Another Beautiful Day in Abilene
May 9th, 2008 at 12:28 pm by Dee O'Neil Andrews
Hi! All is well here and the weather really is beautiful. We have the house all opened up and even though it's nearly noon, the temperature is in the 70s and there is a cool breeze blowing through the house. Wonderful!
We're having chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes and gravy for lunch, along with fresh green beans. Wanna come for lunch? My sister, Laura, is coming over to eat with us and my daughter Rebecca will be here a little later. She was supposed to have been here for lunch, but her blood sugar was low this morning and she couldn't get away from home. She's diabetic, too, on insulin since she was 13.
When she became a Type 1 diabetic at 13, it was one of the worst days of my life. I'd already been diabetic on insulin for about 10 years then and was doing "okay," but I was horrified that my child had become a diabetic, too. She was just a little kid, after all, and had her whole life ahead of her.
She was in the 7th grade and it was winter time and so she wore clothes that covered her up so that I didn't see that she'd lost a lot of weight. Having been around me being diabetic for so long, she figured out that she was becoming a diabetic, too, but hid if from me and tried to deny the truth to herself.
It wasn't until nearly Christmas - at her chorus concert at school - that I realized something was terribly wrong with her, but I didn't know what on earth it was. She was up on the stage in the dark auditorium with the bright lights shining down just from above on the group and as I looked at her there in that setting I suddenly was chilled and felt as if I were looking at death. Truly. It was awful.
After, as we walked to the car, I saw how thin she'd gotten and how really bad she looked, but I still had no clue what was wrong with her. I just knew it was something terrible that I needed to see about as soon as possible.
It was Friday night and we all went on to bed. During the middle of the night, I suddenly woke up and instantly knew in my heart that she was diabetic. I cannot possibly begin to describe how I felt.
As soon as morning broke, I went into her room and woke her up and told her I wanted to check her blood sugar. It was extremely high. Then, she told me how she'd suspected she was diabetic, but was afraid to face it or to tell me.
I immediately called a close Christian friend who was a pharmicist at the local small hospital and told him what was going on. He made arrangements with a good internal medicine doctor from a nearby larger town to meet with me and Rebecca at noon at the hospital emergency room. I told Rebecca we would go at noon to get her good help and then I told her I had some things to do first in town, and left home.
I went to the office where I worked (for the newspaper as Community Editor) and sat at my desk and cried and cried and cried. All morning. I was beside myself.
Near noon, I composed myself because I was fiercely determined to be strong for Rebecca and then went home to pick her up. As we pulled into the hospital parking lot and parked, Rebecca turned to me in her sweet 70 pound ravished body and said to me - "You know, Mama - I'm not scared any more at all."
"Why is that, Rebecca?" I asked her.
She replied, "I guess because you're so calm about it."
If only she knew my heart, I thought.
Her blood sugar, which should have been under 100, was nearly 500. The doctor, who was my doctor for my diabetes, immediately gave her a shot of insulin and we talked about what kind and how often and all of that. He wanted to hospitalize her for several days to get her regulated, which would have been the normal thing to do, but I told him that I would do whatever it took to help her get regulated and adjusted at home - bring her to the hospital four times a day for blood tests - anything - to keep her from being hospitalized.
He and the nurses were all amazed, too, at how calm I was. He told me he'd never, ever had anyone take such news so well or be so assured about handling this difficult a problem.
I told him I was not hospitalized when I first became diabetic, but that the Endocrinologist in Northern Virginia I had was very matter-of-fact about it and just had me come to his office every other day for a while (fasting in the mornings for blood tests) to see started.
I told him I was determined to help her learn that this was not a crippling disease that would be totally debilitating for her, but that she would learn how to manage it and to go on with her life. Because he could see how adamant I was and because he knew that I knew exactly how and what to do for her, he agreed that we could work from home. I cannot tell you what a huge blessing that was for both me and Rebecca.
That has been nearly 29 years ago, now, for Rebecca and she manages her diabetes beautifully. She barely has any complications from it and has two boys, too, who were both born healthy and well because she was so careful about her blood sugars during the high risk pregnancies.
She is very petite and still looks like a teenager. She always dresses really cute and, of late, has taken to wearing cowboy boots with her jeans and pants. She's a mess!
So, I'll be glad to see her in a bit and to have her here with us for three or four days. She's lots of fun.
Oh . . . by the way. I started this post before lunch, but had to stop to eat and am now finishing it about 1:30 p.m. Sorry you missed it with us. And, sorry, but we ate up nearly everything out and there are very few leftovers from anything, except a couple of bites. The cream gravy slathered all over the chicken fried steak was "awesome," as they say.
Cheers & Blessings to you all today! And, especially to you mothers. Much love, Dee
