Showing posts with label Tay-Dar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tay-Dar. Show all posts

Monday, January 11, 2016

My Little Hero

There are two ways I can look at this. I am going to give you the bad before I give you the good.

Bad: My annoying little sister wakes me up at 4:30 every morning so that I can check my sugar! That is her way of telling me that I cannot take care of myself and she refuses to let me sleep! Ugh!

Good (and how I actually look at this): I am so THANKFUL to have a little sister who is selfless enough to set an alarm for 4:30 every morning to make sure my sugar doesn't drop and I live to see morning. In so many ways, she is my little hero.

To be honest, I've never looked at it the bad way. Maybe once or twice when I had not slept very well, but never to that extent.

A few weeks ago I had a middle-of-the-night diabetes scare, where if I wouldn't have set an alarm randomly (I had no reason to, and I never do), I would not have woken up. My sugar was only 40 at 4am, but I didn't wake up like I usually do. I was in a very deep sleep. The next night at 4am, I was only 30. Every night since then my sweet little sister has come to check on me and make sure that I am okay. She makes me check my sugar and then we both go back to sleep. Until I was 18, my Mom did that for me. If I have been having a rough day with diabetes she will still check me throughout the night to make sure that I am okay.

Too often I read about diabetics who are "dead in bed." This basically means that their sugar drops too low while they are sleeping and they do not wake up. I never want this to be me, but it has come close quite a few times in the past year and it scares me a little more every time. I am so blessed to have a family that is willing to help me take care of my disease to ensure my safety! I am eternally thankful for that blessing. It is because of my family that I am still alive, and probably because of them that I do not have any complications from my disease.

I guess God just isn't done with me yet, so He decided to wake me up and let me stick around for a while. He never ceases to amaze me.

Saturday, November 7, 2015

The Tay-Dar

As promised, today's post is devoted to my wonderful little sister. I also call her my "Tay-Dar."Autumn has saved my life in more ways that I can count, so I'll try to stick specifically with diabetes-related topics here.

I think her magnificent "Tay-Dar" ability began when she was about six or seven. I remember the day it happened--or most of it anyway. My grandfather was in the hospital so we were all up and getting ready to go visit him. Mom was either in the shower or she had run to the store. I couldn't get to her, wherever she was. I remember telling Dad I felt low and him telling me to get some juice. I went to the kitchen and started drinking orange juice straight out of the container. Autumn yelled at me for that, making sure she told me how disgusting that was. That's the last thing I remember before I passed out from being too low.

A while later I woke up in Mom's lap with pancake syrup all over me and my emergency kit was put together and ready to go. I had dropped so low that my meter wasn't even registering a number. Autumn was really freaked out that day and I believe that is why she developed her Tay-Dar. 

"Tay-Dar" is what I call her unique ability to pick up on every single change in my blood sugar levels. She is usually more accurate than my dexcom, and sometimes she is more accurate than my meter. She knows how I start acting when my sugar is too far off in one direction, but she has also been able to accurately recognize when my sugar is headed into a dangerous number. We've always been very close and we might be able to give partial credit to the Tay-Dar for that.

I can recall some times where she has used her ability to save me before I even noticed something was wrong. One time we were at church for a drama meeting, both in separate buildings on opposite sides of the campus, and she randomly showed up in my room. She demanded that I check my sugar immediately. I was quite low and I didn't even realize it. If she hadn't have come to tell me, I probably wouldn't have checked my sugar. She has woken me up in the middle of the night on several different occasions and demanded that I check my sugar. Always I am either too high or too low, and she has saved me from some of the complications that can cause.

Nowadays, we have even done this thing that we call "tsuino" or "twin brain." Her God-given ability has expanded to where we actually do think the same things quite frequently! (Poor girl...) Now, rather than just recognizing what my diabetes is doing, she can tell random things that I am doing or have done before I even tell her. For example, I volunteered us both for the fall festival at the local public library in October. Before I even got in the car she knew what I had done.

God has an amazing sense of humor. Through Autumn almost losing me, He has bestowed upon me the amazing gift of her. We are so much alike, and yet still our own people. She has saved me in so many more ways than just what was listed here, but especially in terms of diabetes she saves me almost everyday. God gave me Autumn, and Tay-Dar, to keep me safe and sane. I am very blessed with my little sister and her amazing gifts.