Today I have finally gotten around to talking about GlucaGen, unfortunately this is due to the fact I had to use it this morning. I woke up this morning and noticed that James was sweaty and hadn’t moved when the alarm clock went off. I grabbed the meter and checked his level – 1.2mmol/L. I loudly said his name and shook him and got no response. I then grabbed the GlucaGen box that lives beside the bed and administered the injection. Around 10 mins later James’s level was thankfully heading upwards.
This little orange box contains a lifesaving injection of glucagon. There is a syringe of saline, and a vial of powder. This is used when a person with diabetes is unconscious or cannot have glucose orally. It works by causing the liver to convert stored glycogen into glucose and release it into the bloodstream, raising blood glucose levels.
The first time I ever used this injection I was so worried! I read the information in the box, injected the saline into the vial, shook it up to mix, drew it back up into the syringe, got rid of the air bubbles and looked at James’s leg…..
looked at it….
looked at the huge needle in my hand….
and looked at his leg again.
I knew that I had to give the injection, but I was worried about hurting him. Then I finally realised that he was unconscious, he wouldn’t feel it and that the injection wouldn’t make things worse. So I did it. A few minutes later James came to.
Since then, I have unfortunately had to give this lifesaving injection a number of times.
Caring sometimes involves doing things that will hurt the one you love, so that you ultimately save their life.
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