At three in the morning, when you are dealing with a low blood sugar, its amazing what can go through your mind...well my mind at least.
I never panic with the first low. I always say thank you that I woke when I did and attempt to wake up just enough to stay alert for at least the next half hour. It would appear that awake "just enough", leaves my brain in a very odd place.
As I began to feed my son glucose tablets in his sleep, I was transported back to a t-shirt my mom had once brought me back after a vacation to the interior of British Columbia. Pictured on the front were two bears talking to each other as a bus load of tourist drove by. One bear turns to the other and says "Look Marty, vending machine!". As I continued to put tablets in my son's mouth I thought, "Yep, feeding him is just like putting coins in a vending machine!" Not quite what the bears were referring to but it all worked in my sleep deprived mind.
By tablet four I had a new thought swirling around in my muddled grey matter. Now the Juicy Fruit gum theme song was playing. All I could think of was "Pop in it your mouth...Juicy Fruit its gonna move ya." Glucose tabs, their gonna move ya? It worked for me. This could be a new commercial! The music continued as I read my book while waiting to retest.
I began to wonder, do all parents have such odd thoughts at three in the morning or is it just me? Who knows but we have to have something to amuse us and keep us semi alert during these times.
My son is 17 now and he still wakes me up when he is low or high in the middle of the night. I still sit on the couch with him with his head in my lap, stroking his hair and telling him it will be ok soon. Two nights again the thoughts going through my head were, will his dorm mate do this for him when he starts callege in the Fall? Will the nurse know how much juice to give him or how much more insulin to give him? Will there beanyone around when he needs it and I panicked. I started hyperventilating and sweating and just worrying myself. My son finally looked up and said mom I will be fine at college just take care of me now. Scary how they know what worries us.
ReplyDeleteYou are not alone... my son is starting to think about college too, he has one more more year of high school. I try not to panic too but sometimes it gets the better of me. As moms we have to have faith in our kids though, and my son has said the same thing to me - When he needs to, he'll do the heavy lifting, but for now, he relishes in mom helping him out with things like filling cartridges and keeping track of site change reminders -and nursing him at night when he needs it - we'll worry about the future later.
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