Toenail Totem
Friday, January 30, 2015 at 7:00AM “George we are going to help you up, do you think you can stand?”
“yeah, I think so.” I looked at this strangers face and noticed there were 4 other people in my room. Radios kept coming on which made me believe these must be paramedics.
“Okay, we are just going to walk you outside okay?”
“okay.” Nothing hurts. I can walk okay? Did I have a stroke? Did I have a heart attack? Is this a dream? This has to be a dream.
“Watch your step down and can you sit on the gurney?”
“yeah.” The red lights flickered all around my front door and at that moment I saw my children standing beyond the doorway looking out at me. They looked scared, tired, worried, helpless. This has to be a dream.
“Just swing your legs up and slide to the middle”
“Where is my wife?” As soon as I said it I heard her familiar voice.
“I’m here, I’m right here.”
“What happened?” As soon as I said it I could not wait for an answer. I couldn’t hold anything back. My sobbing drowned out what she said.
When I was in the back of the ambulance I heard my wife talking to the driver so I knew she was upfront. The paramedic in the back started asking me my name, my birthday, and how long I had diabetes.
For fear of a stroke or to prove to myself I was awake I spouted off every single fact I could pull out of my head. “George Scott Simmons. Born on March 23rd 1973 in Hollywood California. It was Friday. I have had type 1 diabetes for 23 years. I was diagnosed on October 2nd 1990. It was a Monday.”
They must have thought I was crazy.
“So why are your toenails blue?”
This was when I was sure I was awake. Like a totem from the movie Inception, those blue toenails were nothing I would ever dream up so I knew for sure this was real life.
“My nieces were painting their toenails over the weekend and I thought, what the heck. Go for it!”
That was when the paramedic started to tell me that I had a really bad low blood sugar that I could not come back from. That was when I noticed I had an IV in my arm and 3 Band-Aid’s on different fingers.
When we got to the hospital my wife started to explain the entire situation piece by piece to the doctor. It turns out she knew I was having a lot because I threw all of the covers off of myself and started to moan. She woke up and saw my sweating profusely. She came to my side of the bed, grabbed my machine, and had me sit up. She put a strip in my Verio meter and grabbed my hand to prick my finger. When she did blood streamed down my hand on a river of sweat.
She grabbed a hand towel and dried my hand and arm off. She squeezed the same finger and as soon as a drop of blood appeared it found a new river of sweat to travel down. She has never seen me sweat so bad and neither have I.
Finally she was able to check my bg. It was 37.
She grabbed a Level glucose gel and tore it open. She put it in my mouth and started to squeeze the gel into my mouth. She said I bit the end in my mouth and wouldn’t let any gel in. Not in a argumentative way but rather like I had no idea what I was doing.
She flicked my mouth and I opened up. She squeezed the whole thing in and when to get my daughter up to help. I swallowed the gel and lied back down.
My wife got my daughter up and asked her to make some waffles for me to eat. It was 4 in the morning and we usually add some waffles for some more carbs to last me through the morning. She popped in a couple of Eggo’s and my wife came back to check on me.
I was still sweating and out of it. She opened up another Level and squirted it into my mouth. She said I did not swallow it. I just left it in my mouth so she had to keep telling me to swallow it. Finally I did and just then my daughter came in with the waffles.
My wife put a piece of waffle on a fork and stuffed it into my mouth. She said I just sat there with the waffle in my mouth. Not chewing or reacting at all. Like I forgot what to do.
She grabbed another Level, took the waffle out, and squirted it in. Apparently I started leaning forward as if I was going to fall over. My wife got scared and told my daughter to wake my son up to help.
A ramekin full of regular syrup and about 8oz of regular soda were brought in by my son and daughter. My daughter put a straw in the soda to make it easier to drink. My wife said I looked at the straw, took it out of the glass, and stuck it on my finger to try and get blood out for another bg test. She said I kept squeezing my finger to try and get blood out even though she kept reassuring me she already got the drop she needed.
I drank the soda and swallowed down the syrup.
Still I was completely out of it. I could not talk and my family could tell I was not “there.” My wife grabbed the Glucagon shot and instantly was overwhelmed by the instructions. My son stood right in front of my wife’s face and said, “we need to call 911 mom.”
