[duck]

Hey Penny, by my math, it would seem to be time to get drunk once more.

[Penny]

Originally Posted by duck

Hey Penny, by my math, it would seem to be time to get drunk once more.

I missed the 50th birthday because I was recovering from a heart attack. The 60th, Hubby was recovering from a heart attack.....I am saving up for if I make 70.

[duck]

Originally Posted by Penny

I missed the 50th birthday because I was recovering from a heart attack. The 60th, Hubby was recovering from a heart attack.....I am saving up for if I make 70.

Let me know. I'm basically a tee-totaller nowadays, but maybe we can have a few and keep saying to each other "I can't feel my lips..."

[Penny]

Originally Posted by duck

Let me know. I'm basically a tee-totaller nowadays, but maybe we can have a few and keep saying to each other "I can't feel my lips..."

9 years, 4 months and 22 days, you have a date!

[octoberlily]

Well this has brought back a not so nice memory for me.

At moment i'm suffering with hypo unawareness, in march this year whilst out and about, i went hypo didn't see it coming and can't remember nothing, only know what i have been told. But a person who saw me, didn't bother coming to see what was wrong but decided to phone the police, apparently they come out, and took it i was under the influence of either drugs, drink or both. Not going into anymore detail as to much happened before someone realised it could be medical, but eventually it was sorted, yes the hospital staff were disgusted as i'm a member of medicalert and had my bracelet on.

My G.P told me that the police are allowed to arrest someone acting strangely. But they need to know that they can't throw someone with diabetes in a cell and expect them to sleep it of.

I now won't go out alone, well not untill this problem with me can be sorted.

Julie

Type 1 diagnosed 1974

awaiting to hear about funding for the pump

[Penny]

A couple of days ago, I went to Walmart. Just before I left, I checked BS, it was 130. I was happily walking along looking at all the clearance racks, when I realized I felt funny, but thought "I can't be low", it was only 20 minutes since I checked. I kept shopping, feeling worse by the minute, when all at once, I knew I better find something to hold me up. I leaned against a pole in the middle of the Women's section. I fumbled (the only word for it) my kit, took what seemed forever to test.....43! This meter always measures 10 more than the one I have at home, so I could have been 33. The thing is I could not move, just leaning there, fumbling in my purse, and I know from past experiences that I had a strange look on my face, and was sweating. People walked within a foot of me and stared, but said nothing. I did manage to get my Glucotabs out and stood there chewing them as fast as I could. I am surprised someone didn't get security or at least one of the numerous Walmart people to check on "the strange lady",leaning on a pole. No one bothered to ask if I was OK, and I really do just look like someone's Grandma.

[duck]

Originally Posted by Penny

A couple of days ago, I went to Walmart. Just before I left, I checked BS, it was 130. I was happily walking along looking at all the clearance racks, when I realized I felt funny, but thought "I can't be low", it was only 20 minutes since I checked. I kept shopping, feeling worse by the minute, when all at once, I knew I better find something to hold me up. I leaned against a pole in the middle of the Women's section. I fumbled (the only word for it) my kit, took what seemed forever to test.....43! This meter always measures 10 more than the one I have at home, so I could have been 33. The thing is I could not move, just leaning there, fumbling in my purse, and I know from past experiences that I had a strange look on my face, and was sweating. People walked within a foot of me and stared, but said nothing. I did manage to get my Glucotabs out and stood there chewing them as fast as I could. I am surprised someone didn't get security or at least one of the numerous Walmart people to check on "the strange lady",leaning on a pole. No one bothered to ask if I was OK, and I really do just look like someone's Grandma.

I'm very glad you are smart enough to carry emergency supplies and a meter with you...actually, very impressed would be the correct thought.

Penny, unfortunately we live in a society where most people have calculated that the risk of getting involved in any unusual situation is just not worth it. I tell my wife all the time if she sees an accident, not to render assistance (esp. if with the kids) but instead pull over and dial 911...I tell her if she is in a fender-bender to not get out of the car, but to call 911 and wait for the police. We live in that sort of a world, unfortunately. So the fact that no one stopped to help, or ask if you were okay doesn't surprise me, but it does sadden me. We have to take care of ourselves nowadays.

[Penny]

Originally Posted by duck

I'm very glad you are smart enough to carry emergency supplies and a meter with you...actually, very impressed would be the correct thought.

Penny, unfortunately we live in a society where most people have calculated that the risk of getting involved in any unusual situation is just not worth it. I tell my wife all the time if she sees an accident, not to render assistance (esp. if with the kids) but instead pull over and dial 911...I tell her if she is in a fender-bender to not get out of the car, but to call 911 and wait for the police. We live in that sort of a world, unfortunately. So the fact that no one stopped to help, or ask if you were okay doesn't surprise me, but it does sadden me. We have to take care of ourselves nowadays.

Well yeah, there is that. I tell everyone the same thing....get help, but don't do anything yourself. In fact just told 2 of the grandkids, when they were helping a man pick things up that he had dropped. I felt bad telling them that, but they were in a parking lot, close to his open car trunk....had to explain how easy it would be for him to toss one of them in the trunk and be gone. Isn't it terrible, that little girls cannot be kind without worrying about what will happen.

[JediSkipdogg]

Originally Posted by octoberlily

My G.P told me that the police are allowed to arrest someone acting strangely. But they need to know that they can't throw someone with diabetes in a cell and expect them to sleep it of.

