Glucagon Training

A couple of weeks before my daughter went on the five night youth group trip I met with the chaperones to train them in glucagon use, and to talk about diabetes concerns for the trip. These are people I know well, which has a great deal to do with why my daughter went on this trip without a parent in the first place. They were eager to learn how to help my daughter have a successful first trip away, and how to react should an emergency arise.

We gathered at a table.

"Epi pens make me a little nervous," my first chaperone friend said.

"Well, wait until you see this thing," I replied with a wry smile.

He was, indeed, humbled by the sight of the glucagon kit.

"Here's the deal," I said once it was open in front of us on the table, "We've never needed to use this. We've never come close to needing to use this. You guys know her. She's responsible about her diabetes and she's self-aware. She's got the continuous glucose monitor which alarms when her blood sugar goes low. But because diabetes can be unpredictable, there's an infinitesimal chance you'll need this, so it's important to us that you know how to use it. And besides, once you see this, I'm certain you'll listen even more carefully to the rest of the ways I'd like you to look out for her." Cautious smiles had returned.

I walked them through step by step with an expired kit, and then one chaperone physically set up my second expired kit while the other gave verbal directions. They seemed to get the gist, and learned to look for the pictographs inside the packaging for clues. In the end, I reminded them that the first step would be to call 911 and that if they were flummoxed by the kit, the fact that they knew what it was and where it was would be key for the EMS workers.

After striking a healthy fear of glucagon into their hearts, we went over the very simple things a 15 year old kid who's out of her element might need their help with in order to avoid disastrous low blood sugar:

-Someone to hang back with her if she needs to wait out a low.
-Someone to ask her if she's okay if she's spacey or uncharacteristically emotional, which are the primary signs of low blood sugar for her.
-Someone to stand up for her if someone gives her a hard time about stepping aside when she should be doing her volunteer job, or eating when she "shouldn't be," or looking at an electronic device when the kids have been told not to.
-Someone to get up and nudge her if a dexcom alarm is going off in the middle of the night.
-Help getting supplies should she somehow blow through the snacks, juice and glucose tabs we packed.
-Support if (when?) diabetes causes missed opportunities or unpleasant experiences along the way.

In the end they didn't use the glucagon. In the end, it may not have been necessary to show them how to use it at all. But in the end the glucagon training led to a much more important conversation about ways to keep her safe. Which made all of us more comfortable.

In The Back Of My Mind

The Other Half of Diabetes - Tuesday 5/17 We think a lot about the physical component of diabetes, but the mental component is just as significant. How does diabetes affect you or your loved one mentally or emotionally? How have you learned to deal with the mental aspect of the condition? Any tips, positive phrases, mantras, or ideas to share on getting out of a diabetes funk? (If you are a caregiver to a person with diabetes, write about yourself or your loved one or both!)

Always, in the back of my mind, is the possibility that, due to diabetes, my child will become unconscious when I'm not with her or that she will die at night.   When I hear an ambulance headed towards her school I wonder if my phone is about to ring.  When my child is sleeping in, or when I don't hear from her early on the morning of a sleepover, I wonder if she's asleep or passed out, or if she's even alive. Despite our attempts to push it into the background of an otherwise productive and happy life, diabetes is a dangerous and sometimes deadly disease.

I feel better when she's wearing the Dexcom. With it, I know she's got a safety net when it's a strenuous gym day or when she's out with friends.  When she's sleeping in I can check the graph and wake her if necessary. But even then a lost signal or a night of inaccurate readings will leave me glancing at her bedroom door, wondering.  Will I need the glucagon? What if she doesn't wake up?

It's not an overwhelming fear, nor do I dwell on it.  It just lingers in the back of my mind. Yet it certainly sets my concerns apart from those of other parents. They complain about their sleepy, lazy teenagers, but they rest assured that by noon these kids will appear in their kitchens no worse for wear.  This isn't a conversation I have with the mom's night out crowd.  It's a huge jump from, "I wish Susie would get her butt out of bed and do something useful on Saturday mornings," to "Well at least you know she's getting up- when my kid sleeps in , I seriously consider the possibility that she's unconscious or dead.  Please pass the chardonnay."  Sharing this anxiety could, mental health professionals may contend, be helpful to me, and it would certainly be a form of advocacy and awareness-raising.  So far, beyond a couple of very close friends, I'm not there.

How, then, do I keep these thoughts from paralyzing me...how do I keep them in the back of my mind?  Fortunately I'm generally not prone to episodes of panic, so my overall temperament helps. Writing and reading here in the diabetes blogosphere reminds me that I'm not alone, which is a huge source of support. When I notice I'm beginning to dwell on this (or any other) anxiety, I know it's time to take better care of myself. I push myself to engage in incredibly simple but sometimes seemingly impossible tasks like making myself a cup of tea, taking long walks, eating well, ensuring that I'm spiritually engaged, doing something fun, and/or talking to someone I trust. I can't eliminate this particular anxiety without eliminating diabetes altogether, but I've remained able to keep it from becoming more than an occasional fleeting thought.

Living with diabetes means living with a unique collection of stressors, fears and other emotional challenges.  I'm curious to read how other people deal with the ways diabetes impacts their mental health, interpersonal relationships and sense of self.  Click here to read more posts on today's topic.

Wordless Wednesday: The Glucagon Edition

Note the expiration dates.

I picked these up on the same day at the same pharmacy.

It's the same scenario every time I refill the glucagon there.

Every kit we have expires in a different month (or year).

I can barely keep track of when we last did site change.  How am I supposed to remember when to replace these?!