The Other Night

Allen is a type I diabetic and has been since he was three years old. About once a month his blood sugar will drop at night and he'll be completely unresponsive. This happened the other night. He woke me up at 2:45am convulsing. I could not get him to respond. Then the shaking stopped and he was still and silent. This used to really scare me, but after so many times I've learned how to deal with it. I have to keep talking to him and he will finally respond, so after about 15 minutes of calling his name, slapping his face and pinching his arm he began to grunt a little and I could get him to turn his heard to the side and drink coke through straw. It took about 35 minutes to get a can of coke in him and for him to start talking normally. As bad as this sounds it is much better than when it drops and he is still conscious but not aware of what he is doing or saying. His mind gets stuck in whatever he was doing or thinking about before bed. One time a few months ago he had been wrestling with the kids before bed and when his blood sugar dropped he thought he was still playing with them. He grabbed me by the leg at 4:00am and began to drag me across the bed. I wrestled with him until I was exhausted; he wouldn't stop to drink a coke or anything, so finally I put one foot on his hip and one on his thigh and kicked him out of bed. He rolled around on the floor and wrestled with his pillow until he came to his senses and then he drank a coke and everything was fine. We have a new rule now; only quiet play or reading books before bed; no wrestling or playing bucking bronco. You should hear his mother and I discussing all the funny stuff we've been through with him. Although I must say that it isn't too funny at 2:00 in the morning.