Shoes Dropping

I was out for a run on Friday morning and it occurred to me that I had not updated the blog in a while. I was thinking about how I should update it even when things are going well because I don't want to give the impression that all we do is move from one crisis to the next. It's actually far from that. Most days are "normal" days around here. They certainly don't look normal to anyone else but blood sugar checks and insulin sticks have become incorporated into our daily routine. I don't think it will ever actually feel normal but we've accepted it.

While I was running I started to write the blog post in my head. I do this a fair amount. I write introductions to papers, blog entries, responses to student questions. I was going to title the entry, "Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop" because it's been a while since since there was a bump on the road. Grace has successfully dodged any number of bugs, insurance is moving smoothly along, and we're all in a decent place with all this. I thought it was important to share this with everyone.

And then the school nurse called, "Grace has had a severe hypoglycemic episode." Thank goodness she also spit out "She's fine." I'm not sure if it was the seriousness of her voice or the fact that I was just about to pen a piece on how well we were doing, but it completely stunned me. The nurse explained Grace bottomed out at 43 in music class. I've seen Grace at 43 and it's not pretty: shaky, pale, lethargic, slightly incoherent. There's two pieces of good news in this. One, the system worked like it's supposed to. Grace felt awful, told her music teacher who immediately called the nurse, who, after hearing Grace couldn't walk to the office, immediately responded with juice and her test kit. Two juices later and a bag of pretzels and she was out playing at recess like nothing ever happened. Two: I know what happened. I hate the scary lows when you have no idea what triggered it. But I know exactly what happened. It was one stupid banana. We use a book to calculate carbs and I swore the number was too high for the banana I gave Grace for a snack. Ends up it was way off for it to bring her sugar down so low.

The rest of the day I was in a fog. I was supposed to be geting materials together for next semester and instead found myself worried, unable to concentrate, wanting to hug my girl. The nurse called a few times to let me know Grace was perfectly fine. I decided to give up on the day and read a book instead. After school I asked Grace about what happened and it was all very routine if not slightly comical to her. The school nurse running, all the extra juice-- an insulin free bag of pretzels! Of course I didn't think it was funny but I rolled with it. I make it a point to never let Grace see how upset I get when stuff like this happens. I save that for Tom. But again, Grace rebounded just fine. To her it was just another kooky day and she giggled when she told me maybe we should lay off the bananas for a while. So I smiled and she smiled and we just chalked it up to another day in the world of diabetes management.