It is a story about a Dad who went into a Diabetic low and collapsed and his 5 year old son phoned for his Mum who sent for the paramedics. The attending Paramedic reported the Dad to child services for not looking after his children correctly.
The part of the story I wanted to bring attention to was this " The older son, according to an interview the father had given, had been taught how to respond to a diabetic emergency. The father had been diagnosed at age nine and by all appearances had been taking proper care of himself, and was equipped, and had equipped his loved ones, with knowledge sufficient to help him recover from his low and to prevent risk of harm to his children."
This made me think if my children had the knowledge to call the emergency services and although I don't want to test it I think not. My boys know the symptoms of a diabetic low and have on occasion asked me to check my blood sugar. These are incidents when I have gone low but can still talk to them. Most times my low to near coma state happens over night and my husband is usually there to deal with these problems.
There was one situation that happened on a weekend not so long ago.(I am going to tell it to you so that you can see the problems that only half educating your children on dealing with emergencies can have.) It was a Saturday and my darling husband had gone bird hunting so he had left before the first bird even awoke at about 3 AM. To keep you in the picture on the Sunday following this we had a busy day with a child from schools birthday party and we where going for lunch with my Mother in law, bear in mind that this busy schedule was for the next day.
My children are older than the boys in the article at 8 and 11 years old so they woke up, made themselves a bowl of cereal and proceeded to play games and watch TV.
Sometimes when you go into a hypoglycemic coma your bodies adrenaline is still fighting to try and raise your blood sugars. Well my body must have been fighting really hard because I eventually managed to get out of bed at 1 o'clock in the afternoon.
When I found the kids quite happy in the lounge doing their own thing I asked them where their Dad was, I don't recall if we told them what Dad was doing on Saturday but my youngest told me that he had gone to Granny (my Mother in Law). I am still obviously a bit out of it cause now I start to panic - "But he never woke me" , "But Matt was supposed to go to a friends party and I told her at school he was coming and she was so excited......it is already 2 hours past the start to the party time". I am still panicking so I try to phone Mr.P no answer (obviously) , Try to phone the Mother In Law she also does not answer.( in hind sight I am glad she did not I would have sounded crazy.) I think my oldest told me don't worry these things happen. (He is a very laid back kind of child.) He then must of thought Mum is acting ultra weird and gave me a plate of biscuits.I ate these in between still trying to call Mr.P.
I then think I decided there was nothing we could do about the party. (Still worried as hell because why doesn't Mr P answer his phone.) So I went into the kitchen to prepare some lunch. While we where sitting at the table eating lunch, the penny dropped and I realized that it actually was Saturday and all these activities where for the next day oh my.
This story might be slightly funny but really it is not what if something had happened to one of the kids or the house or the dog or the cat and I was totally out of it until 1 PM.
My boys both know what to do in a Diabetic emergency but not in a don't wake up Diabetic Emergency. I have since told them that if Mum does not wake up by X time there most probably is something wrong and they must try and wake me. If I don't wake up and get out of bed they must follow the steps on an emergency steps and phone numbers sheet that is on the fridge.
I realize this is a lot to ask of two young boys but I think they will follow these steps and get a professional out sooner than they will want to endure another long scene of their Mother freaking out about a party that wasn't even scheduled for that day.
I do feel like a terrible Mother for this incident but I have tried to make sure it does not happen again and if I continue beating myself up about this I will mess up all the other special moments that my children and I still have together on a regular basis.
We need to equip are children with the information to solve problems.When Mum does not get up until 1 PM this is a problem.
I have included a Free printable of Emergency steps and numbers to put on the fridge or near the phone.
Free printable of Emergency steps and numbers -https://goo.gl/qu5BAu
Here is one with Call your Mum on it encase you are a Diabetic Dad - https://goo.gl/zI0TX4
(The emergency numbers on here are South African numbers.)
Thank you March Le Fey for making us more aware of educating our children about Diabetic emergencies.
The weekend is in sight and it is getting more and more like Spring here in South Africa.
Stay tuned next week for a post on How the change in weather and seasons can have an effect on your Diabetes control.
Stay Linked
Kim
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