My first hand knowledge of diabetes came at the young age of 18. I married Rog when I was 18 and 2 months later he gave me an experience that I will never forget the rest of my life. He was diagnosed with diabetes at the young age of 9. For many years he lived in denial of it and wasn't compliant with all the things that being a diabetic requires. When I met him I was 15 and someone had mentioned to me that he was a diabetic. When I asked him about it he denied it and told me that his brother was the one who had it. Well, I learned differently once we became more serious in our relationship. The only problem was I didn't know anything about it. I just knew that he had to have a shot every day. That was it.
Shortly after we were married he came home from work because it was raining and he couldn't do his job which was putting in sprinkling systems. When he came home he told me he was going to lay down and have a nap. While he napped I was watching t.v. and not too long after he got up and told me that he was really hungry. I said to him "just a second and I'll get you something to eat." Well, you don't tell a diabetic to wait. I didn't know that of course and as I was watching t.v. he was in the kitchen trying to get something to eat. I looked in there and he was trying to eat anything he could get his hands on. I noticed that he was starting to have convulsions. I grabbed the syrup and was trying to pour it in his mouth and it was getting all over his big beard he had at the time. I began to scream because by this time he had convulsed and bit his tongue and was bleeding from the mouth. My little old neighbor in the apartment next to us thought he was chasing me around the apartment because we were newlyweds so she didn't think anything of it. I called 911 and immediatley the paramedics were there to assist. The whole time I was thinking I was going to be a widow. When he came to a couple of the paramedics were helping me because of my status and when he saw that he was furious because he didn't know why these men were surrounding me. He finally realized what had happened. I will never forget that experience and like I said it was my first and not my last experience with living with a diabetic.
Over the last 30 years I have watched Roger deal with this disease. I have seen the effects of his blood sugars being too high and also being too low. I've seen how it zaps his energy for days. I have had to call the paramedics another time when I couldn't get his blood sugar to come up high enough. I have watched him deal with chronic pain for years. I've seen him be very depressed about having to deal with these issues day in and day out. I've been to the emergency room with him when he had accidently given him the wrong insulin. We knew he was going to be in trouble and wanted to be close by where the doctors and nurses could help. It's hard to sleep at night knowing that he could wake up with a very low blood sugar which in turn could end up in convulsions. Even though we both know how blessed he is to still be so healthy after having diabetes for 41 years it's still hard not to ask yourself the question "why?"
Unfortuntley diabetes runs in his family. His older brother has it. He has 3 nephews who also have it and a cousin. It's a devastating disease and I pray that nobody else in our family will ever have to deal with it.
I want my husband to know what a hero he is in my eyes. It's so hard as a wife to see him each day taking shot after shot, checking blood sugars 8 times a day, having such stress at his work which in turn causes his blood sugars to go from one extreme to the other. He tries so hard to stay in control but it's been such a game lately. He works so hard for me and has such pride in all he does. I pray that he will know that I appreciate all that he does for me and that I can acknowledge them more. Again, he's my hero and i pray that he will be able to have many more years to enjoy life after retirement.
3 comments:
Yes, Dad is very lucky to be as good as he is, especially living with it for so long. He does a good job and taking care of himself and you do a good job of helping him! I don't know what we would do without Papa, so he better take care of himself so he will always be around!
I can relate to everything you described. I know my mom has/does feel the same way you do. That makes me laugh a little that he denied he had it. It reminds me of gary. He used to get really mad if we talked about it. He's better now but has had way to many close calls because he didn't take care of himself like he should have. I can't imagine how hard it would be to live with something like that!
It is so interesting to hear your experiences because we of course have our own experiences with Adam. It is a scary thing sometimes! And I feel so bad that they have to deal with that every day of their lives. But then if we look on the bright side, we are so extremely lucky we live at this time where they are able to take insulin and still live with the disease. Not too many years ago, they just would have died. So I am so grateful they have the drugs to help. But it is a big challenge for everyone, especially them who have it. When Kyle was four, he kept going to the bathroom over and over and over and I thought for sure he had diabetes. He didn't, but that doesn't mean he won't have it later. I worry about that. Again, thanks for sharing your experiences and thoughts!
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