You Look Terrible!
Scott Benner
It was Sunday night at 8 pm and I was looking for a place for Arden and I to sit down while we were waiting for my son Cole to finish at his baseball practice.
"Arden, what does your CGM say?"
Turns out Arden would have no idea what her CGM was reading, because I din't pick it up from our kitchen counter as I promised I would. We were too far from home to go back, and just close enough that I wasn't scared to not have any of Arden's supplies - well, except for an emergency juice box that lives in the door of my car. I asked Arden how she felt, she said, "Fine", and then I went to my car to get the juice - just in case.
When I walked back through the door I was met by three people, one after the other, neither privileged to the conversation that I had with the previous. I got two, "You look terrible!" and one, "Are you okay?" comments I responded to each by saying, "I haven't been getting enough sleep" - the rest of that sentence, that words that I didn't share??? ...since Arden was diagnosed almost eight years ago. What I wanted to say was, "I haven't been getting enough sleep since Arden was diagnosed almost eight years ago". --
You see, Arden went to a sleepover the evening before and I lost my confidence (Through absolutely NO fault of their own) in the adult that was overseeing the party. Honestly, this person was well informed by me, knew what they were doing and completely onboard with the steps that the evening was going to present - I just got scared.
Arden and I managed her snack and bedtime BGs, all via text messages, and all was fine with the exception of an elevated blood sugar that we were able to easily reduce. Around midnight I realized that she was not going to sleep anytime soon and so I told her that I would help her ensure a stable BG for bed. Arden fell to sleep a bit after 2 in the morning and I was comfortable that her BG would hold up overnight. Still, I couldn't go to sleep. I finally was able to relax around 4:30 and I slept until, wait for it, 7:30 - when Arden called to say that the hot tub they went into the night before caused her OmniPod to peel just enough for her canula to come out - something that has nearly never happened in our over five years of using the insulin pump. So, it's 7:30 in the morning, I've had three hours of sleep and I'm driving across town to change an insulin pump. The good news? I was able to watch an entire season of 'Breaking Bad' the night before, but the bad news is that I'm still having trouble bouncing back from the lack of sleep, many days later.
I snapped a photo of myself earlier today after getting my haircut (I have a meeting with my publisher tomorrow), I wanted to share the picture with my wife who is away on business, we set up private photo sharing site when one of us travels so everyone can see what's happening on the 'other side'. The kids and I post pics and so does Kelly, it's a great way to not feel to far from home - but man, do I look tired and old in these photos.
I need a month long nap, and apparently... I look terrible.