The Value of a Dollar Today marks one week since I went through a life changing event and after much musing about what I should say in this forum I think I have finally put it together in my mind….now to try to put it in words. The day started out feeling miserable with what I was thinking was the flu. We went to watch grandkids hockey, went to Jill’s for Thanksgiving supper and as is our usual Sunday habit, later that evening we went to Christine’s Place where our good friend Dave Pike does Karaoke and our friends Rita and Shelley staff the bar. Sunday night is a regular crowd of friends and it is very much like Statler and Waldorf from the Muppet Show between me and Dave with the heckling that goes on. But Dave is also a friend of almost 30 years and expressed concern about the way I looked. He mused that what I was feeling was similar to symptoms he had many years before when he was diagnosed with Diabetes. I promised him I would see my doctor on Tuesday, the next day the clinic would be open. Later I went to the bar for what must have been my tenth glass of water and Rita in her usual inimitable way told me I looked like sh-t. She said to Shelley who was also a Diabetic she should check my blood sugars. In doing so she took out a test strip…..worth about one dollar….. and to the shock of all of us found out my blood sugar was 33. I was told in their usual blunt manner to “get my ass to St. Clare’s ER…. ASAP. When I was tested at St. Clares shortly thereafter it was in the low forties and the ER staff were shocked that I had actually walked in there. I learned there and then that my life was forever changed. I am now a Diabetic with all the diet, lifestyle and medication regime changes that go with it. A five day stay in hospital set me on a new path. It might seem a bit facetious to some to say this but I believe with all my heart and soul that one dollar test strip saved my life. The caring and concern of three people whom I consider among my dearest of friends who knew enough about diabetes also were instrumental in the fact that I am here to say the things I am saying right now. From what I know now if I went home that night and went to bed the odds were very much on the side of a diabetic coma and death. The fact that I was able to walk into an ER I’ve been told by many medical professionals in my family and circle of friends is tantamount to a miracle. Apparently most people with blood sugars in the low forties don’t. The seriousness of this was confirmed to me in several ways not the least of which was a man in hospital with me who was damned near blind from diabetes and his admission blood sugars were 34. The consequences were and are very real. I feel like the luckiest man in the world for many reasons…… I have been given a second chance which I will not waste. I have a loving and supportive extended family who I will not forsake. A lot of things will change. And let this be a lesson to others. Do not ignore the things your body is trying to tell you. I did and it damned near cost me my life. But there is one constant that keeps coming back to me. I am alive today because three friends cared enough to do something as simple as test my blood sugars…… to expend the value of a one dollar blood sugar test strip. If they had not done this I would never have known and my life may have ended. So to Dave Pike, Rita Jordan and Shelley Osbourne I truly owe you my life and Shelley I owe you that one dollar. I pray you spend it as wisely as you did last Sunday night.
Posted on: Sun, 19 Oct 2014 12:16:25 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015