It happens, probably, somewhere in a household every hour……maybe even more. It’s diabetes. Hypoglycemic reactions, well, they come with the territory. No one wanted diabetes and no one certainly wants to deal with a low or a high……..but they happen. They do happen. And they will happen to you.
My child had a severe low in the middle of the night. It was a disaster. Stayed up all night. I cried. It was a close call. All I kept thinking is; WHAT COULD HAVE happened.
Any of this sound familiar? Sure it does. We have all been there.
A long time ago, I tried my best to ‘redo’ my thinking when it came to a hypoglycemic or hyperglycemic reaction. I made the ‘could have been’ the ‘what it was’. Now that may seem a little strange, but every time it happened I made myself think, “that was it.” There was no almost, or might-have-been, or could-have-been, or a we-dodged-a bullet-this-time—none of that. Each episode got the attention needed and believe it or not, we moved on.
Over the years everyone in our house has been in some doozie car accidents. Cars destroyed. Sometimes a hospital stay. Self-check: Alive. We recover and we move on. Life awaits no one. Back in the car, hesitant at first; but soon driving again.
Life is so much like getting behind a wheel of a car. The comparatives are many and this is another one. After a crash, we get back on the road. We do it quickly, and get our kids back out there quickly, because we have to or we never will again.
When our kids had a glycemic reaction; we did what we had to and got them (and us) back on the road again. The ‘freak-out’ became shorter lived each time because why spend a whole lot of time on something ‘that might have been’? The truth, we learned this with each episode, is that we DID WIN. This time. And we moved on.
Now this thought process took some time to achieve but glycemic reactions will happen. Deal with it…be scared…..but move on. We were under the absolute belief that if we totally freaked out over an episode, our kids would pick up on it. That’s not good. “dealing with” is better than “freaking-out over” any day of the week.
When we get the call that our child was in a car accident, our heart stops. They get better and we get them back in the car again as soon as possible. Honestly, there is not much in this life that sucks much more than seeing your child become very, very low or very, very high (there are some things but this is bad enough). Get them through it.
Should they get through it, which they will in most cases, celebrate that you won that battle and move on………..trust me; another one will be coming. And you can live your life waiting for them in fear or take them as they come.
No one stated that living with diabetes would be easy……..but do not let it rule your life with fear either. It should not be an “Oh my God it could have been so much worse….” It should be, “We’ve got this, and if it happens again, we’ll have that too.” Because the alternative is not a viable option.
After 22 years, we almost have it perfect. But it isn’t easy……….is it?
I am a diabetes dad.
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5 replies on “Oh My God……SO Low at 4 am….it Could Have Been So Much Worse!!!!”
Was just in this place the other night…my 4 year old son was 140 at midnight, got up to check at 3 am, 38. OMG…grab 2 juice boxes, son drinks them down. Check 15 minutes later, 70. Give it 15 more minutes, 110. Whew. I could have stayed up thinking about what could have been had I not woken up to check. But I did check, we caught it, took care of it. If I always thought about the what ifs, it would consume my entire life. We are not a part of diabetes, diabetes is a part of us, a small part. We will not let it define our son or let it take anything away from him or us…including our sanity, happiness and sleep 🙂
Amen……and Amen!!!!!!! Could not add a thing to something stated so perfectly. THANK YOU!!!!
Thank you!!! We all NEED to hear this. There are so many parents out their trying to get it in “control” and stressing themselves to death over every high and low, asking, “what did we do wrong?” I wish the docs would put a stop to this and explain that it will always be a bit of a rollercoaster, so TREAT and MOVE ON! It tokk me almost a year to figure this out, but it is a real game changer, and better for our kids.
Thank you for the comments from someone ‘in the trenches’……SOOOOO greatly appreciated.
Thank you for writing this. After dealing with my husband’s severe hypos or hypers for nearly 8 years now I was starting to think maybe I’d become somewhat hardened to it all but reading this has made me realise it’s just that I’m coping with the lows and highs of T1 diabetes by ‘dealing with it and then moving on’ rather than freaking out and letting it dominate/ruin the rest of our day/night. It’s put me in very good stead for dealing with my now T1 7 Year old son…and whilst it breaks my heart to see him going through the lows and highs I know that the world does not stop and diabetes will not be allowed to beat us! Best wishes to you all xx