Wedding Day

Last weekend, my husband, son and I went to a beautiful wedding.  Gorgeous bride, handsome groom, and beautiful setting.  Outside, Labor Day weekend in the Northwest, and it was beautifully sunny.  Amazing.  It reminded me of my wedding.  Not literally, just generally.   Chatting with the bride about where they were staying that night, and their honeymoon, etc, made me think about my wedding night.  Now, don't get all nervous...I'm not going to share THOSE details.  ;)  Just the diabetic ones.

I had been diagnosed with diabetes in March of that year.  This is November of the same year.  I was not pumping with Minnie yet; that didn't happen until the following year.  So, it's multiple injections.  And, it's my wedding.  So, dang it, I am going to have punch and cake.  Diabetes...diashmetes.  I'm eating it.  So there.

So, I slip away from the reception and go into the bathroom with my little bag.  Fortunately, no one is in there, and I hike up my skirt and shoot up in the thigh (with insulin, of course).  I slip back into the reception and get my cake and punch.  I sit at a table with some friends.  Take a couple sips and bites.  Get called away to say goodbye to some friends who are leaving.  And, move on to more friends, more friends, and more friends.  Fortunately, we are blessed with amazing friends and family.  :)  Soon, it's time to go change and head to the hotel.  So, I start to head that way...I remember looking for my cake and punch, but someone had already cleaned them up.  They were gone.  :(

This is us in our wedding finery

So, I change into my jeans and UW sweatshirt, and my hubby changes into his jeans and WSU shirt.  Yes, this is the night before the Apple Cup.  (If you aren't from the NW, and don't know what this all means, comment, and I will explain)  Last couple photos, and we are off!

This is what love looks like...

   

And, this is what competitive love looks like right before the Apple Cup

Close friends drive us up to the hotel by the airport. I am a little chilly in the car, but, hey!  It's November.  We check in, check out the room, and I start washing off my makeup and trying to take the bajillion bobbypins out of my hair.  Well, during this, I'm telling my brand new husband that I just can't believe how COLD it is in the room.  He says it's not that cold.  I insist it is.  (Great start, huh?)  He asks me to check my blood sugar.  I insist in a *ahem* not particularly nice, let alone submissive, voice that my blood sugar is FINE, thank you. 

Well, by now, my hands are shaking so badly that I can barely grab a bobbypin, and put it on the counter.  (you'd think I would have a clue, huh?...I didn't)  Hubs again requests (very nicely, I might add) that I just check it, just to humor him.  (smart man I married, huh?)...So, I sigh...loudly, and not particularly gracefully, but I do it.  I don't remember the actual number...but let's just say that it was WAY below 100.  And, I would guess, (in the days prior to Dexie) dropping rapidly (double arrows, pointing straight down and yelling at me).  So, the wonderfully patient man I married then takes off on a quest to find juice.  Quickly.  I down a half bottle of apple juice, and a bit later start feeling better.  Shocking, I know.  Ended up drinking the whole bottle that evening.  Not romantic champagne...apple juice.  Minute Maid, I believe. Ah, diabetes...you are everywhere. 

Looking back, I know I took enough insulin to eat plenty of sugar/carbs, but then was interrupted and never ate that much.  Learned from that mistake.  Also found out that crashing from not eating feels very different than crashing from overdosing on insulin.  If my blood sugar is dropping due to exertion and just overdue for a snack, I gradually get a little shaky, and often get hot flashes (a lovely preview of things to come...) then finally end up really shaky and fuzzy feeling.  Like I have to concentrate hard to focus on anything...and I'm a *bit* cranky...sometimes.  And, usually recover pretty quickly.  Well, when I OD on insulin, I crash quickly, get really cold, amazingly shaky and really quite snarky.  :)  And, it takes a LOT of sugar to recover.

I also have since learned how bad that night could've turned out.  I don't think the reality of diabetes had really sunk in for either of us.  Amazing to think we can be in our thirties, second marriage for both, and still be naive about something.  :)  But, we were.  Honestly, probably one of the closer calls to an ambulance we have had.  There are a couple others...but those stories will wait for another day.  For now, I just give thanks to God for protecting me that day, and so many others.  I know that the times I have awakened in the night, and decide to get up and check my sugar...it is Him.  And, I am truly grateful. 

Almost five years later, and diabetes has changed.  I can usually feel my lows...but not always.  Hence, the addition of Dexie.  Annoying as she can be, she is literally a lifesaver.  And, such a blessing.  A reminder that blessings don't always come in the package you expect.  Thank You God. 

My husband continues to be a tremendous blessing to me, a constant source of encouragement, and the provider of the occasional swift kick in the patootie I need to pull myself out of my "poor pitiful me" days.  He has been known to get up during the night and get my monitor or juice or milk.  He has sat with me and handed me towels to mop the sweat off myself during a doozy of a "hot flash" while waiting for the juice to kick in.  He has asked me, in a carefully neutral voice, if I am low, when I am biting his head, or the boy's head, off for absolutely NO good reason.  And, he has hidden the pitchfork after hearing a story of a woman chasing her husband with one during a little hypoglycemic incident.  Like I said, I married a smart man.  :)

PS...the Huskies won that year.  ;)  Go Dawgs!  :)