\n
![\"\"](\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" "\\"Cathrine")
<\/a><\/h3>\nCatherine Price: Protons And My Pancreas<\/a><\/h3>\n“When I pricked my finger, the result came back at 447. No, that\u2019s not a typo. That is four hundred and forty seven mg\/dl and is, quite literally, higher than it was when I was diagnosed nearly 10 years ago. Freaking out, I took a huge correction bolus, waited a few minutes, and checked again. 475…
\n…I\u2019ve been frustrated by my blood sugar pretty much continuously on this trip, and this was a tipping point, one of those moments where all the tiny details of diabetes come crashing down on you all at once \u2014 the self-control and the attention to detail and the thought required for every single bite of food. As I stood there, alternately crying and talking to myself, I could only really say one thing, a phrase I return to every time the emotions of diabetes get the best of me: \u201cI am so tired of this. I am so, so tired.\u201d And then, something new: \u201cI am so angry about having diabetes.\u201d It was a funny and surprising thing to hear myself say, because the vast majority of the time I\u2019m really *not* angry about it. It just seems so pointless \u2014 who would I be angry at? Whose fault is it? No one\u2019s. What can I do about it?”<\/p>\n
\n
<\/a>Michael Aviad: Diabetes or Just a Thirsty Child?<\/a><\/h3>\n“I noticed that twice during practice Guy ran over to the side to drink some water. The practice is only 45 minutes long and the kids are not supposed to take drinking breaks during that time. Most people probably wouldn\u2019t think twice about it, but I couldn\u2019t help but think \u201cis it diabetes?\u201d.\u00a0 I tried to calm myself thinking that maybe he hadn\u2019t had enough to drink after soccer practice (which is an hour before his judo practice). But I couldn\u2019t shake it, and for the rest of the day I kept an eye on his drinking and eating (and urinating). There actually wasn\u2019t anything out of the usual, but that feeling you get when you think something may be wrong with your child is very hard to get over.”<\/p>\n
\n
<\/a>Amy Stockwell Mercer: A Diabetic Christmas, 1987<\/h3>\n“On December 24, 1987 I had been living with diabetes for two years. My younger sister Erin and I were diagnosed within six months of each other.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t see our shared disease as an opportunity for support, or view her as someone to empathize with over the challenges of diabetes because I was 16 and she was 12, and as far as I was concerned, we were worlds apart. So that Christmas, we went to the local church for the service, dimmed the lights, and lit our candles. Erin was next to me and as we sang, she began to sway side to side, bumping into me. Irritated, I shoved her with my free hand, and she swayed up and back instead of side to side. As she titled forward, her candle tipped and wax spilled onto the fur coat of a woman standing in the pew in front of us. Finally, the lights went on and as we gathered our coats to walk outside into the cold, and Mom noticed that Erin was stumbling.”<\/p>\n
\n
<\/a>Elizabeth Snouffer: Leaving my Summer’s Circadian Clock Behind<\/h3>\n“One early morning, around 3 am, after a large dinner party, and a house full of guests and children, my husband found me sitting in a darkened hallway downstairs.\u00a0 He asked me what I was doing and I told him I was trying to climb out of the window \u2014 I think I meant the figurative window of hypoglycemia.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s right there.\u00a0 Couldn\u2019t he see it in front of me?\u201d\u00a0 He pulled me up from my underarms and carried me upstairs. \u00a0Of course, there was no window. \u00a0I was so low I was hallucinating with a blood sugar hovering around 20 mg\/dl.\u00a0 We fixed it with good old American Welch\u2019s grape juice and sat in the living room drinking the purple stuff listening to the ocean while the rest of the house slept soundly.\u00a0 There have been very few moments when I can see fear in my husband\u2019s eyes for me \u2013 but this night I could see his anxiety.\u00a0 \u201cAre you going to be OK?\u201d\u00a0 he asked the next day, many times.”<\/p>\n
\n
<\/a>Jessica Apple: The Imperfect Miracle of Insulin<\/a><\/h3>\n“I\u2019d been right to panic.\u00a0 It was close to midnight, and instead of injecting himself with Lantus (nighttime insulin), Mike had picked up the wrong pen and injected himself with Apidra, fast-acting insulin.\u00a0 He\u2019d taken twenty units, his Lantus dose.\u00a0 It was enough to cover at least 200 grams of carbohydrate.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to go to the E.R.,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat for?\u201d Mike answered.<\/p>\n
