Diabetes is one of the oldest recognized recognized diseases.
It could be an asset on a CV.
According to our boy, levels in strategy games such as “clash of clans” are valued on CVs because they reflect a player’s management skills. Managing diabetes is an asset beyond comparison, because what’s at stake isn’t virtual – it’s real life! #IRL
And this daily complexity, the multitude of calculations, decisions and actions, inevitably generates errors… Of course, we’re human!
In four years of type 1 diabetes, we’ve experienced a wide range of mistakes.
Here is a small selection:
- One Saturday evening at 6.30 pm: a hunch leads our son to check his insulin supply and discover…
“There are none left!
– Are you sure?
– Yes !!!!
– Papa Glours! No insulin left! What time is it? Phew, the pharmacy’s still open. Go for it!
– The prescription?
– It’s right where it belongs!”
In short, a great moment of panic, which fortunately ends well, but will leave its mark on us for several months. We now check his equipment every three days 😉
We made the same mistake with the sensors as we did with the needles…
When I say that inventory management is a real skill, I’m not exaggerating.
- 9pm … our Teddy Bear has programmed his alarm for the injection of his LANTUS.
He manages alone on his bed before joining us in tears.
He injected 22 units of NOVORAPID in place of his LANTUS! We are petrified by the news. Calm on the outside, stormy on the inside… We reassure him: “You’ll be fine, we’re here for you”. In reality, we’re petrified.
Slow-sugar apple juice… A lot of it… To compensate for all that insulin, which is so effective!
It’s a pain to see him, tired, chewing and swallowing toast with honey to combine the intake of fast and slow sugars.
My brave child, we’ve been watching over you all night long, reader in hand! That night, you became our little one again.
This experience prompted our creative teenager to design and build his own “Lantus display”.
- “I don’t know if I’ve done my insulin…”
As our teddy bear doesn’t always remove the needle he’s just used (he often bends it and leaves it on the pen), he’s sometimes got things mixed up… We then try to remember his blood sugar level and the number of units he’s chosen to inject, but nothing’s certain… So our natural instinct kicks in! I sniff it like a mama bear and the smell of insulin will “tell” me the rest! We’ve always been able to resolve this situation using our primary sense of smell. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t check our sugar levels after the meal, of course.
- Dinner time
A broth of winter diseases is simmering at school, at work and in the village… Dextro, insulin, dinner… and hop, a gastro! Our child – who had no symptoms at all thirty minutes earlier – has just returned all his dinner. How is this possible? He’s now in a feverish state, and once again, he’ll have to compensate for the insulin he’s just injected. In this case, we prefer Coca-Cola as a sweetener. In our country, it’s the official drink for treating gastroenteritis. We always keep a small bottle of therapeutic Coca-Cola on hand. It’s obviously a bad night ahead as it doesn’t retain slow sugars, but we’ll get through this fight, as we always do! We have no choice!
That’s it… the list is not exhaustive and other errors will no doubt be added to it, because we are a spontaneous family with a type 1 diabetic teenager, not a laboratory model or a protocol subject. We try sincerely and simply to do our best.