Saturday, March 19, 2011

Night Vision of a Type 1

I thought I would share this funny little story with the rest of the diabetics out there. I am sure you can relate. For those of you that use a CGM, you know you have to calibrate it throughout the day, and if you forget, you will get that beeping reminder (at least on the minimed Revel you do) So it was about 5AM this morning and I awake to the CGM beeping away. When looking to see what the alarm was trying to tell us, it said "meter BG now" so I shook Vince and woke him up and said "honey, meter BG". He grabbed his black bag from the night stand and started to open it. I asked him if he was going to BG in the dark and said he was going to try. I knew with his eye sight (and from past experiences) that he wasn't going to have much luck seeing the drop of blood, or even the test strip for that matter so I said I would so it for him. So I got a test strip out of the case, and turned the light on from his pump/CGM to use as a flashlight. I put the test strip near the light, inserted it into his meter and proceeded to prick his finger that he had positioned in my direction. Then I turned on the "flashlight" again, positioned it on his stomach, pointing in the direction of his finger, and used the light to see the test strip and the blood on his finger. Once I got the sample, I brought the light towards the meter to read the number. Then I just calibrated the CGM, pulled out the test strip, tossed it on my nightstand, put everything back in his bag and went back to sleep. Talk about laziness? Wouldn't it had been easier just to get up and turn on the light. Yup but I guess we both figured why do that when we can just lay in bed and use the handy dandy flashlight :)

6 comments:

  1. Ha, the thought of the flashlight on his ABD had me laughing. I used to wear the headlamp when going into test Joe. Now I just turn on a lamp b/c he sleeps like the dead anyway.

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  2. Yeah Vince sleeps hard too, we are just lazy lol I do normally turn on the light.

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  3. Great post, Sandy. Thank you so much for sharing this, from the spouse perspective! I do the same thing when getting up during the night to test... just use my pump as a little flashlight. Same in the theaters and other darkened places like that, when I opt not to go with the cell phone!

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  4. this is probably cynical -- but I wonder if you will still be helping him like that in 25 years

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  5. I always use my cell phone to get enough light! :)

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  6. I didn't even think of the cell phone, no clue why I wouldnt have lol.

    I think because of Vince's painful neuropathy and vision issues, he will always need my help in one way or another and I will always be here for him. He also has hypo unawareness so i have to be on alert for him (he wears a sensor too) 9 years and going strong :)

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