When the ambulance got there they came into my room, put an IV in my arm and checked my blood sugar.
The machine read 34. This was 40 minutes after this all started.
My son remembers them putting a bag of fluid in me via the IV and when it was done they started to stand me up. This marked the very beginning of my memory.
That is what scares me most. I remember nothing before when I started this post. Not a glimpse or flash of the story I heard my wife tell the ER doctor. None of it.
I kept waiting for a fog to lift like a night of too much alcohol. As soon as you hear the story flashes of memories start to trickle in. But this was and is so different.
I have nothing.
So we stayed in the ER until about noon on Sunday after my bg was stable. The nurse asked me why my toenails were painted blue. I told her the paramedics must have done it on the drive over.
My kids had followed the ambulance in my car and they stayed with me all morning. When we all got home we all passed out on the couch. Exhausted and drained we slept until 5pm.
I have never in my 23 years of diabetes had a low like that. I have had bad lows that take forever to come up. I have had some where I couldn’t walk or talk but I remember them. Even though they felt like a dream I remember what happened. But this was crazy.
Have you ever had a low like this? I cannot understand what made it so different. I have seen 34 on a machine before and been totally aware of what was going on.
More than anything I feel so bad for putting my family through all of this. It is not fair.
I pray I will never have another low like that ever again.
Reader Comments (30)
George, I have definitely been there. The repeated attempts to bring the BG up, the paramedics in the middle of the night, all of it. I'm glad everything is okay now. And I hope this never, ever happens to you or anyone else again.
G -
I am so grateful that you are OK and it SUCKS that you you deal with a low like that.
I want to jump through the computer and give you and your entire a huge hug and I want to punch diabetes in the face for putting you through that.
Xoxo
Kelly K
PS: Your nieces did an awesome job on your pedicure. :)
so scary George
Big Hugs
Jesus. Glad you're okay hermano <3
Scary. Sympathy. Unfair. Shared. Vicarious. Saved. Thankful. Hero. Diabetes. Sucks.
Scary scary. I have had to be the 911 caller for my dad having a super low and its always been one of my worst fears that my kids or wife will have to go through this with me. Just happy all worked out ok. Take care!
Glad you're OK and that the memory of this will soon just be a bad nightmare. Your family did a super job of taking care of you and especially calling 911 when needed. I agree that the Glucagon instructions are overly complex. There is a Glucagon app that is somewhat better, but I look forward to the day that a Glucagon injection is as easy as an Epi-Pen for severe allergic reactions.
I'm so glad you're okay George. I teared up reading this because I have been right there with you, in that same exact spot, out of it, in the back of the bus, in the hospital, terrified, guilty, and incredibly upset with myself when I have no reason to be. I hate the memories, what I can remember of them, despite how thankful I am to have survived it. Just remember, we fall down so that we learn to pick ourselves up again. I love you brother.
I thank God that I have never known this, hope I never do, and pray you never do again. Love you, brother. Very, very happy you're okay. And no, it isn't fair to your family, but they're cool. You're worth it, and a whole lot more.
Thanks for sharing this and always keeping it real.
Well, darn. (That's not what I'm thinking but this is a public blog and so...)
Good grief.
I'm so glad you're okay.
You have an amazing family.
How very, very scary.
George I have woken up many times after "wrestling matches." I remember sometimes but often times will have no recall of the event. The lows are terrifying.
I'm so glad that you are OK, George. And that your amazing family was there to help you. Lots of love, brother.
That was way too scary. I am so sorry. No one should have to go through that. Expired glucagon gives your family practice on how to use it without the fear of emergency. Let them practice putting the needle in the vial, swirling the tablet, and getting it ready to shoot. Let them shoot it into an orange. Fill the syringe again with water and let them practice.
Wow, that was a hellish low. I never want you to go through that again. Hugs! Lots of hugs.
Thinking of you and your family George. Love, Scott
I've had them like that but not in years. It is super scary. You're not sure what to do and I always feel bad after cause I caused so much trouble. Which is ridiculous because it isn't like I could have done anything about it.
I'm so glad you are okay now. I'm so glad your family was there to help. And I'm also suddenly very glad I have a roommate again.
