If My Wife Had Collapsed Twenty Minutes Later, She Would Have Been Alone and She Would Have Died

Diabetes needs to be taken seriously

This past Monday, I was in our bedroom on my laptop. I was killing time before the Medicare van came to take me to a doctor’s appointment.

My wife Olivia walked by heading to the bathroom. She collapsed before she got there, she fell to the floor and tried to get up, but she fell back to the floor.

I thought she was having a stroke

The first thing I thought was that she was having a stroke. I called 911. For the second time in two months, my wife headed to the emergency room via ambulance.

As I write this, she is still in the Hospital. Tomorrow it will be a full week.

I had a Doctor’s appointment

If she would have collapsed twenty minutes later, I would have been in the van heading to Columbia. She would have laid on the bedroom floor and died.

A month earlier, we had taken a road trip to Philadelphia with her aunt and sister. While we were in Philadelphia, we had to call 911 for Olivia, because her sugar was too high. She hadn’t yet learned the lesson.

After several days in I.C.U Cooldown, Olivia was Diagnosed with Gastroparesis

Gastroparesis is a direct result of not managing her Diabetes. She hasn’t been eating the right foods and she hasn’t been eating the correct portions. You can read about Gastroparesis here. It is a nasty thing that has played Hell with her body.

Diabetes is not a joke

Diabetes is not anything to play with. in the nineties, I worked at the largest public housing complex in St.Petersburg Florida. There were countless times I had to call 911.

It was not uncommon for me to call 911 because of the resident’s not managing their sugar. There was one shift where a man was in the lobby of his floor, in his underwear on all-fours.

He was howling like a wolf and rambling incoherently. It was because of his sugar. I have known other people who have lost limbs or their sight.

Please take care of yourself. It’s not just you that is being hurt.

When a person doesn’t take care of themselves it’s not just themselves they hurt. When my wife was in ICU cool-down, I spent a day with her.

She was by turns angry and abusive. To myself and the nursing staff, then she would be crying and full of remorse for her behavior.

It was stressful to watch and more stressful to be the target of her abuse. My wife is a sweet-natured person. Seeing her act so out of character was heartbreaking.

After a day of abuse, we parted ways, angry and not speaking to each other. This all would have been avoided if she would have taken care of herself.

I’m hoping she can come home tomorrow

She is supposed to be out of the hospital in the morning. I’m hoping she has learned her lesson. There are only so many times a person can poke a bear before they get bit, and I’m afraid she is running out of chances.

Final Thought:

Diabetes is serious. Take care of yourself, do it for yourself and your loved ones. Please keep in mind that there are things worse than death. Diabetes will cause a world of hurt if it’s not taken seriously.