My dad has had diabetes for about 10 years now. However, late Monday night something happened that has never happend before. And it was scary as hell.

Just after midnight Monday, he was already in bed, myself and my mum were just getting ready to go when we went to say night to him.

However, he wasn’t feeling right so we decided to stay up with him. 10 minutes later, came the sound of what we at first thought was snoring. But then after looking over at him, his eyes were open.

He wasn’t responding to us properly, he couldn’t talk, he was just lying there, breathing like he was snoring and completely out of it.

Paramedics arrived about 5 minutes after calling the emergency doctor. The wonderful paramedics who almost as soon as seeing him and being made aware that he was diabetic said they thought he was going into a diabetic comer. They checked his BM level to find it was 1.4 (anything below 4 is not good at all).

They quickly injected him with glucose and some other magic potions and withim 10 minutes he was out of it, talking normally and communicating again. Thank god.

Now, looking back we are amazed that (both my parents are diabetic) we have never been told about how to spot the signs of slipping in to a DC. We know now though.

The paramedics were concerned at his low blood pressure and hi BM was not stabilising as well as it should have been so they decided hospital was the best option. The next 6/7 hours that myself and my mum spent sat in the cold, uncomfortable A&E waiting room in the middle of the night were not fun. But then, we were much better of than my dad. We were finally let in to see him just as the sun was coming up, by which time we were shattered but pleased to see him looking a lot better than the last time we saw him.

Of course, moving to where we have means that Stoke Mandeville is very local to us. Stoke being the hospital (the spinal injuries unit, to be precise) where my dad spent around 16 months after being made paralysed.

When deciding that he needed to stay in for a few days to monitor this and also try and help with a few other health problems he has been experiencing he was pleased when they told him he would be going back into the SIU. The staff are great in the unit, just for the fact that they get to know the patients needs very quickly.

It doesn’t half annoy my dad, and rightly so I feel, when a clueless doctor in a normal ward asks him to turn over, or sit up or lift or move a leg. All things he cannot do too easily without help/aids… especially the lift a leg bit…. you know, with him being a double amputee paraplegic… and yes, he has been asked to do those things by thoughtless hospital staff. Even 7/8 years on, it can be quite hurtful.

So, he is in hospital now with various operations and CT scans scheduled to see if they can get to the bottom of some recent health problems, which could all be linked. Hopefully it will be a simple fix, they will give him a good old ‘MOT’ and he will be back home with us at the beginning of next week fighting fit and ready to enjoy the first Christmas in our new house. Fingers crossed.

This weeks Topical Tuesday is all about reflecting on the past and looking to the future. It is in 3 parts looking at where you were 10 years ago, where you are now and where you hope to be in ten years time…

10 Years Ago

1999, I was in the 2nd year of my degree at Derby university and was enjoying the social side of uni just a tad too much. After a quiet first year, with no one in my flat particularly wanting to go out, in the 2nd year we really embraced univeristy life and all the drinking that came with it,

It was also that year that I met my very good friend Eliza in real life (it was during my first year that I discovered that site and the mostly wonderful people it bought into my life, which was probably the other reason besides all the partying that stopped me getting the degree grade I know I could have gotten).

Over the next 10 years, quite a lot happened especially regarding my dads health and my decision to return to university.

Today

This year has been quite a change. I graduated from my 2nd degree in July and the family have also upped sticks and moved from the town i grew up in, in Northamptonshire to a small town in Buckinghamshire.

I am still single but all in all quite happy and I am finally learning to drive! Keeping everything crossed in the hopes I pass my forthcoming test and can get myself a car.

10 Years Time

To be quite honest, apart from being happy I have not really thought about where I would like to be in 10 years time. I will take things as they come and embrace what the world throws at me. If a significant other and kids are part of the worlds plan then so be it. If not, I;; just have fun being me and hopefully enjoying a successful career.

This weeks Topical Tuesday is about the fast approaching (54 days and counting… ) Christmas.

For me, Christmas is a time about family and friends. Sure the odd present is nice to receive an even nicer to give but I much more enjoy the family aspect of the event… and, in recent years the promise of a Doctor Who special slotted in between the re-runs and oh so happy soap story lines is the icing on the mince pie.

Working in retail since I was 17 until only a couple of years ago I have it firmly ingrained in me at just what a commercialised event Christmas has become. The shelves would start to be stocked with Christmas items in late September, early October and as soon as Halloween was over it would start to take over the shop. I am still astonished when thinking of how much money used to be taken at the tills in Asda on the few days before Christmas. There would be a notice board in the staff area, always displaying a high 6 figured sum of the previous days takings and how much up (it was always up) on the same day last year.

And the shop was chaos. It was recommended not to even look at the length of the queue that was forming at your till. Just focus on the customer you are serving and apologise for the wait. The good thing though, although the store was mobbed and people were panic buying goose fat they were generally, 90% of the time in a good mood. Apart from the few people that came in 30 minutes before closing on Christmas eve fuming because we had ran out of Brussels sprouts and how it would ruin their Christmas because we didn’t have any left. And the customers that thought it was a great inconvenience that we were closing early and would be closed for 2 days. Almost as if the supermarket staff were not entitled to their own time of at Christmas.

However, despite the joys horrors of working in retail at Christmas I do still see the magic in the season. The weather (although a white Christmas would just top it all of for me), the food, the happiness and the small white fairy lights on trees amoung many other things still bring a smile to my face and I hope they continue to do so for years to come.

I am looking forward to this Christmas, our first in this house. I am already thinking about where to put the tree and am sourcing some outdoor lights to be put on a small potted tree that will go by our front door and… being now that we live in a bungalow and the fascias are in easy reach on a small step ladder I am considering other TASTEFUL lights to hang along the house.

And I am already loooking forward to the Roast duck (no turkey in this house!!) and all the trimmings. Including the cooking which I have done for the last 10 years or so. I absolutely love cooking Christmas dinner. And this year being the first were we have had the wonderful invention of a dish washer to help out, it should be even better.

So, in the end Christmas is what you make it. I always try not to get bogged down in the commercial side of things and hope to instil the family aspect of the time of year into any future children that I may have.

I hope, dear readers, that you have a good one and Santa brings you lots of happiness and full bellies.