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It was a long (or maybe too short, depending on how you look at it) night last night. If you don’t know, my husband is a Type 1 diabetic. Diagnosed when he was 16, he has pretty much learned how to deal with it as a part of his everyday life. But every once-in-a-while, something goes wrong.
His blood sugar will occasionally be high when he forgets to take his insulin; he gets pretty grumpy and I can usually tell that’s the problem. I remind him to take insulin and all is well. Or, he will occasionally go low. He has dealt with this disease long enough that if that happens during the day when he’s awake, he generally recognizes it and can eat something to take care of the problem.
But if he goes low during the night, especially if it happens quickly, and he doesn’t wake up, things can get rather scary.
We had been married for several years before he had one of those times. I had a good friend in high school that was diabetic, so I had been around it before and was never worried about what might happen when I met Darren. (In fact, I actually think that’s one of the reasons I was blessed to know someone with diabetes earlier in my life.) But even though Darren manages his diabetes quite well and I wasn’t “afraid” of it, I still worry about him…it’s my job, right?!?!
Anyhow, for those of you who don’t know much about diabetes, when someone’s blood sugar levels get low enough, the person is generally confused or disoriented, sweats profusely and muscles twitch or jerk in an uncontrolled manner. The few times Darren has gone low during the night, it’s those muscle movements that literally shake me awake. That’s what happened shortly after 2 a.m. this morning. And it’s a scary time!
When I try to talk to him, he doesn’t respond or really even know I’m there. I know I need to get some sugar into him and do it quickly. But that’s easier said than done sometimes…trying to get him to drink some juice or chew and swallow something when he doesn’t consciously recognize there’s a problem is a challenge. But I’ve learned what to do, and other than having a pretty bad headache and feeling exhausted when he comes out of it, he’s always been okay.
I always have a hard time going back to sleep after one of these episodes, though. I wonder if he’s had enough to eat and how he will feel when he wakes up. So I just listen to him breathe and say a little prayer of gratitude that he’s okay.
I’m blessed to have him in my life. He’s not perfect (and neither am I), but we just keep trying to work together to become better people, in all aspects of our lives. It’s an on-going challenge, but I’m glad I get to share this life’s journey with him.
So today what I’m grateful for might seem silly, but if we lived a long time ago when it wasn’t available, a person like my husband wouldn’t even be alive.
I’m grateful for the science and technology that made insulin so that, literally, Darren can live each day. I’m grateful that it is readily available and relatively easy to use.
It’s somewhat expensive, and I’m sure it’s not very fun for Darren to have to give himself all those injections, but it’s truly a miracle to have be available and allow him to live a productive and meaningful life. I’m grateful for Darren and hope he’ll be around for many years to come so we can keep learning and progressing through this life together.
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