Diabetes Blog Week - Memories

Today we’re going to share our most memorable diabetes day. You can take this anywhere.... your or your loved one's diagnosis, a bad low, a bad high, a big success, any day that you’d like to share.

I have shared with you guys my story of breakage on my "about" page and that is a really bad experience, I live in constant fear of that happening again. I have a lot of diabetes memories, I remember getting my first pump in the mail, I remember the injector for my pump sites that would break the needle under my skin, I remember my diagnosis, my first Endo appointment I remember giving myself my first shot, I remember my seizure, I remember DKA both times. I remember lows that my meter couldn't read, and high enough to make me vomit. I remember starting this blog and I will always remember the joy it brings me and getting to participate in the DOC.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
    I was not crying but that is not what my sister says and I'm guessing that since she was the one with full brain function she is right.
      Amanda! Amanda! I did this every time I was low in the middle of the night and needed some juice or tablets. She would roll out of bed and grouchy as possible go and get me some juice which I happily guzzled and then we both went back to sleep and all was good. But she says I didn't call out her name, that I was crying.
      She came over to my bed and I told her I was low and then it happened, " Sarah quit it yours scaring me."
      " I'm low I need juice."
        " Sarah I am serious I will go and get mom if you don't quit it."
        "What are you talking about."
In case you haven't figured it out I was talking gibberish and there was no understandable words coming out of my mouth. Amanda ran upstairs to get my mom who I heard rushing down stairs.
        " Sarah whats wrong?" said my mom really concerned
         " Santa, Homework, ice cream." Even though in the five minute I had been up My dialect changed from non word to actual words but  I still couldn't form words I had in my head and spoke like this. My mom told me she was going to check my blood sugar, a pretty 90 read on my meter, but we decided to go to the emergency room anyways. My mom dressed me and then herself and while my mom was in the bathroom I  saw my pink ballet/ yoga pants laying on the table and tried to put them on, over my shoes and jeans. My mom came in and started to cry.
       Me my mom and sister road to the hospital nearest to our home in hopes to get an ambulance from there to  Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. When we got there they rushed us back and the ER doctor started asking question. Sarah can you tell me what day it is? July 19 1967 Sarah can you tell me her name as he pointed to Amanda. I opened my mouth but literally could not say my sisters name. When is your moms birthday, I knew it was April 11 but I could not say April, all I knew to say was that it was before mine. How many days till Christmas? I just shook my head I didn't know that Christmas was in a few days. They did and MRI scan and the nurses that I remember being really nice and talkative helped me walk from the wheel chair to the table and I promptly threw up.
       As they loaded me into the ambulance I remember it being cold and the door was open. the poor guy was trying to put in an IV in my arm and it HURT! Oh and the tape the put on it like that thing was going to be trying to push itself out of my arm. And then I fell asleep wake up occasionally  to see  bits and pieces but I don't really remember a whole lot till we got to the hospital.
      I got a new IV and was given plenty of medication and a recommendation to a neurologist. By the time we got to the hospital my speach was all the way back and the IV only brought me great pain.

We still don't know for sure if it was a low induced seizure  or a granny seizure as they called it. But I do know it was scary and those moment where I was completely helpless and I remember thinking one way and apparently I did the complete opposite. I have never had one again and hope to not to.
     Our memories are the things we always carry with us and shape our lives. When it is a memory with our diabetes we take something from that to help better our care. They are always an advantage even though they might scare the crap out of you at the time.

Driving... Low!

Driving with diabetes is a BIG deal. In Georgia it counts as a DUI if you wreck you car due to low blood sugar, WHAT!!!!  Yeah and I won't argue about it, it is my responsibility to make sure my blood sugar is in range and no one else can worry about it. It would be my fault if I wrecked my car or even worse hurt someone else.
 Anywho today was probably one of the first experiences I have had with low blood sugar and diabetes:
    At about 2 o'clock I checked my sugar feeling the symptoms of low blood sugar, mostly lightheaded and fog brain and hungry, blood sugar reading was 100 perfect and dropping. Of course it nearing the end of my school day I had zip food and no quick glucose to give me a safely net till I got home at 3:45. No food. I hate being without food maybe it is effects of living half my life with diabetes or maybe I am just a foodie. So since I was okay i decided to just wait till I got to my car and quick stick it up. Lo and behold no quik stiks and one little juice box which only seems to keep my blood sugar at the same low level for hours.

Diabetes in the Capital!

The small young girl, looked younger in the face than her height might make you assume. I was pale and shaky and maybe I even cried a little. I wasn't sure about these feelings, they were still new and unfamiliar territory. I did know what they meant though,
 "Mom I think I am low."  The busy capital building was buzzing with people.
 " Are you sure honey?" she questioned "lets check it real quick"
The meter red back a lovely 60. The intern giving us a tour left to find some candy and came back with a box of milk duds and smarties. I swallowed them and my grandfather carried me around the capital for about thirty  minutes. It did take a while for that sugar to come up and then it dropped again that day and my grandmother tried to bring it up with a fourth of a chocolate bar. I don't remember that working real well.

     I remember my first trip with diabetes clearly. And only a few incident that called for emergency care (aka lows but not severe). I went to Washington D.C. with my mom and grandparents; the original plan had been without my mom but I was only diagnosed three months before the trip so she came too. My grandparents weren't and still aren't very well versed in the care for a child with diabetes so it was a life saver that my mom came. Their trip required tons of walking and riding on the bus or taxi, some days we would walk several blocks without stopping for food. My mom of course had plenty of stuff to take care of me but I was still on my strict diabetic diet and had to eat at certain times, one bus tour lasted all night and interfered with my dinner time causing me to go low and no where to stop and rest till it came up. But overall I just remember how much I loved the Smithsonian museum, seeing the monuments and my first plane trip. I don't remember the shots, checking constantly, and being forced to eat thirty carbs for a midnight snack when all I wanted to do is sleep. I remember my papa giving me my first pair of wings and the freezing temperatures at Arlington cemetery but not my mothers constant concerns of my well being. Diabetes might seem overwhelming at times and yes some of the lows, highs, and strange foods might stick out but we will always have the surrounding memories. I was only nine so maybe the thought that I could die from this disease never crossed my mind.
     Diabetes isn't your life, memories, thoughts, and dreams; it is just something you have to squeeze into it all because eventually POD'S (Parents Of Diabetics) we(pwd's) will have our lives, memories, thoughts, and dreams but not diabetes.And those things like that trip to D.C. soon after diagnosis will be things you can smile at. Me and mom still laugh at the way my mom gave me a fourth of a candy bar to bring up a forty blood sugar. Oh the early days....

Soon I will be posting my first vlog!