Today, someone did/said something to me about being handicapped. I was livid and was telling Tommy about it. He thought the person was within his rights. I asked him to explain. He said, "Well, you know 25 people were injured in Memphis." It made no sense. I was furious and came close to saying some of the worst ever things to him. I got mad and hung up.
Later, I called and asked him a question in a calm voice, never mentioning the previous argument. Finally, I said, "Well, are you going to tell me?" He wanted to know what I was talking about. I told him it was the only question I had asked him. I was getting suspicious. He said he had no idea what I was talking about.
"Okay, I am calling the police station!
First of all, Tommy know I am writing this.
"NOOOOOOOO!"
Okay, that is it. His blood sugar is down.
The police, emt, and ambulance arrived with sirens blaring.
He did not hang up the phone, just told me someone was at the door.
I heard the emt talking to him. Tommy said, "Well, I don't have any clothes on. You can come in if you don't mind." I thought he just had on boxers. Nope, not a stitch.
His blood sugar was below 40 and he thought today was Friday and did not know who is president. THe turned to the phone to ask me. "Obama" I told him. The guy told him it does not count if he has to ask someone. I had told him Obama to see if he would catch the mistake. He did and sort of fussed at me, saying, "Nooo, it is not Obama." He could recite his own address.
Tommy said he was in New York and had a tower or something. He never could get "Trump."
His blood pressure was 180/110. The ambulance driver was asking if he should go to the hospital.. I got the emt on and told him how he was screaming because I was calling the police and was cursing, and that I thought it would come down.
It did come down to 110/73. They made him a pb sandwich and gave him milk, I think it was milk. His blood sugar came up to 51, not good enough they told him. I don't know what else they gave him to eat, but his blood sugar came up to 61.
Later, we talked. He said he thought I was crazy. Then, he said he wondered if it was him. I asked if he remembered screaming "Nooooo." He said, "Oh, yeah. He said he was standing with his walker and had his face/head turned straight up screaming to the ceiling and then wondered why he was yelling so. He said it was like howling at the moon.
Think of Brando's "Stelllaaaa! in Streetcar." It was that intensity and quality.
We could laugh about this. I know when my blood sugar is dropping (hypoglycemia) and comment to whomever that I cannot talk or sound like I am drunk. He does not have an inkling.
Let me tell you how Tommy curses. Do you remember in The Christmas Story how the dad cursed while the furnace made noise and you could never really understand the words. Well, that is how Tommy curses, only he makes the furnace sound, the sound that keeps you from hearing the words.
"Ga da, schw… ik spo chi chi uh." And, I can hear things bumping around and explosive breathing.
Does anyone else have someone with low blood sugar that scares you like he does me? Do they say strange things? Not understand what you say? Is there a reason I am aware and can articulate my problem and he cannot?
I tell someone my blood sugar is dropping. I tell them I sound like I have been drinking. I tell the person I cannot think of the words. I am not sure how I am able to articulate my problem and he thinks the world has gone mad.
About Kitty. She made herself scarce today. Tonight, when I came in the house about 8 pm, she was scaring me in the dark because I was afraid she would run under my feet. Well, she waited until I was on the steps to get under my feet. She hopped in front of my feet and sat there as I tried to step on the step. That meant I kicked her, not intentionally. I collided with her so hard that it hurt my toe. I screamed aloud out of pain, and she got away fast!
I looked back and she was sitting on the ground, just looking up at me. Maybe this accidental collision has cured her. I gave her food and talked nice to her. At least, I did not step on her or fall down.
At the grocery I found a cart of Honey Bunches of Oats for $0.99/14.5 ounces. Tommy likes them, so I got him four boxes. They had chocolate puffed rice cereal, so I got one for me. I could eat the whole box in one day. I like that the milk is chocolatey. Of course, I have eaten them dry for a snack.
Your friend is lucky to have you call and check on him. Isn't he taking any meds to regulate his blood sugar? I guess you must have been scared till the EMTs got to him.
ReplyDeleteThe emt told him he was lucky to have such a good friend. Yes, he takes insulin and another pill. He goes too long between meals and refuses to listen to me. He is reckless just to prove I cannot change him.
DeleteI was sorry to read that your friend. Tommy, had such a serious health situation happen. It's a good thing that you discovered he was having problems when you did.
ReplyDeleteOne time I had a bad low blood sugar scare. I have never been able to figure out what caused it. I had eaten my dinner about 3 hours earlier and had taken my insulin in the correct amount at the normal time.
I was reading blogs and I suddenly started feeling so cold, so I put a little quilt around my shoulders. And then I started feeling shaky and it felt like my heart was starting to race. Then my stomach was feeling weird. It dawned on me to check my blood sugar. The reading was 75 which isn't low. Then I started getting real shaky and weak feeling and realized it had to be low blood sugar. I got up to walk the few steps to the dining room where I have a sugar bowl. My legs were feeling so weak. I could barely even think. I grabbed the sugar bowl with the spoon in it and was going to go to the kitchen to put some in water, but I was starting to get tunnel vision and feel faint. I had to sit down. I yelled out for my husband to come help me, I tried to eat some sugar just out of the sugar bowl with the spoon, but I was shaking so much that the sugar wouldn't stay on the spoon. I was trying to tell my husband to get me some water, but my speech was babbling too much to be understood. I guess as he watched me trying to spoon sugar into my mouth with my hands shaking so bad he finally understood to get some water for me and I mixed sugar into it and drank it down. It started working pretty fast. I never lost consciousness, but I know I was close to it because of that weird tunnel vision where everything looked dark around the edges, and stuff looked far away. Even after my blood sugar got to a normal level, it took me the rest of the evening to feel okay. I kept pondering why I would have such bad low blood sugar symptoms when my glucometer said 75, which is normal. Finally it dawned on me, right before I sat down to read blogs, I had used hand cream with glycerin in it. So I imagine my actual blood sugar was very much lower than indicated by my finger-stick blood test because the glycerin on my skin measured as sugar in my blood.
The hand cream had affected my results. I still don't know what had caused me to go so low. The whole deal scared the heck out of me. I told my endocrinologist that if I had any more episodes like that I will have to consider just how safe insulin is for me.
I now keep some regular soda with sugar in the house, plus a box of sugar cubes for some quick easy to use sugar if I ever have another incident like that again. I also stopped using hand cream for the most part and I make sure to keep plenty of test strips in the house.
That is scary. I have had the tunnel vision thing for maybe 10 seconds and maybe three times. However, the shaking hands has not happened. Neither Tommy nor I have anyone to call for in the next room. I gave him a handful of suckers to keep in the car for me. However, they are for him, too. He eats them, but he wouldn't if he thought I gave them to him for his use. You, like me, seem able to tell when something is wrong. He cannot, and I don't know why. Twenty years ago when he had a renter, she called an ambulance to him when he was lying unconscious in the floor. He said that all she had to do was feed him something. Silly man. I am glad you keep something nearby. Thanks for the information.
ReplyDeleteIt would depend on what was said to you about being handicapped. Were they just commendting on it, were they making you feel bad? I regular have conversations on the topic including with people I meet, I am glad to hear your friend is doing much better,
ReplyDeleteBarb,
DeleteInsulting me.
So glad you were on top of things. Good for you.
ReplyDeleteKim,
ReplyDeleteThanks. It is rough being his friend.When he was lucid, I said to him to believe me when you need food. He said he would not eat when I told him to, get fat, and have a heart attack! So, a uniform has to show up. I am not going to have him wreck with me in the car. He has no intention on doing the right thing.