or not it was broken or off when he suddenly stares at the TV, points his finger at it and says "Increase magnification....four....EIGHT!" and then flopped back on the couch.
Hilarious.
When I know he's in the safe but stupid zone, it's okay to laugh. This is when he or I noticed he was going low and got sugar into him before it got scary, but we still have to wait for him to come up out of the low, so he hangs out in the "drunk" zone for 20 minutes or so.
There was the time he squirted Pam all over the babies swing because it was squeaking.
There was the time he was in the car and the door was open, keys in the ignition, so it was beeping and when I went out he was repeatedly hitting the dashboard to try and turn off the alarm clock.
There was the time he went in to our friends house and hugged his friend and was all "I love you, man" (seriously...total cliche, I know)
There were times he would hold his food up to his face and closely inspect it before eating.
There was the time he was annoying me, so I just pushed him off the bed with my feet to snap him out of it.
The funniest was fairly recently. He had been watching Star Trek as he went low and he started trying to have a conversation with me. It didn't take long before I realized he wasn't all there and I actually started recording the conversation with my phone. The TV was on static or something similar at this point. It distracted him and he looked over at it and was all "it's not working." I told him it wasn't on and that wasn't good enough. We debated for a couple minutes on whether or not it was broken or off when he suddenly stares at the TV, points his finger at it and says "Increase magnification....four....EIGHT!" and then flopped back on the couch.
Hilarious.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Living with type 1 diabetes - a spouse's point of view
It's 3 AM and I can't sleep thanks to the adrenaline that woke me up out of a dead sleep when my husband bumped into me while seizing in bed.
He starts seizing when his blood sugar hits 20.
Do you know what normal blood sugar is? It's 90-120.
There are two things that feed brain cells. Oxygen and sugar. Both are necessary. He was almost out of one of them.
Did you know there's a difference between type 1 and type 2 diabetes? All we ever hear about is type 2. That's the one that old, unhealthy, overweight people get. Do you know who gets type 1? Kids. And nobody knows why the white blood cells attack and kill the pancreas in some kids. And nobody has a cure for it. Sure, there's a semblance of maintenance. But there's no cure.
Did you know that low blood sugar affects the same portion of the brain as alcohol does? A person who is low will act as if they're drunk.
Did you know that keeping your blood sugar abnormally high will make you lose weight really fast?
Did you know it will also build up a store of sugar in your liver so your body can try to save itself when you go too low and don't have someone around to give you sugar?
Did you know a diabetic's mouth and lips go numb when they're coming out of a low blood sugar episode?
Did you know high blood sugar makes a diabetic tired and really cranky?
Did you know the first thing to go when the blood sugar is dropping is motor skills? Do you want to know when I learned that?
At Disneyland. On my honeymoon.
We'd been married a few months before going on our honeymoon and besides teaching me to give him insulin shots so I wouldn't be squeamish about it, I didn't know much about diabetes. I figured he'd lived with it for 10 years, he knew what to do.
Ha.
He told me he needed to eat. I asked if he needed to eat immediately or if we could go find a good restaurant. He said we could walk still. 20 minutes later, we hadn't found the right place to eat and he starts kicking his legs out spastically on each step. Like he couldn't quite control his steps anymore. But he was still going and there was a table just ahead.
I had no idea what was going on. I didn't know if he was playing some sort of joke on me or what. It wouldn't have been unheard of. At the time, I had no idea how blood sugar worked or how it affected a person. I had no idea how quickly it drops or how slowly it rises. We made it to the table and Dave collapsed on a chair and drops his head onto his folded arms on the table. All he said was "I need juice."
So I went and STOOD IN LINE.
I don't know what I was thinking. Now, I would be loud and annoying and push my way to the front and tell everyone within ear shot that my husbands blood sugar is too low and I need sugar immediately. Screw the line.
But then. I didn't know. I didn't know what was going on. So I stood in line for another 15 minutes for a pink lemonade. I went back to the table that he hadn't moved from and he couldn't lift his head off his arms. He was all sweaty and limp. But he could still swallow.
I held his head up with one hand and held the straw to his mouth with the other. He managed to down the drink but couldn't talk yet so I just had to hope it would work. I laid his head back down (it was heavy!) and just waited in silence.
About 15 minutes later, he sat up and said he was ready to eat. It was like nothing had happened. But I knew. For me, everything had changed.
Diabetes is a weird disease. You can go from the brink of death to perfectly normal in a matter of minutes. One small mistake, taking the wrong kind of insulin, forgetting to eat, taking two shots because you forgot about the first one...all of those can put someone in a diabetic coma. I know because I've seen it.
I have so many stories that I've decided to start blogging about what it's like to live with a type 1 diabetic. People don't know the difference. When I mention I had to call 911 because I couldn't get any sugar in him, the number one thing people say to me is..."why didn't he take his medicine?" That's type 2. Type 2 diabetics have gotten so unhealthy that their pancreas has a hard time producing insulin. It works, just not well. There is no medicine for type 1. Type 1's just don't produce insulin. Ever. They're completely dependent on synthetic insulin and shots or a pump. They're supposed to check their blood sugar regularly but it's such a pain in the butt that they learn their symptoms and don't. Even I can guess within 10 points what Dave's blood sugar is by how he's acting.