Not really sure what the protocol would be in such a situation, I guessed.\u00a0 \u201cA glucose drip!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d Mike said.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ll just stay up and eat.\u201d\u00a0 He wasn\u2019t hungry at all, but there was no other choice.\u00a0 We both stayed up that night.\u00a0 All night.\u00a0 We set a few alarms in case we fell asleep.\u00a0 We had a plate of fruit on the table, a bottle of test strips, a couple of glucometers<\/a>, and I was looking for the glucagon kit<\/a>, just in case.\u00a0 I was sure we had one.\u00a0 But we didn\u2019t…<\/p>\n…To anyone who doesn\u2019t know first-hand what it\u2019s like to be insulin dependent, this might not sound like such a big deal.\u00a0 Just eat something, right?\u00a0 The biggest problem with insulin is that \u00a0it\u2019s one of the most dangerous drugs around.\u00a0\u00a0 There aren\u2019t very many drugs in patients\u2019 hands\u00a0 (are there any others?) that are self-dosed, and that if you take a little too much of, can lead you to have a seizure, fall unconscious, or even die.\u00a0 Insulin therapy is crude.\u00a0 Even in the most responsible hands, mistakes happen.\u00a0 Mike\u2019s case was nothing more than human error…”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/h3>\nKarmel Allison: My thoughts on a type 1 pregnancy<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/a>Pregnant graffiti (photo by Petteri Sulonen)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
she wrote her
\npoem on his wrists
\nlove transcribed in code
\na double-backed
\npolynucleotide beast
\nsealing the air
\nbetween his lungs
\nand his wrists
\non his wrists she wrote
\nher love son
\nson I a Silverstein
\ntree give you all
\nall that I have
\nthat I know that
\nI am son son
\nbut son not that
\nnot that son I didn\u2019t intend
\nmy change is my
\nown she said
\nthe link in my lifeline
\ncrushed to powder
\ninfertile and unexpressed
\nyou son you are not
\nimmune to my failing
\ntake that link elsewhere
\nfind your father
\nmy solitary battle I
\nunbequeath this love
\nI give this war
\nI keep son
\nit is sadness take
\nthat apple from
\nyou father
\nplease she wrote
\nplease she said
\non his wrists through
\nhis veins sealed
\nin code between the
\nfolds of infant skin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I was hallucinating with a blood sugar hovering around 20 mg\/dl. We fixed it with Welch\u2019s grape juice and sat in the living room listening to the ocean…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":13209,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1435],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Best Diabetes Blog Posts of 2010<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I was hallucinating with a blood sugar hovering around 20 mg\/dl. We fixed it with Welch\u2019s grape juice and sat in the living room listening to the ocean...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=13067\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jessica Apple\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=13067\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=13067\",\"name\":\"Best Diabetes Blog Posts of 2010\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=13067#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=13067#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/sunset.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-12-30T14:19:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-01-05T10:46:09+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/#\/schema\/person\/1f33fe649de04a31a493d746b6e72607\"},\"description\":\"I was hallucinating with a blood sugar hovering around 20 mg\/dl. 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She studied Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at the University of Michigan, and completed an MA in the same field at the Hebrew University. She began to write and publish short stories while a student, and continues to write essays and fiction while raising her three sons (and many pets). Jessica\u2019s work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Financial Times Magazine, The Southern Review, The Bellevue Literary Review, Tablet Magazine, and elsewhere. She is the diabetes correspondent for The Faster Times. In 2009 she and her husband, both type 1 diabetics, founded A Sweet Life, where she serves as editor-in-chief. Jessica loves spending time with her sons, cooking with her husband, playing with her cats, reading, biking, drinking coffee, and whenever possible, taking a nap. Follow Jessica on Twitter (@jessapple)\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?author=8\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Best Diabetes Blog Posts of 2010","description":"I was hallucinating with a blood sugar hovering around 20 mg\/dl. 