Spokes - 2008-07-30 1:26 PM
lisac957 - 2008-07-30 11:19 AM
Spokes - 2008-07-30 1:14 PM just in case I wake up some morning and you're in a diabetic coma
This is scary stuffz. I can't tell you how many times growing up my dad would get me up in the middle of the night b/c my diabetic mother was having an insulin reaction - she seemed to react to me asking her to eat better than anyone else. He's had to call an ambulance a handful of times. Not fun. I assume you know the symptoms and what to do?
Yes, I know what to do.
Even better - waking up with her having had a mild stroke last year. She sounded drugged. It had nothing to do with her diabetes... it turns out she has a small hole in her heart, which is actually quite common - never diagnosed before.
Lisa, it doesn't help that she's stoic as hell - raised by Irish parents who weren't terribly emotional - I offered to drive her to the ER and she actually drove *herself* - twice (as they misdiagnosed what had happened the first time). Of course, I'm kind of stubborn, to, I broke an elbow playing 21 on a basketball court and I drove myself home 70 miles to the ER.
She gets tired sometimes and I've seen one nice little blood sugar crash - I've mentioned this in TAN before - those are scary, the cold sweats and you're frantically looking for cookies, Cokes, fruit juice and shoving it down her to get the BS level back up. But she doesn't let the damn disease slow her down any more than it does.
Dude - keep a Gu around at all times. best thing in the world. Keep a couple in the car - a couple in her purse - a couple in your bike bags. They are wonderful for that.
Don't tell her she needs something, put it in front of her and she will take it. Diabetics often get agitated when they are crashing andd someone tells them to do something. place it in front of them and it becomes a favor.