Hi Ho, Hi H, It's Off to Work I Go...

I actually got some writing done this weekend. Which is a real surprise for me. Because what was supposed to be a quiet weekend at home turned into upheavel.

My father-in-law, whom I affectionately refer to as "pops-in-law" (mainly because we all wondered if the "in-law" would ever be added, see 2 posts ago) was taken to the hospital early Saturday with high blood sugar. He's diabetic and insulin resistant. His blood sugar meter at home only registers up to 400. Since it wasn't registering, he just figure it was broken. When he got to urgent care, his blood sugar was 809.

For those of you who have no idea what that number means, I'll give you a quick lesson: Normal blood sugar should be below 100-110. Anything above 400 can send you into shock. Anything above 500 or so can put you into a coma or worse, cause instantaneous death. Yeah, I said death.

So, this was REALLY serious. What's more, he drove himself to the hospital and called his wife later to let her know he'd gone. Drove himself, when according to medical science, he should be in a coma at minimum. Both he and and my mother-in-law are nurses, so they know the seriousness of the problem. He truly just didn't think his sugar was that bad.

The doctors were amazed. None of them had ever had a patient with sugar levels that high. Much less a functioning patient.

Well, they hooked him up to an insulin iv and by 8PM, his sugars were down to 142, which for him is below normal. Since he's insulin resistant, his body will produce insulin, it's just that it won't use it, so his sugar usually runs high, around 200 or so.

He's still in the hospital. Since he's running a low grade temp, they think he may have an infection and that may be what caused his sugars to go so high. Hopefully he'll get to come home tomorrow. Otherwise he may be calling me to come break him out :-).

Since my dad passed away in 1997, my pops-in-law is the only papa figure we have and he's very very special to me. My hubby and I grew up together, so he's always been a special part of my life. I love him to bits and pieces. But so help me, if he tries to drive himself to the hospital with blood sugars above 500 again, I will beat his butt! Or try at least, he's still pretty young, so he could probably take me. Probably.

April