Welcome to Thursday Coffee Hour. This is an open topic thread so help yourself to the goodies and sit a spell and let us know what is new with you. I am a huge fan of Elton John. The title lyrics of his song Someone Saved My Life Tonight has been going through my head for the last couple of days. Tuesday was another one of those nights in care giving. Follow me below the orange dingle berry for the latest chapter in Caregiver's 101.
I swear if I ever write the book Caregiver's 101 I am subtitling it Welcome to Hell. When it starts getting to the point that you can't remember how many times you have pulled the rabbit out of the hat and saved a life you know you are a real caregiver. Reid's Occupational Therapist has a tendency to dismiss me and my efforts because I'm not medically trained. Yet I was smart enough the first time this happened to grab the Kayro syrup since he could swallow that easily.
Reid had another incident where the blood sugar plummeted this time to 43. No reason that we can tell. I immediately started feeding him Kayro syrup and glucose tablets. This time around we had stroke symptoms where he was having trouble talking. I called the paramedics and they took him to the hospital. They did an MRI and everything came back normal. It was 4:30 AM before they released him.
I'm not really sure now how many times I've pulled him back from severe blood sugar drop. I think we have had paramedics five times with three trips to the hospital and one hospitalization. I know the episode of grand mal seizures almost killed him. I didn't know and neither did he that the blood sugar drop could cause stroke like symptoms with being unable to talk properly. He is okay today.
So now I know that low blood sugar can cause convulsions and stroke like symptoms. I just hope there aren't any other surprises waiting down the road or at least I can read about them in a medical journal and not experience them first hand. In the meantime I always have Kayro syrup on hand and in case of extreme danger a glucogan injector and know how to use it. Someone saved my life tonight. Yes that's me a caregiver and lifesaver.