Oh George, this was an awful experience for you and your family, but how proud you must be of them and their ability to react the right way. I am glad it is over for you, and what I will remember from it is your personal spirit, humor and strength along with those perfectly manicured blue tootsies. Hugs to you all!
George, I am so glad you are okay! I can only begin to imagine how terrifying that must have been for your family and you. <3
Your story is a horrific reminder of how vulnerable T1Ds can be. I'm so sorry that you had to go through that. Eli Lilly has a glucagon app for phones -- I remind everyone who cares for someone with T1D (or might have to care for them) to have it available. At 17, glucagon should have been the first step - although I completely understand how overwhelmed and confused your family was at the moment. (No judgment here, just speaking from experience -- I had to give myself a crash course in administering it when I awoke to my daughter having a seizure in the middle of the night due to low blood sugar.) Glad that you are feeling better!
Hi George, yes I've been there. I am not sure if it's accurate but from my experience these types of lows happen when I'm low for an extended period and the body is just wiped. Our brain only functions on glucose so it stopped functioning with the extended lack of glucose. Especially with what your wife has said and your reaction to everything. I've called times like these seizures, even though there were no convulsions. Of course I have no proof that it's a seizure. For me when it happened, twice before, glucagon was used and snapped me out of it. Other times when I've seized glucagon also snapped me out of it and my mind felt the same only with the muscle pains in addition to the memory loss and the world just seeming fuzzy for a day.
It's scary as "duck". And I walk my roommates through the glucagon kit or tell them to call 911 ASAP if I'm not responding. Your family is awesome for their responses, and ultimately, yes 911 is safer. Always.
*Hugs* take it easy the next few days.
Amber
Terrifying. So glad you're ok.
Yes- we've had a low like that. Avery can often function "normally" when very low... Like 29. But one time... The meter read low. She couldn't swallow. Couldn't drink. Her eyes were open but she wasn't there. She just screamed and cried through the whole thing. It was the scariest thing I've ever been through. Way worse than when my husband had a heart attack.
She remembered nothing. The first thing she remembers is the paramedics at the top of our stairs. She remembers them talking very slowly. They weren't. That's just how her brain was processing it. She was 5.
Praying no one ever has to go through that again. And praying you are well. It takes some time for everyone to recover from an episode like that. At least it did for us. Sending our love...
So sorry to hear of this nasty Low, George. These are never fun. I've been there a number of times myself, though thankfully not anytime recently thanks to CGM. At one point, we kind of figured out that my threshold was 36 or so as to hitting "paramedic mode" or when glucagon might be needed. We also determined that it's better to just call the paramedics than for Suz to try and stab me with glucagon, considering it might not be easy and could be a little dangerous for her if I'm not cooperating. It's never a good thing when you start knowing the paramedics by name, and they recognize your house. I'm glad that these aren't common occurrences anymore, and I hope it's an isolated thing on your end.
Cannot help you on the causes, but same thing happened to my wife ( 47 yo 44 years of type I diabetes) last February.
We were having dinner with friends and coming home I saw her not very responsive, a soon as we entered home, I had her drink a soda ( 15grams sugar over 100ml ) that usually is enough to rise BG, then I read blood glucose it was the worst thing: LO
( OK, OK I know it would be better read BEFORE, but I know synthomps and it takes some minutes to BG to rise so it was a realistic readout ).
I immediately used Glucagen in the meanwhile calling ambulance, but she started seizures.
As soon as paramedic arrived, he was 38 but it took an hour, glucagon, 5 soda cans ( 1.5 liters ) and 2 glucose gel to rise to 70....
We don't know what happened, even if he had insulin twice it could not be so bad.
p.s.
Fortunately we were into hour house in Spain, so paramedics came.
I had a similar experience in Italy and the doctor did not want to come, I had to tell him that I ould have called police to help me to make him come...
this was so scary to read, so i can't imagine hoe it was to live it. but thank you so much for your very vivid descriptions. it was like watching a movie, so maybe if i'm ever in a similar situation with my kid i can feel like i've somehow been exposed to the scenario. big love to you and your family. <3
Oh George, I am speechless. I am sending much love to you and your family.
What a scary experience for all of you. I'm so glad you're Ok. I hate that you guys had to go through this. And I kind of can't believe you actually put that picture of your toes on the internet... LOL!!! :-)