One night, my husband Travis and I decided to have some drinks. I had about a bottle of red wine to myself that night. I woke up to 5 male paramedics standing around my bed. I thought it had to be a dream so I closed my eyes again, but then I felt that I had oxygen tubes in my nose and I could hear a bunch of people talking about me, so I realized it was real.
When I opened my eyes the 2nd time, One of the paramedics said,” Welcome Back Sarah. Don’t move your arm ok, and don’t panic about all the blood on your sheets, we had a little trouble getting your iv in. Do you know whats going on?” I had been scanning the room while he was talking and by this time I had finally located Trav, standing at the foot of my bed next to a couple other paramedics. I realized that this must be happening because I’d had a low blood sugar, so I nodded yes at the guy who asked if I knew what was going on. I looked at my arm, and the pool of blood next to it. Blah, that grossed me out.
One of the medics said, “We heard you were partying like a rock star last night”. I tried to laugh…a little snicker is all I managed. They took the oxygen mask off, and took the iv out. The lead medic told me I should go to the doctor for a follow up, and had me sign a release saying that I didn’t want to go to the hospital. It was crazy how hard it was for me to do normal things when I woke up. It was hard to move, hard to talk. It didn’t feel real at all.
After they left Trav came over to me and hugged me. He started crying. He said he didn’t know what to do. He woke up at 6 and I was shaking and he couldn’t wake me up. He knows how much I hate it when he calls the ambulance (he called it one other time before we were married when we wasn’t with me and when they got there I woke up and opened the door for them, so after they left I called Trav upset that he had called them. He said I was really out of it and he didn’t know what else to do. So he didn’t want to call them prematurely again), so he tried everything to wake me up, but I guess I just wouldn’t. I told him it was ok that he called, he did what he had to do. Poor guy. He said they had 3 medics holding me down and one trying to put the iv in and they still had trouble because I was jerking my arm away. Sounds about right. I hate ivs and blood draws!
I know it was the wine. I’d been having trouble with lows in the morning, but never ever have I not been able to wake up because it’s so low. Never. It sucked. But I’m alive and well and we’ve given Trav a few more ideas of things he can give me to help me wake up when I’m unresponsive before calling 911. We also got a glucagon shot for the house. I used to get them once a year but I never used them, or even came close to needing one. I stopped getting them a few years ago. Now I realize that it would save a lot of time, money, embarrassment, and trouble to just have one available!
I don’t plan on having that happen again. It was very scary. I’m glad I’m ok and back with the “concious” people! It was a learning experience and definatly got me to pay much closer attention to my lows and try harder to avoid them!
Living With Type 1 Diabetes 