Leigh Ann tells the tale of her “girl issues” procedure on Friday, and how her blood sugar bottomed out on the way home. We’re all glad she’s OK, although I know that the blood sugar thing scared her.

When I was a co-op student with the US Army Missile Command, there was summer intern, a guy I’d known from elementary school, although he’d gone to a different middle and high school. He’d stop by my lab (where I did my first real computer programming) every now and then and we’d drink a Dr Pepper and sit and talk for a few minutes. After he’d finished his drink, he’d fall asleep; it happened every time. I didn’t think anything about it, except that maybe he was staying out too late at night with his girlfriend, who also was a summer intern. She was a real cutie, so I had a pretty good idea why my friend was staying up late at night.

Then one day he took a nap at a very wrong time. He and his girlfriend were driving to Birmingham one Saturday to see a concert that evening. Shortly after they hit the road after a lunch break, he fell asleep at the wheel of his car, and rammed a guard rail at 70 miles an hour. He and his girlfriend were shaken up, but otherwise all right.

It turned out that he had a condition that caused him to fall asleep after meals and sweet drinks. His body would produce insulin to consume the excess sugar in his blood, like happens for most people, but for some reason he produced too much insulin. The excess would consume all the sugar and then some, and the sudden hypoglycemia would cause him to fall asleep. (That explanation doesn’t exactly square with the other accounts I’ve heard of low blood sugar from Wendy, and now Leigh Ann, but it’s the explanation his doctor gave him.)

Wendy, a diabetic, has occasional episodes of low blood sugar. It was worse when she used injections of insulin; now that she’s using a pump, it’s much rarer.

The first time it happened away from the house, it scared me pretty bad. We were at the Texas Renaissance Festival, about to watch the jousting exhibition, when she suddenly became very shaky and had to sit down. She didn’t look good at all. I ran back to the area where the refreshments were sold, in search of milk, orange juice, or a Coke. I brought her a Coke, and in just five minutes she said she was feeling better; in fifteen, she was just fine.

She now carries sugar pills in her purse and in the car, and I’ve learned not to let her occasional case of “the shakes”, as she calls them, bother me too much. I used to worry that she’d have a sudden low at night and die in her sleep. But the condition always wakes her up. She says it’s impossible to sleep through it. Every now and then, she’ll get out of bed in the middle of the night, and I’ll hear her go into the kitchen and pour a glass of milk. I’ve become used to it and it doesn’t worry me any more, but it sure used to.

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 16th, 2005 at 12:23 pm and is filed under Family. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.