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She studied Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at the University of Michigan, and completed an MA in the same field at the Hebrew University. She began to write and publish short stories while a student, and continues to write essays and fiction while raising her three sons (and many pets). Jessica\u2019s work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Financial Times Magazine, The Southern Review, The Bellevue Literary Review, Tablet Magazine, and elsewhere. She is the diabetes correspondent for The Faster Times. In 2009 she and her husband, both type 1 diabetics, founded A Sweet Life, where she serves as editor-in-chief. Jessica loves spending time with her sons, cooking with her husband, playing with her cats, reading, biking, drinking coffee, and whenever possible, taking a nap. Follow Jessica on Twitter (@jessapple)","sameAs":["https:\/\/asweetlife.org"],"url":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?author=8"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13067"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
“When I pricked my finger, the result came back at 447. No, that\u2019s not a typo. That is four hundred and forty seven mg\/dl and is, quite literally, higher than it was when I was diagnosed nearly 10 years ago. Freaking out, I took a huge correction bolus, waited a few minutes, and checked again. 475…
\n…I\u2019ve been frustrated by my blood sugar pretty much continuously on this trip, and this was a tipping point, one of those moments where all the tiny details of diabetes come crashing down on you all at once \u2014 the self-control and the attention to detail and the thought required for every single bite of food. As I stood there, alternately crying and talking to myself, I could only really say one thing, a phrase I return to every time the emotions of diabetes get the best of me: \u201cI am so tired of this. I am so, so tired.\u201d And then, something new: \u201cI am so angry about having diabetes.\u201d It was a funny and surprising thing to hear myself say, because the vast majority of the time I\u2019m really *not* angry about it. It just seems so pointless \u2014 who would I be angry at? Whose fault is it? No one\u2019s. What can I do about it?”<\/p>\n
\n
<\/a>Michael Aviad: Diabetes or Just a Thirsty Child?<\/a><\/h3>\n“I noticed that twice during practice Guy ran over to the side to drink some water. The practice is only 45 minutes long and the kids are not supposed to take drinking breaks during that time. Most people probably wouldn\u2019t think twice about it, but I couldn\u2019t help but think \u201cis it diabetes?\u201d.\u00a0 I tried to calm myself thinking that maybe he hadn\u2019t had enough to drink after soccer practice (which is an hour before his judo practice). But I couldn\u2019t shake it, and for the rest of the day I kept an eye on his drinking and eating (and urinating). There actually wasn\u2019t anything out of the usual, but that feeling you get when you think something may be wrong with your child is very hard to get over.”<\/p>\n
\n
<\/a>Amy Stockwell Mercer: A Diabetic Christmas, 1987<\/h3>\n“On December 24, 1987 I had been living with diabetes for two years. My younger sister Erin and I were diagnosed within six months of each other.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t see our shared disease as an opportunity for support, or view her as someone to empathize with over the challenges of diabetes because I was 16 and she was 12, and as far as I was concerned, we were worlds apart. So that Christmas, we went to the local church for the service, dimmed the lights, and lit our candles. Erin was next to me and as we sang, she began to sway side to side, bumping into me. Irritated, I shoved her with my free hand, and she swayed up and back instead of side to side. As she titled forward, her candle tipped and wax spilled onto the fur coat of a woman standing in the pew in front of us. Finally, the lights went on and as we gathered our coats to walk outside into the cold, and Mom noticed that Erin was stumbling.”<\/p>\n
\n
