It was about 5.30pm and I was preparing a healthy wheat free, low fat, vitamin packed meal for Lance and me. (It was Gluten Free pasta with spinach and cheese sauce, with a medley of colourful vegetables to accompany.)
Lance was building a Space Station out of Lego, and whilst I chopped, diced and stirred, he twittered away about how there was a friendly alien talking to him.
“Oh really? What colour lego did you use to make him?” I asked playfully.
“Oh no, he’s not an lego alien. Is Lego called Lego because the man who invented it had an alien with legs?”he enquired curiously, and seriously.
I dropped my kitchen utensils and grabbed a popper from the fridge. There was Lance, slumped over, with a rainbow of Lego pieces surrounding him. He heard me coming, and he slurred, “You didn’t answer me!” Immediate tears.
I opened the juice and told him that I was putting the straw to his mouth. His hand snapped up and flung the box out of my hand, covering me with juice..(again!) and sighed, “I am so tired of poppers, Mum.”
I wiped the dripping juice off my chin,( I am going to start wearing a raincoat from now on..) and asked him if he would have it because it would give him power to build the best alien ever. He reluctantly put the straw to his mouth and I gently squeezed the box, as I wasn’t sure if he was lucid enough to know he had to drink. However, he started to swallow, so I knew he was receiving it.
It was usless, he was unable to sit without falling and hurting himself. I lifted him up and laid him on the sofa, propped up with pillows. I gave him one of his ”flavour-of-the-week” raspberry glucose tablets whilst I rubbed his hand and talked him through how sucking the tablet would soon make him feel better.
I used this opportunity to do a test and remove a lego piece that was painfully embedded in my thigh.
Hmm..1.7mmol/L. How on earth did that happen?? He was 12.4mmol/L only 70 minutes ago.And he had eaten the best part of a wheat free scone with jam!
He reached out his hand, feeling around for the other half of the glucose tablet.
These glucose tablets from America are so fantastic. He enjoys the flavour so much that even when he his levels are lower than a snakes belly, he is still willing to eat them.
I could see the glassiness fading from his eyes. He asked for the juice.
In this photo, Lance is barely able to lift his head high enough to reach the straw of the juice-the juice that is saving his life. He has very little physical strength left as a sudden and severe hypo has left him weak and listless. His blood sugar level is currently 3.4mmol/L.
Diabetes can be so infuriating. It made no sense that Lance had this hypo. I do all that I can to compromise and cooperate with Diabetes, but it doesn’t always repay the favour. Lance had no warning signs, I was only able to detect he was in grave danger from one nonsensical reply he made to a question I had asked. Not only was our dinner ruined, the smoke alarm was alerting and Lance had high blood sugar, as his insulin dose was about to run out, and from the sudden rush of sugar he was forced to consume. After a hypo, he often feels nauseated and doesn’t want to eat. Therefore, he wasn’t able to eat until 8.30pm, I had to make dinner all over again, and calculate what insulin dosage would be safe for him to have to see him through the night. Diabetes can change the entire workings of a home, and ruin any plans you have made within seconds.
Insulin is not a cure.
