I serve as a communications advisor to Dex4, maker of glucose products, lending them my patient perspective and expertise. 

I’ve also done a number of writing/editing projects for their “situational lows:” web and print information on “managing weight and lows,” “exercise and hypoglycemia,” “safe driving and hypoglycemia,” and “school days and hypoglycemia.” They’re all under the Learning Center tab on their web site. Great information about correcting and preventing low blood sugar.

So how uncanny that just as I’m working on another situational about nighttime lows, the most dreaded of all, my mother just spent the last two days thinking I had suffered one. Luckily as of this morning she knows I’m not sprawled in my bed or on the floor unconscious.

This is what happened. Every time my mother called my landline she got a busy signal because the last time I used the phone I had used my earpiece and hadn’t properly hung it up. So she’s hearing the phone ringing and ringing when, for me, the phone isn’t ringing at all. 

Meanwhile my cell phone was in my coat pocket for two days because I had put it there when I walked my husband down to the car service to take him to the airport Tuesday night (just in case they didn’t show) and completely forgot to take it out of my pocket. So, even though my mother left three messages on my cell phone, my phone battery was dead. Only last night did I look for my cell phone, realize it needed to be charged and it spent the night on the charger.

When I pulled my cell phone off the charger this morning I saw I had three messages, two from my mother and one from a friend she had called in Florida to see if she knew where I was or if something had happened to me. 

I called my mother right away and her relief was palpable. I can only imagine her picturing that little girl up there in the photo in dire trouble. I’m not usually a ditz. Actually, never. But I have had a horrendous body (and obviously mind) numbing cold/flu where all I can do is walk myself from my bed to read and doze to the couch to watch some TV and doze to the kitchen to make some soup, to barely lifting my ipad to check my emails. Work has largely gone by the wayside so I didn’t even realize the phone hadn’t been ringing.

All to say, I’m really sorry mom and we really do have to teach you how to email! But I also want to use this as an opportunity to remind you that if you suffer from lows and are alone, it’s wise to have a plan so you can get help if you need it, and assure your loved ones if you don’t. 

My current plan is if my mother experiences the same again, she is to call my brother and have him email me. Yes, even in a stupor, I check email. If I really had had a devastating low, (which in 39 years I never have thankfully) I have glucose tablets several places in the house. I also know I should have a better plan. All I can say is I’m working on it.