<\/a>Elizabeth Snouffer: Leaving my Summer’s Circadian Clock Behind<\/h3>\n“One early morning, around 3 am, after a large dinner party, and a house full of guests and children, my husband found me sitting in a darkened hallway downstairs.\u00a0 He asked me what I was doing and I told him I was trying to climb out of the window \u2014 I think I meant the figurative window of hypoglycemia.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s right there.\u00a0 Couldn\u2019t he see it in front of me?\u201d\u00a0 He pulled me up from my underarms and carried me upstairs. \u00a0Of course, there was no window. \u00a0I was so low I was hallucinating with a blood sugar hovering around 20 mg\/dl.\u00a0 We fixed it with good old American Welch\u2019s grape juice and sat in the living room drinking the purple stuff listening to the ocean while the rest of the house slept soundly.\u00a0 There have been very few moments when I can see fear in my husband\u2019s eyes for me \u2013 but this night I could see his anxiety.\u00a0 \u201cAre you going to be OK?\u201d\u00a0 he asked the next day, many times.”<\/p>\n
\n
<\/a>Jessica Apple: The Imperfect Miracle of Insulin<\/a><\/h3>\n“I\u2019d been right to panic.\u00a0 It was close to midnight, and instead of injecting himself with Lantus (nighttime insulin), Mike had picked up the wrong pen and injected himself with Apidra, fast-acting insulin.\u00a0 He\u2019d taken twenty units, his Lantus dose.\u00a0 It was enough to cover at least 200 grams of carbohydrate.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to go to the E.R.,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat for?\u201d Mike answered.<\/p>\n
Not really sure what the protocol would be in such a situation, I guessed.\u00a0 \u201cA glucose drip!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d Mike said.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ll just stay up and eat.\u201d\u00a0 He wasn\u2019t hungry at all, but there was no other choice.\u00a0 We both stayed up that night.\u00a0 All night.\u00a0 We set a few alarms in case we fell asleep.\u00a0 We had a plate of fruit on the table, a bottle of test strips, a couple of glucometers<\/a>, and I was looking for the glucagon kit<\/a>, just in case.\u00a0 I was sure we had one.\u00a0 But we didn\u2019t…<\/p>\n…To anyone who doesn\u2019t know first-hand what it\u2019s like to be insulin dependent, this might not sound like such a big deal.\u00a0 Just eat something, right?\u00a0 The biggest problem with insulin is that \u00a0it\u2019s one of the most dangerous drugs around.\u00a0\u00a0 There aren\u2019t very many drugs in patients\u2019 hands\u00a0 (are there any others?) that are self-dosed, and that if you take a little too much of, can lead you to have a seizure, fall unconscious, or even die.\u00a0 Insulin therapy is crude.\u00a0 Even in the most responsible hands, mistakes happen.\u00a0 Mike\u2019s case was nothing more than human error…”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/h3>\nKarmel Allison: My thoughts on a type 1 pregnancy<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/a>Pregnant graffiti (photo by Petteri Sulonen)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
she wrote her
\npoem on his wrists
\nlove transcribed in code
\na double-backed
\npolynucleotide beast
\nsealing the air
\nbetween his lungs
\nand his wrists
\non his wrists she wrote
\nher love son
\nson I a Silverstein
\ntree give you all
\nall that I have
\nthat I know that
\nI am son son
\nbut son not that
\nnot that son I didn\u2019t intend
\nmy change is my
\nown she said
\nthe link in my lifeline
\ncrushed to powder
\ninfertile and unexpressed
\nyou son you are not
\nimmune to my failing
\ntake that link elsewhere
\nfind your father
\nmy solitary battle I
\nunbequeath this love
\nI give this war
\nI keep son
\nit is sadness take
\nthat apple from
\nyou father
\nplease she wrote
\nplease she said
\non his wrists through
\nhis veins sealed
\nin code between the