Yes that's true depending on what you are doing. And unless they somehow know you are diabetic, you could be SOL depending on how bad you are. That's why I HIGHLY encourage all to wear medic alert bracelets of some sort. Police may not fully look for them, but I guarantee you the jail will when you get put in.

[octoberlily]

Well i'm a member of medicalert, and yes had my bracelet on, but like i explained at moment i'm suffering hypo unawareness, not getting signs, my B.Ms can also drop to as low as 1.6 without it having any effect on me, i also carry glucose tabs with me but without warning of any sort you wouldn't use them.

I also explained that someone eventually did realise it could be medical, hence spending two days in hospital.

My bracelet is the same as one posted earlier.

Julie

Type 1 dianosed 6th dec 1974

[slipperyelm]

Well, I may be the weirdo, but I stop to help people all the time. It is just how I was raised. I wrote in the chat forum back in May about stopping to help the passed out driver of a car that crossed one of the city's busiest streets and hopped up over the curb beside me then continued on across the grass and a parking lot where it came to a final stop by hitting a parked car. I ran after the car as did another person, both of us hoping to get into it and stop it before there was a collison. 911 was called; police arrived first and I was shocked and disgusted at the rude way the passed out man was talked about. It was assumed he was on drugs.

My husband and I stop to help people roadside. One time, he and my son, then 11 years old, lost their sleeping bags by aiding a couple of young men (teens really) who'd crashed on a country road. One had hit the windshield was bleeding from the head and had gotten out of the car but was going into shock laying in the snow on the roadside. It was winter in Minnesota. The boy needed their sleeping bags for warmth. No one had cell phones. The young driver ran to the nearest farm house to call for an ambulance.

Another time my husband and I saw a woman running down the sidewalk of an overpass over the freeway. She was crying and flailing her arms crazily. My husband who was driving pulled over as soon as he got to the end of the bridge and I leaped out of the car and ran after the woman. I thought she was maybe going to jump off the bridge. Well, to an objective observer, my own behavior probably looked pretty bizarre and panicky, but I just did what my heart told me to do....The part of me that believes in miracles(not a big part) thinks that I participated in one that day. This may sound stupid, but my evidence for the miracle is this: Normally I wear loose sandles every day in warm weather. Sometimes even in cold, with socks! But that day, for no reason, I had put on my athletic shoes which had not even been on my feet in the two years previous. But having on those shoes meant I could run quickly to the woman, reaching her as she faced outward from the bridge, leaning over....We did not call 911, even after I got the woman to walk off the bridge with me. We got her in our car like friends would do, heard about her problems, managed to chat about ordinary things in an ordinary way as we drove her home....Maybe that was not the best way to handle things....But maybe it was. Calling 911 might have been the worst thing to have done.

My sister and I pulled off the interstate in rush hour traffic to help a woman who was barely pulled over to the shoulder and was hanging out the driver's door. She was sick, able to sit, but barely able to speak. We did not know if it was a woman or a man when we stopped. We did not have a cell phone to call 911. But I just flagged down the first car I saw making the universal sign for telephone. That guy pulled over and used his cell to call 911. The reason I was able to flag down that car safely was that traffic was going quite slow due to the sick woman's car being dangerously close to the traffic lane and people slowing to look. But no one called 911 till we pulled over. Her vehicle (and body hanging out) had caused about a two mile long traffic back up, but of all those cell phone carriers, no one thought seriously to call 911. It looks like the car may have been there for three frickin' hours. Surely in that time some police cars had even driven by! I should mention that earlier that month a nurse had been killed when struck by a car when she stopped to help someone. My sister is a nurse and this was on her mind when we stopped. Neither of us had any idea that we would just keep on driving by, though.

Yep, I have stopped to aid drunks laying in the side walk, too. But they have always declined help.

I saw a sleeping baby in a locked car on a warm spring day and was prepared to break the windows. I did not have a cell phone and neither did my sister who was again with me. I was monitoring the temp of the car with my hands on the window and was going to send my sister into a store to call 911 while I would break the window. Just as I was getting my nerve up, the baby's adult (mother?) came out of the nearest store, a cosmetics retailer. Urrgh! Pretty, smooth face, luscious long eyelashes,
youthful pink blushing cheeks, dead cooked baby!!!!!?????

I also will stop and keep an eye on little children who seem to be unwatched in circumstances that could be dangerous for them. I know that I maybe look a little too interested in the children in such circumstances--you know, the stranger staring at the 2-4 year old. But I will just take the risk. I'm talking about situations where the adult the child is with is just being what seems like neglectful to me. Crossing a busy intersection with the 2 year old trailing behind the parent, for example. Or the little one playing inside the clothes racks at Target when the parent is 25 yards away, gone to another department. Good way to lose your child even if they don't manage to pull those racks down on themselves. Once, I was pretty sure that a child was lost in a Kmart. I took the child to the layaway office which, fortunately was quite nearby. They paged the store for the parent. It took about three minutes for the parent to get there, which tells me they had no idea where the child was.

Ah, well, I guess I've wandered off of helping people in circumstances that could be medical emergencies. But I just want to encourage you to FIGHT that programming that tells you not to get involved. Be involved. Take responsibility. If you want to live in a society that will likely help you when you need help, then be of help to someone who needs help. Yes, it is scary. At least for me it is. But , well, come on. I'm a really shy person, not out going at all. If I can do it, you can do it.