Our Family Journey
Hi I’m Noelle and am Rob’s partner (the ‘Healthy Diabetic’ you’re reading about). I have a blog called ‘The Over-r-whelm’ and it seemed fitting to share our family’s diabetic journey! Speaking of overwhelm, Rob and I work as a team managing his diabetes. We thought it was relevant to give insight from a partner’s perspective and have some control over the quality of life we’re living.
As you’ve heard before, Rob has had Type 1 diabetes for over 40 years. We’ve learned to manage it together through the ups and downs. Having no previous diabetics in my world, I’ve had to learn everything including the basics such as when he experiences hypos (a state of low blood sugar). I can just tell by Rob’s speech and manner if his blood sugar levels are low and he needs some apple juice. Somehow, I get an inkling that’s instinctual about his blood sugar state sometimes even before he does. Often when I suggest he test his sugar it will be below 4.0 (he should be between 4.8-8 ideally) requiring a sugar hit to get back on track. This intuition has proven helpful at times.
It reminds me of the time we were in Canada in a remote area for a friends’ wedding. After a fun night of dancing, drinking and eating we fell asleep about 2am in our beautiful little cottage inn. Little did I know, but Rob, who was still injecting himself manually with FAST acting insulin with each meal and a different 24 hour SLOW acting insulin dose each night before bed, mixed up his insulin in the excitement. Before going to sleep by mistake he took a large dose of his fast acting insulin – thinking it was the slow acting version and went into a deep sleep. I woke at 4am and Rob didn’t stir. He’s a super light sleeper and I recognised the signs of a low blood sugar right away. Clammy skin, very deep sleep, sweating and he was a dead weight (all 6.3″ of him). I tried poking, prodding, but I couldn't wake him up. After a short time, I rang the hotel's front desk who called an ambulance – the closest hospital was 30 minutes away – and the concierge came up with apple juice to assist but to no avail. The paramedics finally arrived, gave Rob a glucose injection and he still wouldn’t wake up. They then transferred him to a bed on wheels and got him outside into the waiting ambulance. I sat with the driver on the 30 minute trip to the closest local hospital as he asked me about life in Australia and what it was like living there. I think I mumbled something about life in Australia being comparable to Canadian life before asking ‘is he going to die?’ They gave Rob another glucose injection before arriving to the hospital and luckily he started to stir into consciousness on our arrival. Then I knew he was going to be ok. Since we're not married, I had to wait in the main waiting room wondering what was happening. Rob told me later he work up in a dream state to whiteness and funny Canadian accents and couldn’t figure out where he was. He made a full recovery but it was a huge wake up call for us too.
Being an insulin-dependent diabetic (Type 1) has its challenges, but Rob rises to them and learns from them. Rob is happy to tell anyone who’s asking (or looking) about the funny tube sticking out of his belly or his pocket connected to his pump and explain what it does. He educates one person at a time. Kids especially are so keen to learn so Rob will explain what he’s doing whether it’s checking his blood sugar on his glucometer or guzzling apple juice because he has a low blood sugar reading. When traveling he always carries his insulin in his Fridge-to-go insulin cooler that he helped design along with other consumables to effectively manage his diabetes.
In the last 15 years especially, I’ve learned so much about diabetes and really believe you must educate yourself and your family. I don’t know how I know when Rob’s sugar is low or getting low, I just know. We’ve educated our young boys to see the signs too. Rob is encouraged to recognise the early symptoms himself faster, if possible, so he can manage his blood sugars independently as this is always the best option. Rob has now been on an insulin pump for over 10 years, evolving with the technology available, and it has really improved his quality of life and our management of his diabetes.
His family is his back up plan. If you have diabetes yourself, you need a back up plan and to re-educate yourself on a regular basis as there are many developments and changes that can make life easier - you mustn’t become complacent. Hey, my blog helping to deal with overwhelm might help you too! As a family, we recognise that we need to understand and help Rob manage his diabetes better and it’s ongoing. This journey will continue to change so we may as well change with it.