\nfolds of infant skin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I was hallucinating with a blood sugar hovering around 20 mg\/dl. We fixed it with Welch\u2019s grape juice and sat in the living room listening to the ocean…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":13209,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1435],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Best Diabetes Blog Posts of 2010<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I was hallucinating with a blood sugar hovering around 20 mg\/dl. 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<\/a>Amy Stockwell Mercer: A Diabetic Christmas, 1987<\/h3>\n“On December 24, 1987 I had been living with diabetes for two years. My younger sister Erin and I were diagnosed within six months of each other.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t see our shared disease as an opportunity for support, or view her as someone to empathize with over the challenges of diabetes because I was 16 and she was 12, and as far as I was concerned, we were worlds apart. So that Christmas, we went to the local church for the service, dimmed the lights, and lit our candles. Erin was next to me and as we sang, she began to sway side to side, bumping into me. Irritated, I shoved her with my free hand, and she swayed up and back instead of side to side. As she titled forward, her candle tipped and wax spilled onto the fur coat of a woman standing in the pew in front of us. Finally, the lights went on and as we gathered our coats to walk outside into the cold, and Mom noticed that Erin was stumbling.”<\/p>\n
\n
<\/a>Elizabeth Snouffer: Leaving my Summer’s Circadian Clock Behind<\/h3>\n“One early morning, around 3 am, after a large dinner party, and a house full of guests and children, my husband found me sitting in a darkened hallway downstairs.\u00a0 He asked me what I was doing and I told him I was trying to climb out of the window \u2014 I think I meant the figurative window of hypoglycemia.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s right there.\u00a0 Couldn\u2019t he see it in front of me?\u201d\u00a0 He pulled me up from my underarms and carried me upstairs. \u00a0Of course, there was no window. \u00a0I was so low I was hallucinating with a blood sugar hovering around 20 mg\/dl.\u00a0 We fixed it with good old American Welch\u2019s grape juice and sat in the living room drinking the purple stuff listening to the ocean while the rest of the house slept soundly.\u00a0 There have been very few moments when I can see fear in my husband\u2019s eyes for me \u2013 but this night I could see his anxiety.\u00a0 \u201cAre you going to be OK?\u201d\u00a0 he asked the next day, many times.”<\/p>\n
\n
<\/a>Jessica Apple: The Imperfect Miracle of Insulin<\/a><\/h3>\n“I\u2019d been right to panic.\u00a0 It was close to midnight, and instead of injecting himself with Lantus (nighttime insulin), Mike had picked up the wrong pen and injected himself with Apidra, fast-acting insulin.\u00a0 He\u2019d taken twenty units, his Lantus dose.\u00a0 It was enough to cover at least 200 grams of carbohydrate.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to go to the E.R.,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat for?\u201d Mike answered.<\/p>\n
Not really sure what the protocol would be in such a situation, I guessed.\u00a0 \u201cA glucose drip!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d Mike said.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ll just stay up and eat.\u201d\u00a0 He wasn\u2019t hungry at all, but there was no other choice.\u00a0 We both stayed up that night.\u00a0 All night.\u00a0 We set a few alarms in case we fell asleep.\u00a0 We had a plate of fruit on the table, a bottle of test strips, a couple of glucometers<\/a>, and I was looking for the glucagon kit<\/a>, just in case.\u00a0 I was sure we had one.\u00a0 But we didn\u2019t…<\/p>\n…To anyone who doesn\u2019t know first-hand what it\u2019s like to be insulin dependent, this might not sound like such a big deal.\u00a0 Just eat something, right?\u00a0 The biggest problem with insulin is that \u00a0it\u2019s one of the most dangerous drugs around.\u00a0\u00a0 There aren\u2019t very many drugs in patients\u2019 hands\u00a0 (are there any others?) that are self-dosed, and that if you take a little too much of, can lead you to have a seizure, fall unconscious, or even die.\u00a0 Insulin therapy is crude.\u00a0 Even in the most responsible hands, mistakes happen.\u00a0 Mike\u2019s case was nothing more than human error…”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/h3>\nKarmel Allison: My thoughts on a type 1 pregnancy<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/a>Pregnant graffiti (photo by Petteri Sulonen)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
she wrote her
\npoem on his wrists
\nlove transcribed in code
\na double-backed
\npolynucleotide beast
\nsealing the air
\nbetween his lungs
\nand his wrists
\non his wrists she wrote
\nher love son
\nson I a Silverstein
\ntree give you all
\nall that I have
\nthat I know that
\nI am son son
\nbut son not that
\nnot that son I didn\u2019t intend
\nmy change is my
\nown she said
\nthe link in my lifeline
\ncrushed to powder
\ninfertile and unexpressed
\nyou son you are not
\nimmune to my failing
