Skip to main content

Cool As a Cucumber

The boys went to stay in Panguitch from Wednesday to Sunday for part of their spring break fun. Saturday night I received word via Spencer that Taylor's bg, blood glucose level, was way too high. He put on a new pod and corrected and it began to go down. I received a text just before our Sacrament Meeting started on Sunday that it was at 400 and that grandma was really stressed about it. He was checking the cannula and thought it looked fine. He was out of pods, he took plenty of extra ones to Panguitch, but of course they failed. He was low on insulin, but did have syringes. Since lengthy texting conversations are not my thing, I slipped out of the chapel to call Spencer on the phone.

We decided that Destry would leave right then, go to Smith's to get a new prescription of Novalog, some pods from home and meet Leon, Spencer, and Taylor somewhere between Saratoga Springs and Panguitch. I told Taylor to give himself a correction shot and then text me with bg numbers in an hour and a half.

A friend, sitting near us who noticed all of the atypical ins and outs of the chapel by Destry and me asked if everything was okay. I told her what was going on and she, who works in a doctor's office, offered to bring home some samples of Novalog if she had some because I told her we were out 600 units of insulin. Great! I said. 

I am the Primary music chorister, I love it! I didn't want to have my phone beep so I put it on vibrate and set it on the music stand in case he texted while I was leading the music. He didn't. I had to text Spencer and ask him to have Taylor check his blood. He was reluctant to wake him because high blood sugars often equal a very cranky Taylor. He did it any way and Taylor was not grumpy and his bg had come down enough and I figured he was close enough to meeting up with Destry and a new pod that all would be well. I knew it would. This is our lives. It is what we do. None of us like it, but acceptance has come even if the ability to not worry hasn't.

I carried on with music time as usual. Sent the girls walking home from church. Stayed at the church for choir practice then walked home with another friend. I went with Emma to see her Young Women's leader who recently had a baby. Took the girls to my mom's for dinner. Spencer had already been dropped off there by grandpa and Destry stayed home with a recovering Taylor. 

Life continues, we adapt, we carry on, we change our plans and sometimes we even ask for help. Most people don't even know what it is like to have a near death experience once, much less regularly. We do. Our hearts break and we leap into action. We are grateful for every living day. Sometimes we break down, usually we don't. We don't really have time to. We already had to rearrange our schedule to save a life and then we have to run to catch up on what we had planned to be doing instead. 

Spencer handled his middle man spot beautifully, but last night he broke. He communicated to me what was going on three and a half hours away from home all the while trying to calm a worried grandmother. I gave instructions to give to both Taylor and grandparents. I eventually told him to have grandpa call Destry to figure out a meeting place. He didn't need to worry about that. He did have to make sure that Taylor was checking his blood and was still coherent. And he had to check in with me.

Taylor does not appreciate Spencer's concern; in fact, he resents it. Spencer held himself together when he needed to, but then he started lashing out at Taylor last night for unexpected things. I knew where it was coming from and I knew what he was feeling so I had a loving conversation with him. He really wanted to talk to his Dad which he also did. I appreciate his concern for Taylor. I breathe easier when I know that Spencer is near him when I am not. Taylor does not understand Spencer's concern or the lashing. It hurts him. We all live complex lives with unseen wounds. I hope I can remember that most lashing comes from an unseen hurt from within the lasher, most likely it stems from something not even related to the issue at hand. 

So, we carry on with an exterior as cool as a cucumber even when our hearts may be a hot mess.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

I Should Have Known, But I Didn't or It's Been a Year

I began this blog one year ago this month.  This is my 31st post.  That puts me at exactly 2.4 posts per month.  Not a world's record, but a personal best.  Up from the zippo I had before.  I started it so that my children would have some record of their family's life.  I haven't been very good at journal keeping in the past.  I have been hit or miss at best.  What I hadn't anticipated was how much I have enjoyed writing and reading this blog.  I have reread my posts, some of them several times.  They have made me laugh, cry and reminisce about my life.  I like to write, so it should not have been such a surprise.  But for some reason or other I didn't realize how much I would benefit from it.  Maybe next year I will average a 3 or even 4 posts each month.  I have ideas and notable life events that I could write about, but we shall see.

Yesterday we had a "Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad" morning that ended with a Christlike Kindness

Last Saturday morning SHOULD have been an ordinary Saturday morning.  The children have "Saturday chores" that they are required to do before they move on with their day.  There are a few exceptions.  This morning Spencer had an exception because his scout troop led by Destry went on a rock climbing expedition.  It was a gorgeous day!  They had a great time thanks to Destry's former missionary companion and friend, Dallin Ward, who shared his talents and expertise with the group.  Spencer was the star as I was told.   For those of us who stayed behind, it should have been chore time after they left.  They were all playing together nicely for a while and I just let them.  It is fun to see them getting along and playing well.  At around 10:00 I reminded them  to get get started because Emma had her first basketball game of the season and Estelle had a birthday party that both started at 1:00.  That should have been no problem. ...

It Has Only Taken Her 9 Years, but Estelle Finally Sleeps All Night Long In Her Own Bed: She Can Do Hard Things!

Estelle will turn the big 9 on May 4th. She has only slept through the night in her own bed a few times each year for her entire life until about two months ago. After spending a lot of energy worrying and bribing and consequencing I finally surrendered and figured that she would sleep through the night whenever she was ready. I put a pillow and blanket on my bedroom floor and told her to just lay herself down there. That worked for a couple of years until she decided a year ago that she would get in bed with Emma instead. While that did not bother me at all, Emma was not too fond of that arrangement. After a fair amount of understandable crankiness from Emma, Estelle was informed that she either needed to remain in her own bed or sleep on someone's floor. She has been more partial to Emma's floor lately, but after having slept in a bed all night she would rather do that. A few months before she turned seven I thought I had the sure thing for motivating her. Destry had put i...