July '03
I'm standing outside the airport at 1 am on a rainy night. Thunderstorms wreaked havoc with flight schedules, and our arrival was delayed 7 hours. We booked a room at a nearby hotel, rather then drive the 2+ hours back to our house. We're close to being safe and sound and fast asleep after a long, long day.
The airport is in the midst of a huge construction project and traffic is a nightmare. We're trying to catch a shuttle that the hotel swears is on its way. It's noisy and hot and the poor kids are exhausted, asleep on their feet. I see the shuttle drive by, three lanes of traffic between us, and it just keeps going even though we're standing where they told us to stand. We decide to give up and take a cab.
I stand in the median with the kids and watch as my husband crosses back over to the airport entrance to try to figure out where we need to be to catch a cab. I watch him talk to an airport worker, getting more and more animated, finally throwing his hands up in the air. He returns to us with no information.
He's a level headed guy, and he's not making any sense right now. He's pissed at the person he just spoke with, but for no reason that I can discern. Something's not right. So I tell him to test his blood sugar.
The kids just want to know when we're getting out of there. I ask them to be patient, as ridiculous as that seems.
He clocks in at 27. My concern turns to full-fledged panic. We have nothing on us - all supplies were consumed during the delay.
I tell him to sit tight. I'm afraid to leave the kids with him in this chaos, so I push one in the stroller and drag the other along with me. I re-enter the baggage area and locate the vending machines. Parked on the floor in front of the machines, I realize I have no change, only a $20 bill. In tears, I beg strangers passing by for change. They give it to me, and I buy a bottle of juice and run back to where we left my husband.
Remarkably, he is conscious and relatively coherent. He drinks the juice, we get a cab, and check in to our hotel.
Everyone is asleep in no time. Except me. Me, I hide in the bathroom and cry.
posted by Kassie @ 12:06 PM
10 comments
10 Comments:
sigh. yeah. I hear ya.
I will be writing my similar story today after reading Linda's at Candid.
(BTW, do you know if the unawareness is more common in men?)
I don't know about men & unawareness, but he's been well-controlled for many years and has had diabetes for 37 years
Last month I had a 36 mg/dl at the gym. No symptoms, save for some sweating but I can't blame that entirely on the low. Unawareness is brutal.
The last lines of your post made tears spring up in my eyes. No warning.
Wow. It must be a real challenge to both *have* diabetes and be a part-caretaker of someone else with diabetes... caretaker in the sense that you lean on one another when you can't lean on yourselves.
My starting on the pump helped some with my unawareness. I can usually catch a low somewhere around 45-60, rather than at 20-30.
Kassie, does part of your book talk about parenting when both parents have diabetes?
John's so self-sufficient, it really doesn't feel like I take care of him... except for these lows, which come and go. He's considering the pump, slowly but surely.
The book doesn't address that specifically, except in the genetics discussion. I do include suggestions for helping kids of a parent with diabete be safe when they are out and about and mom/dad has a tough low.
Wow how scary! Thank goodness for the kindness of strangers though, right?
Is unawareness something that comes with having diabetes for a long time?
I have some brutal unawareness, having had hypoglycemia for 10 years before I even had diabetes. And this sounds like something I would do. Actually, it sounds like many things I have done. There was one time this summer when I just passed out, having never felt symptoms at all. It's so weird how it happens. I hear that having your bs run a little high for awhile can bring some awareness back, but too much low bs over the years takes it's toll. I'm glad things worked out.
Honestly, I think I am the luckiest diabetic ever. I have had diabetes 12 years (okay, technically not that long in the grand scheme of things) but I can feel a low coming in the low 80s to low 70s. I seldom hit the 60s and I think I've been in the 50s once in the last six months.
As painful as my lows are (and pain is really the only word I can think of to describe them. It goes beyond just shaky) I am so thankful that my body has not given way to unawareness. How frightening.
Ok, that brought tears to my eyes. How scary for you. I'm glad that everything turned out OK. My older son has a boy in his class with D and his mom told me the other day that he's had so many lows lately that he can't tell when he's low anymore.
Hypoglycemic unawareness can be a result of running too low all the time. For example, when my bloodsugars were more in the 200's - 250 mg/dl range, I felt low at 80 mg/dl. Now that I'm clipping in closer to the 90 - 180 mg/dl range, I don't feel low until I'm 50 mg/dl. Sometimes even lower.
For my body, it's the toll for better control.
My A1c's are much lower now, but I roll into a good low bloodsugar episode every few months and it takes my breath every time.
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