\ntake that link elsewhere
\nfind your father
\nmy solitary battle I
\nunbequeath this love
\nI give this war
\nI keep son
\nit is sadness take
\nthat apple from
\nyou father
\nplease she wrote
\nplease she said
\non his wrists through
\nhis veins sealed
\nin code between the
\nfolds of infant skin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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She studied Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at the University of Michigan, and completed an MA in the same field at the Hebrew University. She began to write and publish short stories while a student, and continues to write essays and fiction while raising her three sons (and many pets). Jessica\u2019s work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Financial Times Magazine, The Southern Review, The Bellevue Literary Review, Tablet Magazine, and elsewhere. She is the diabetes correspondent for The Faster Times. In 2009 she and her husband, both type 1 diabetics, founded A Sweet Life, where she serves as editor-in-chief. Jessica loves spending time with her sons, cooking with her husband, playing with her cats, reading, biking, drinking coffee, and whenever possible, taking a nap. Follow Jessica on Twitter (@jessapple)","sameAs":["https:\/\/asweetlife.org"],"url":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?author=8"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13067"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/a>Jessica Apple: The Imperfect Miracle of Insulin<\/a><\/h3>\n“I\u2019d been right to panic.\u00a0 It was close to midnight, and instead of injecting himself with Lantus (nighttime insulin), Mike had picked up the wrong pen and injected himself with Apidra, fast-acting insulin.\u00a0 He\u2019d taken twenty units, his Lantus dose.\u00a0 It was enough to cover at least 200 grams of carbohydrate.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to go to the E.R.,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat for?\u201d Mike answered.<\/p>\n
Not really sure what the protocol would be in such a situation, I guessed.\u00a0 \u201cA glucose drip!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d Mike said.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ll just stay up and eat.\u201d\u00a0 He wasn\u2019t hungry at all, but there was no other choice.\u00a0 We both stayed up that night.\u00a0 All night.\u00a0 We set a few alarms in case we fell asleep.\u00a0 We had a plate of fruit on the table, a bottle of test strips, a couple of glucometers<\/a>, and I was looking for the glucagon kit<\/a>, just in case.\u00a0 I was sure we had one.\u00a0 But we didn\u2019t…<\/p>\n …To anyone who doesn\u2019t know first-hand what it\u2019s like to be insulin dependent, this might not sound like such a big deal.\u00a0 Just eat something, right?\u00a0 The biggest problem with insulin is that \u00a0it\u2019s one of the most dangerous drugs around.\u00a0\u00a0 There aren\u2019t very many drugs in patients\u2019 hands\u00a0 (are there any others?) that are self-dosed, and that if you take a little too much of, can lead you to have a seizure, fall unconscious, or even die.\u00a0 Insulin therapy is crude.\u00a0 Even in the most responsible hands, mistakes happen.\u00a0 Mike\u2019s case was nothing more than human error…”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \n she wrote her I was hallucinating with a blood sugar hovering around 20 mg\/dl. We fixed it with Welch\u2019s grape juice and sat in the living room listening to the ocean…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":13209,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1435],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n<\/a><\/h3>\nKarmel Allison: My thoughts on a type 1 pregnancy<\/a><\/h3>\n
<\/a>
\npoem on his wrists
\nlove transcribed in code
\na double-backed
\npolynucleotide beast
\nsealing the air
\nbetween his lungs
\nand his wrists
\non his wrists she wrote
\nher love son
\nson I a Silverstein
\ntree give you all
\nall that I have
\nthat I know that
\nI am son son
\nbut son not that
\nnot that son I didn\u2019t intend
\nmy change is my
\nown she said
\nthe link in my lifeline
\ncrushed to powder
\ninfertile and unexpressed
\nyou son you are not
\nimmune to my failing
\ntake that link elsewhere
\nfind your father
\nmy solitary battle I
\nunbequeath this love
\nI give this war
\nI keep son
\nit is sadness take
\nthat apple from
\nyou father
\nplease she wrote
\nplease she said
\non his wrists through
\nhis veins sealed
\nin code between the
\nfolds of infant skin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"