Down for the count

I’ve reached a conclusion: I’d rather live a day with diabetes than be “real-people-sick“. Being real-people-sick sucks.

The youngest one was sick first. Remember my “It’s not fair” post from Tuesday, where I mentioned how he kept throwing up? Well, he was just first in line.

On Wednesday, it was my turn. Our family shares everything — good and bad.

I was fortunate to be working from home that day, but felt really tired in the morning (rationalized by my tending to the kid who wouldn’t sleep through the night). Also, I kept feeling like I was a bit dazed and not thinking straight, but my meter kept telling me I was in the low 100s, and not anywhere as low as I thought. But I kept checking. You know, because when you have diabetes, it is the root cause of everything.

Educating insulin

A couple of weeks ago, I attending an annual meeting for my local JDRF chapter (my “local” chapter – the one that includes the county in which I live – happens to be farther away from home than some of the neighboring chapters, but… whatever). The featured keynote speaker was chief smart-guy-and-really-nice-guy Aaron Kowalski (official title: “Vice President of Treatment Therapies”). He’s also Type 1 and hails from New Jersey, so that’s reason enough for me to like him.

I won’t go into rehashing the bullet points of his talk. Although I did take some notes along the way for the purpose of this blog, I know that I can’t do justice in reproducing his words, delivery, and enthusiasm. That would be like me sharing my karaoke performance of “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction” – even though I don’t have the voice, can’t keep a rhythm, and haven’t got the moves like Jagger.  And who wants to see an attempt at a copycat performance? So I won’t even try.

It’s not fair

I can’t help myself. My mind can’t escape what I read in Christina’s blog post a few hours ago.

A third child diagnosed, none of the parents showing any evidence of carrying diabetes. I’m just sitting here, shaking my head, and wondering why – why do some families get hit once, twice, or thrice, while others don’t get hit at all? I want to tell Christina and her family how I’ve shared in her fears, and how I now share in her tears. I want them to know how – as a parent – their new reality brings about an emotion deep inside my chest that I just can’t put into words. I know diabetes is something that’s manageable, but it’s something that nobody wants to manage. Especially more than once.

But I’m not here to capitalize on her family’s streak of luck in order to earn page views on my own blog. That would be heartless and wrong.

Disrespecting glucagon

Though I took the photo, I didn’t bother reading the expiration dates.

My name is Scott, and it’s been 25 years since my last glucagon shot (spoken in true AA fashion).

I have about six of these things sitting on a shelf somewhere in my bedroom. I’ll bet that at least half of them are expired. I really don’t know. They never leave that spot — even when I go on extended vacation. Every so often, my wife asks me to remind her how to use it, but we never get around to doing so.

Some people, I feel, are more liberal with glucagon use than others. If they test and see a BG below, say, 50, they take a shot. For me, I see it as a method-of-last-resort — i.e. if I’m unconscious. If I can get food or liquid in my mouth, that’s what I’ll use. As I’ve been taught (or, at least I misunderstood the training), I should never have to give myself glucagon — because if I’m capable of doing so, I don’t need it.

(Flashback to the time when I was living alone, wandered to the kitchen in the middle of the night to get some juice from the fridge, and woke up later with an open bottle of apple juice on the floor, a nice bite on my tongue, and a possible concussion from hitting my head on the counter while falling to the ground).

The donkey syndrome

You know what they say happens when you ASSUME, right?

(If not, click the image below)

Photo by Kenneth Allen; Used under Creative Commons license. (Image Source)

Of course you do. So please…

DON’T ASSUME that, because I ate a piece of cake, I’m a rebel. Or that by blood sugar is low.

DON’T ASSUME that diabetes causes me to struggle with my weight. Or that weight struggles led to diabetes.