Thursday Morning Seizure

So, I haven't had much time to post lately but have definitely had a lot going on. Many of you may or may not know about the seizure and diabetic coma I went into last Thursday morning due to extremely low blood sugar. Before I get too far along, let me assure you that I'm fine and have learned a valuable lesson about the importance of carb consumption.

I have been struggling with gestational diabetes since about week 32 of my pregnancy with Adrian. I believe only 10% of people continue as diabetics after delivery and it seems I'm in that lucky 10%. Woo hoo!... no, not really. I went in today to take a 2 hour glucose test where they take a blood sample before and then 2 hours after swallowing a high concentrate glucose solution (which by the way is nasty and hard to keep down). Hopefully in the next day or two I'll get the results and some counseling on how to keep my blood sugar at a healthy level.

I do have to say for the record that this diabetic diet I've been on for the last several months really isn't that hard and is probably close to what I should have been eating anyway. I've also shed about 20lbs from my prepregnacy weight. Definitely won't complain about that. But I'd sure like to not struggle with the low blood sugar again. The outcome would have been very different had I been home with just the kids instead of at Jake's parents house where Lori (thanks to her previous paramedic training) knew what to do.

So here's what happened: I usually eat a pretty low carb dinner, but then before bed have a snack of a piece of toast with peanut butter on it to get me through the night. Even with that I generally wake up with a low reading of 70. Wednesday night I skipped my PB toast (not on purpose) and had a very long night of waking up with Adrian, Allie and pumping far more times then is usual. I woke up Thursday morning about 6:50 and knew instantly that my sugar was extremely low as I was shaky, weak and about to throw up. I got out of bed and up the stairs, pausing at the top so I didn't pass out, looking for something to eat quickly before I did throw up.

Lori was thankfully in her kitchen doing her bible study lesson when I made it upstairs and asked me what was wrong. I told her I didn't feel well and needed to eat something because I could tell my sugar was low. She told me to sit down before I passed out and I quickly complied.

The next thing I remember is feeling like my world was spinning completely out of control, having someone holding me and the sound of distant screaming. As I started to come too I could feel Lori holding me on the floor trying to force feed me apple juice from a straw. The screaming apparently was me... though I have no idea why. I heard Marlin on the phone telling someone what was going on and Lori yelling at him to get her blood sugar level testing kit. She pricked my finger and I was only at 53.

It took several more minutes to get enough apple juice into me to steady myself enough to be helped over to the couch. A few minutes later in walked 8 very tall men (or so they seemed from my perspective on the couch) from the Woodburn Fire Department and Emergency Response. What followed was a lot of questions, vitals being taken (lots of finger pokes... really, I think I still have the marks) and me trying to choke down this really nasty tube of Glucose. It did the trick though and raised my level up to 108 (I think was the #) but then made me finally start throwing up like I thought I would from the beginning.

I was taken to the emergency room in an ambulance (my very first and hopefully last ride)where Marlin and I sat for a really long time just to have the doctor say my levels were back up and I needed to follow up with my doctor back home. Wish someone would pay me to say that!

By the way, those paramedics are incredible at inserting IV's while in motion. I not only barely felt it go in, but the guy that did it did a far better job then the nurse who gave me one for my c-section (it took her both arms to finally get it in) and she was on solid ground.

There are several things I'm really thankful for and it's pretty amazing how they fell into place. 1) That Lori acted quickly and knew what to do, 2) that Marlin made such an effort to come home early from his flight training (he wasn't supposed to be home until I think Saturday but wanted to see the kids) 3) that I happened to grab a couple of apple juice boxes from the pantry for Allie the night before and had them handily right by the fridge where I passed out and 4) that I'm alive to tell about it!

Anyway, I'll keep you updated on what I learn from the glucose test in the next few days.