The crazy eyes start around 60.
I took that picture because my friend, Aimee, has a young friend with type 1 diabetes. This young girl wanted to raise awareness by having people write hope on their hands and post a picture online. Without awareness, people won't care, and a cure won't be found. We have to have hope. We have to teach about diabetes. Over 700,000 people in the US have type 1/juvenile diabetes. It's been shown that children are more likely to contract type 1 when their father has type 1. We have four children.
We must have hope.
ETA: entered in i heart faces raise your hand contest.
He starts seizing when his blood sugar hits 20.
Do you know what normal blood sugar is? It's 90-120.
There are two things that feed brain cells. Oxygen and sugar. Both are necessary. He was almost out of one of them.
Did you know there's a difference between type 1 and type 2 diabetes? All we ever hear about is type 2. That's the one that old, unhealthy, overweight people get. Do you know who gets type 1? Kids. And nobody knows why the white blood cells attack and kill the pancreas in some kids. And nobody has a cure for it. Sure, there's a semblance of maintenance. But there's no cure.
Did you know that low blood sugar affects the same portion of the brain as alcohol does? A person who is low will act as if they're drunk.
Did you know that keeping your blood sugar abnormally high will make you lose weight really fast?
Did you know it will also build up a store of sugar in your liver so your body can try to save itself when you go too low and don't have someone around to give you sugar?
Did you know a diabetic's mouth and lips go numb when they're coming out of a low blood sugar episode?
Did you know high blood sugar makes a diabetic tired and really cranky?
Did you know the first thing to go when the blood sugar is dropping is motor skills? Do you want to know when I learned that?
At Disneyland. On my honeymoon.
We'd been married a few months before going on our honeymoon and besides teaching me to give him insulin shots so I wouldn't be squeamish about it, I didn't know much about diabetes. I figured he'd lived with it for 10 years, he knew what to do.
Ha.
He told me he needed to eat. I asked if he needed to eat immediately or if we could go find a good restaurant. He said we could walk still. 20 minutes later, we hadn't found the right place to eat and he starts kicking his legs out spastically on each step. Like he couldn't quite control his steps anymore. But he was still going and there was a table just ahead.
I had no idea what was going on. I didn't know if he was playing some sort of joke on me or what. It wouldn't have been unheard of. At the time, I had no idea how blood sugar worked or how it affected a person. I had no idea how quickly it drops or how slowly it rises. We made it to the table and Dave collapsed on a chair and drops his head onto his folded arms on the table. All he said was "I need juice."
So I went and STOOD IN LINE.
I don't know what I was thinking. Now, I would be loud and annoying and push my way to the front and tell everyone within ear shot that my husbands blood sugar is too low and I need sugar immediately. Screw the line.
But then. I didn't know. I didn't know what was going on. So I stood in line for another 15 minutes for a pink lemonade. I went back to the table that he hadn't moved from and he couldn't lift his head off his arms. He was all sweaty and limp. But he could still swallow.
I held his head up with one hand and held the straw to his mouth with the other. He managed to down the drink but couldn't talk yet so I just had to hope it would work. I laid his head back down (it was heavy!) and just waited in silence.
About 15 minutes later, he sat up and said he was ready to eat. It was like nothing had happened. But I knew. For me, everything had changed.
Diabetes is a weird disease. You can go from the brink of death to perfectly normal in a matter of minutes. One small mistake, taking the wrong kind of insulin, forgetting to eat, taking two shots because you forgot about the first one...all of those can put someone in a diabetic coma. I know because I've seen it.
I have so many stories that I've decided to start blogging about what it's like to live with a type 1 diabetic. People don't know the difference. When I mention I had to call 911 because I couldn't get any sugar in him, the number one thing people say to me is..."why didn't he take his medicine?" That's type 2. Type 2 diabetics have gotten so unhealthy that their pancreas has a hard time producing insulin. It works, just not well. There is no medicine for type 1. Type 1's just don't produce insulin. Ever. They're completely dependent on synthetic insulin and shots or a pump. They're supposed to check their blood sugar regularly but it's such a pain in the butt that they learn their symptoms and don't. Even I can guess within 10 points what Dave's blood sugar is by how he's acting.
The crazy eyes start around 60.
I took that picture because my friend, Aimee, has a young friend with type 1 diabetes. This young girl wanted to raise awareness by having people write hope on their hands and post a picture online. Without awareness, people won't care, and a cure won't be found. We have to have hope. We have to teach about diabetes. Over 700,000 people in the US have type 1/juvenile diabetes. It's been shown that children are more likely to contract type 1 when their father has type 1. We have four children.
We must have hope.
ETA: entered in i heart faces raise your hand contest.
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