Day 17 of the WEGO Challenge - What’s a lesson you learned the hard way?

Most people would think that after doing something multiple times a day for almost twenty years, it would  just become habit and there is no issues. And as a 'Caregiver', most would think that I too would be more prepared and aware. Any person directly affected by diabetes will always tell you that the medicine that keeps us alive every day and night (Insulin), can also KILL us any day or night if taken in the wrong dosage.

That day happened not long ago and it was certainly a lesson learned in a very hard way. As you can see in the image, there are two different types of insulin and two different size vials. Now we really thought we had it covered as to how to make sure the two are never confused. Kept the vials in a separate compartment in the refrigerator, made a HUGE black mark with a sharpie on one to visually distinguish between the two. There even is a mark on one syringe to make sure that the black mark vial & syringe always go together. Great Quality Control right?

MY favorite diabetic (my Wife) came to me as we were getting ready to retire for the day, and she was pale, short of breath, and shaking. She told me  she had taken the wrong nightime insulin, and was not’ feeling very good. EIGHT TIMES more than normally taken. I freaked out and ran for the telephone to dial 911. Then we both said WAIT, we can do this ourselves, and right away of course her Blood Glucose Level (BGL)  checked...89. Right away I went on Facebook and posted the scenario, along with me freaking out. The best suggestion I got was to have her take shots of maple syrup. We continued to have this syrup shot party, over and over and over some more.

Everything ended up just fine that night, even though we were up hours past our normal bedtime. She has a whole different outlook on syrup now and she will work through it because she loves it, or used to. A lesson learned the hard way for sure, as we were not totally prepared as could be with no source of instant glucose. That is different as we now are more prepared.