Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Close Call

He has fallen off of playground equipment; fairly big falls over the years. A fall off the top of monkey bars when he was 4 years old with a blood sugar of 43 resulted in a scraped up contused, screaming Joe and a shaken D' Mama. I was a novice then; a novice "pancrent" dealing with a 5 year old Bridget, a 4 year old friend of Joe's, and low...injured...less than tolerant Joe. He was also low during "The Concussion Incident". I don't know if that low made him more prone to falling off the slide or not. I cannot help but wonder though. It must always be taken into consideration during our day-in-the-life. Always.


A few days ago while sledding...

Joe and his pals had found a little stream at the base of the sled hill. The ice was thawing. The combination of mud, ice, and water was inviting the boys to build dams with ice chunks, throw ice chunks and to explore the path of the water and the ice chunks. The stream was directed under a two-laned country road via a large drainage pipe. It was perhaps a couple of feet in diameter.

You can see where this is going...

Per my usual, I am paying some attention to the boys antics but am not overly involved in micro-managing their play.

During my neglect, I hear Joe's peers calling his name in an "echo-y" fashion. I look over to see them all hovered around the drainage pipe. Of course my kid...my Joe ... my kid, Joe, who has diabetes is on his hands and knees crawling through this icy, wet, muddy drainage pipe.

Now, most moms may be a bit hacked by the wetness and mud that they are gonna have to contend with after such an expedition. Some moms may be cool with such and adventure. Me? Well, I was cool with Joe exploring the pipe. But. You want to know what was going through my head? The first thing that popped up was "please Dear Lord do not let him realize that he is low in the middle of the crawl through the pipe." You know those lows that his legs and body stop "working". I was imagining pulling "The Wounded Soldier" through the confines of the space to access Joe's oral cavity with glucose.

He made it out without incident. Muddy and wet, he ran over to to me. He felt low. He was 31. It was a bad one.

Thankful for a near miss in our day-in-the-life with diabetes.

17 comments:

Scully said...

close call for sure. 31?!
yeah, that's a "bad one" that's a "seriously bad one". But I know you'd be in there mud and ice cold water if you had to.

Cindy said...

Oh, I wish I could give you a hug right now! But, I have to say, I'm impressed with both you and Joe that you let him explore like that and that he did it without fear. Diabetes has nothing on your kid! There's no holding him back. And that is a very cool, totally awesome thing! Lots of love to all of you!

sky0138 said...

Oi 31 is not a pretty number! So glda he was able to crawl out and tell you on his own. :o( I hate how D invades our thoughts in situations like that. I am always afraid Emma will become low while playing high above me in the tunnels and tubes at the indoor playground. ugh

Amy@Diapeepees said...

When you're below 40, it's numbing. And I've got to say, your descript here is so perfect...I felt all those things you wrote. And I would def be the mom that worried about the dirty mess I would contend with...but I could also be the mom that thought about how much I didn't want to slide through a muddy wet tunnel to pull him out for a low.

Joanne said...

How scary... i am so glad he was able to extract himself from the pipe. By the way, I cannot get over how old he is looking these days!

Our Diabetic Warrior said...

Praise God for getting him out safely! Hugs to you Reyna!

shannon said...

thankful for a near-miss indeed. jeez louise.

and i agree with joanne, he's looking so OLD! in a good way. :)

Denise aka Mom of Bean said...

Well, of COURSE he was low. ;)
So glad you didn't have to crawl in after him, though I know you would have without a moment's hesitation.
Reminds me of when I had to climb up to the top of a disgusting play structure when Bean was 3-ish and got too scared to come down by herself. Think I would have much rathered a muddy, icy drain pipe!!

Jonah said...

What was the Dexcom doing during all this?

I was thinking today about how much differently I react to lows and highs depending on whether or not I'm focused on something else I'd really rather be doing.
Although, lows like 31 have a tendency to make themselves felt no matter what I'm doing.

Sarah said...

yikes, anything in the 30's sends my pulse racing and makes my stomach turn...do you think maybe Joe gets extra adventuresome when low, TJ does - he almost behaves like superman win low, it is one of the tell tale signs for me to ask him if he's checked recently. Maybe Joe's endorphins start kickin in and get him going in a direction that isn't safe as his BG starts dropping.
Whenever I read your stories of Joe's adventures I know that my E would be right there with him living up every moment of fun and just being a busy boy outdoors. He is so lucky to have such a rock star mama.
Enjoy the rest of your week :)

Kelly said...

Close Call...Yikes! Have seen our fare share of those around here lately but minus the drainage pipe! xoxo

Holly said...

Oh my gosh!! I'm so glad he made it back over to you! A trip down into the drain pipe would NOT have made my day. ; ) You are a great mom-not micromanaging..he'll appreciate you when he grows up! : )

Amy said...

So glad he was able to crawl out despite that nasty low.

My first thought wasn't the mud, it was the pump-- as in, was it getting wet and muddy? LOL. It's funny how the mind of a d-mom works, isn't it?

Kristin said...

That is scary! Your spidey sense was tingling. Glad he was OK!

Anonymous said...

Scary... I'm glad everything worked out okay in the end. Very inconvenient place for a low. That was a bad one. During all Joe's play, Mom seems to be close at hand, most of the time. He is so active; lucky to have his Mom watchng over him so carefully.

Misty said...

Oh my goodness! 31!!! I am so thankful that he was able to crawl out of the drain pipe. I can't imagine you...wait, scratch that! I can just imagine you! :) crawling through that drain pipe after your sweet Joe. :(~~~~ <--That's me sticking my tongue out at D.

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