Two Long Days and One Longer Night

My daddy's health has been poor the last several months. His diabetes has been way out of control and unmanageable. Finally, some of his symptoms and problems landed him in the hospital to have a test done.

Normally, people who are in the hospital don't look their best, but I thought daddy looked just as handsome as ever. Of course, this was on the first day, shortly after we got there and got situated in our room.

He was referred to several times while we were there as a "brittle diabetic", which basically means that his diabetes is hard to control and is up and down, up and down. Those ups and downs can cause lots of nerve damage that you may not be aware are occurring until years after the damage has been done.

I stayed the night with him to help him get prepped for his colonoscopy that he was going to have yesterday. Normally, a person could prep for it at home, but he had tried that already and his sugar dropped too low to have it done. So it was determined by his doctor that a hospital stay would be the only way to have the prep and test safely done.

Alicia and Cam brought me this little jewel to the hospital Monday night. They knew that I was in for a long night.

But how long and frightening the night was going to be was something none of us, especially me, expected.

His sugar dropped three times during the night. Once it was brought up by drinking orange juice, with some sugar mixed in it. The second time the level was critical and wouldn't come up with orange juice. He had to have an injection of dextrose into his IV. The third time the level was critical and life-threatening. I had saved this photo off someone's Facebook during the day on Monday. I knew that one day or night, as the case was, it would come in handy. Monday night was that night.

I was disappointed by some of the ways the hospital handled his care. They knew his history and how quickly his condition could go from sitting up and talking to nearly being in a diabetic coma. Yet it took between 5 and 10 minutes to get the dextrose to him the third time. The nurse's station didn't have the dextrose and had to wait to get it from the pharmacy. I thought I was going to stand there and watch my daddy slip into a diabetic coma. Scared and afraid can't even come close to the feelings I felt as I was there alone. But just like the picture says, I wasn't alone. But I was afraid. I recited the 23rd Psalm to myself so many times that night. When I felt afraid, I prayed. I was afraid a lot that night.

Finally, I watched the night turn into morning and I knew that we had made it. Crystal got there around 7:30 and I was so happy to see her face. I have a large family, as you all know, and there were many people I could've called to stay with me. I thought I'd take care of the night, never knowing how many more nights there could be like that one in our future. I thought that maybe next time I'd be the one at home and I would want the person staying there to handle things and let me rest at home. But as Ross pointed out to me last night, that was too much for one person to take on their own. I should've called someone to come and stay with us to help quiet my fear. But really, like the picture says, I wasn't alone at all.

Daddy's test was done at around 10:30, after Crystal begged our nurse to get him worked in ASAP, because we knew it wouldn't be much longer before his sugar would bottom out again.

I don't want to belittle the fact that the test showed no cancer. That is a blessing for sure! The devil was on me big time while we were waiting and was working to convince me that he did have cancer. Again, I played the 23rd Psalm over and over in my head. He had three polyps removed, one of them being quite large. He's being checked for colitis. But I was disapointed that the doctor couldn't tell us specifically that he had found the cause of his symptoms. He has to get his sugar under control, but even that may not take care of his problems. We are taking it one day and one night at a time.

We were released from the hospital yesterday at 3:30. Here's my sweet daddy just as he was about to get in my car, his chariot, to take him back to his home, his castle.

We will have long days and longer nights ahead of us, I feel sure. But we will be comforted in the 23rd Psalm and by the picture reminds us that God will never leave us lonely. Or afraid.

Till next time...

 

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