Finding Direction: The Wind Vane Chronicles

The alarm clock went off way too early at 6 a.m.

I struggled to wake up and get up, an iffy proposition any day and usually attempted much later in the morning.  After being a bona fide morning person nearly my whole life, the past few years of feeling bad most mornings and not getting going until noon or later has had its challenges.

I checked my blood sugar first thing, as always, and determined that this trip I would keep it up and try to run it higher than usual just to be safe.  Because I get so hyper about flights – being on time, getting through security, the whole bit – my sugar invariably runs way too low.  The worst time was in 2003 when I was returning to New Orleans from Washington, D.C. via Miami (ask American Airlines) and my blood sugar crashed so bad that I passed out on the plane as it was approaching Miami.  I was out for an hour and a half and it was very scary.

I gradually woke up in my seat on the plane, all alone except for six EMTs, an I.V. going in my arm and a slew of AA personnel hovering over me.

The previous paragraph is my only "short" digression for the day.  I hope.

The flight from New Orleans to Dallas went well . . . except that about 30 minutes prior to landing, my blood sugar dropped way too low, despite me having it on the high side before I left.  My old nemesis.  I can never, ever get away from or not think about being diabetic and all it entails.  Not even for a second..

This time my luck held and I got help before I passed out.  The couple next to me both worked in a hospital and the girl figured out really quickly what was going on as she saw me check my sugar and start eating York mints.  (I always carry six of them in my purse because they are pure sugar with a touch of chocolate coating.)  She called the stewardess, who got me a Coke.

By now the plane had landed and was emptying, but I was not quite coherent enough to stand up even, much less navigate the Dallas airport.  The stewardess brought me some water with sugar stirred in it and made me drink that.  I have to say that the AA personnel both in 2003 in Miami and this time in Dallas were just super.  She got me a wheelchair to go up the ramp when I was finally able to sort of think again and waited with me and the agent there (whom she had called from the plane) until an electric cart came to get me to take me to the end of the terminal and up an elevator to go to the next terminal over where my flight to Abilene was going to be.  There, a second electric cart was waiting to take me to my gate.

It was about 11:30 a.m. and I had time to eat a bite of lunch, which I really needed to do, but by now I had so much sugar in me (from the candy, Coke & sugar water) that I felt really sick with sugar overload.  I sat in TGI Friday’s with a small salad and drink but could only eat about three bites.  I felt yuck.

I felt no better when I got to Abilene, but was so happy to be there in one piece and to see my mom and Laura.  I would say see them waiting for me, but they weren’t.  I could see them both through the brand new glass walled gift shop engaged in conversation with the attractive owner and looking at all the neat gifts.  They finally saw me, but I was intrigued by the shop, as well, so we three all went in and struck up the conversation again.

Whatever qualms I had had about this trip working out (I still could not shake the memories of being in ICU while on the "dream trip" to New Mexico in 2006) were rapidly vanishing.  We all looked so "cute" together and made such a great team.  A cohesive unit.  We were already laughing a lot and oohing and ahhing over every bright thing around us.

Laura & Mom had already told the young lady that we were going on a road trip and she seemed as excited for us as we were.  She thought we all looked alike.  It was really interesting because when I arrived and saw Laura, she had just gotten her hair cut and had become a brunette (after growing up blonde and keeping her hair blonde with highlights her whole adult life) and her cut and style were just like mine!  I had just gotten my hair cut and covered what little gray I have and our hair was the same color.  

We don’t really look that much alike and are built totally differently, but now we looked very much alike.  She is seven years younger than me, but that really doesn’t show much these days.  What does show (to me, anyway), when we have pictures taken together, is how much smaller Mom is now (she’s "shrunk" 2 1/2 inches) and she and Laura are both much smaller boned than I am.  I’m now back down to my old size 10 in clothes, but standing next to them I look huge!

(Here’s a picture from the next day just to show you what I’m talking about.)

We hung around the airport for a while, then Mom & I dropped Laura off at her house, with promises from her that she would be ready to leave town the next morning just after 11:15 a.m. when her two year old class was done.  We told her we would make sandwiches to bring with us in the car so we could get on the road and not have to immediately stop for lunch.  I asked Laura how she wanted her sandwich and we left.  By the time I got to Mom’s I was feeling better and thought I might live.

Mom & I spent the afternoon getting things out for the trip, packing, and making a run to the grocery store to get our sandwich fixin’s and some apples and drinks for the ice chest we were taking.  When we got home, she made us my favorite wilted lettuce salad with greens, crumbled bacon, hard boiled eggs and green onions topped with a hot bacon/sugar/vinegar mixture spooned over the salad.

By then, I was hungry and this just hit the spot.

I was tired and hadn’t slept much the night before, so took something to help me sleep and crawled into bed early in "my" bedroom and promptly fell asleep, happy to be with my mom and excited that we were soon all going to be on our way.

To Be Continued . . .