What a wonderful weekend it was!! We took a family trip to
the zoo yesterday. What a gorgeous day for it! 80’s in late October in KC!! I
hope you all were outside too.
Just as we pull out of the driveway I feel my first low
blood sugar of the day. No biggie, fruit snacks from my purse stash that’s for
both Landon & I. Scooby Doo kind this week. Then I chased then with an apple
cinnamon bar Scott had in his truck. On we went to the zoo. Turns out, it was “Boo
at the Zoo”, come in costume and trick or treating for kiddos…..oops. Parenting almost fail here, only to be saved by telling Landon “see how hot it is, you wouldn’t want
to be in your costume out here today!! Plus, you can still trick or treat!!” Phew,
we dodged that one just barely :)
River otters, Polar bear, Penguins, & Elephants oh my!!
Landon LOVES the zoo, he always has!! This little boy of ours LOVES all animals
big, small, real, and all 500 of his stuffed animals as well!! :)
We had just wandered over the bridge and into Africa, and
were trying to decide where to go next when my second and much worse low blood
sugar hit. As I struggled to make a decision on what I needed to do – the lower
the sugar the tougher this is, it continued to drop. I settled on having to ask to cut in the mile long line
in the restaurant to get a pop. I asked
a lady who was waiting to order with her family if I could please get a drink
for low blood sugar. She looked at me, sighed, said “I guess” and actually
rolled her eyes at me. I muttered out “I’m sorry, I’m Diabetic” (In hindsight I’m
yelling at myself that I have nothing to be sorry for). I asked the lady
working the counter for a dr pepper as sweat was pouring down my face. The scared factor had set in by now. At the
same time, the lady that I had gotten in front of was discussing with her family
how irresponsible I was, and lecturing them that I could have prevented this
and on and on and on. I have never in my entire Diabetic life felt this ashamed
or embarrassed, I was near tears waiting for my drink. If you know me very
well, you know that my typical non-low blood sugar reaction would have been to
confront this woman. However without low blood sugar, I wouldn’t have been in
that situation. The whole thing lasted maybe 3 minutes, but it felt like a
lifetime. On any regular day in “Beth-Land”, I take on the world, full steam
ahead, and don’t back down especially if it comes to sticking up for what I think is right. In fact, I’m kinda known for that! But in that moment, that one person was
able to make me feel like it was my fault, that I was a “bad” and “irresponsible”
diabetic and it hurt…..a lot.
I slurped down the Dr Pepper, inhaled more snacks from my
purse. My blood sugar recovered, we moved on, out of Africa by tram, and on to
trick or treating. A visit with the blue
frogs, Meerkats, and Lemurs (a few of Landons favorites). We even discovered a
bridge to feed the fish below that we hadn’t come across before. Then, with one
worn out little boy we headed towards home. All in all, it was a fantastic day!!
That 3 minutes of awfulness didn’t ruin my whole day, it did take a part of it
away, just not the whole thing!!!
By the end of the day,
I knew I would share this story. And I knew that my one hope for that
woman is that no one she loves will ever be faced with this disease. Control for
us Type 1’s is an illusion, something we can chase, but never catch. In order
to survive, we must do what we can with what we have, and sometimes that means
dealing with some rough moments.
In order to end this on a slightly humorous note.......here's a funny!!
