I am a firm believer that things are funny even when they shouldn’t be and that’s okay. Just because you find something funny, especially after the fact, doesn’t mean that you’re downplaying it or even being disrespectful, it just means you can dig the humor out of even the worst situations. If I can see the humor in something, it helps me deal with the aftermath anxiety I get following a stressful situation. I’m not sure if anyone else is like this but it seems I can get through almost anything as it’s happening and then 5 minutes, 1 hour or even 10 hours after the fact I have an anxiety attack that rivals Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory.
I live with a Type 1 Diabetic. Diabetes is not funny and is a very serious disease. However, some of the things that happen because of this disease, can be funny, especially as we’re telling the story after it happens. I say “we”, because his rendition of the stories are also funny….they’re just about me instead of about him. I’m going to share a couple stories that happened recently.
Over New Years, he was in the hospital with several things wrong due to having Strep and getting dehydrated. This 5 day stay in the hospital has made me a bit nervous about his health now so I have become the hoverer, the questioner and the bugger. Just last night as I was “checking” his skin temperature he groaned “I’m fine” because he knows I’m worrying.
A couple of weeks ago he became odd (hard to find words sometimes to describe what these situations are like), a little cold and clammy, a little distant and very very quiet. He said he was just exhausted and wanted to go to bed. Well, as soon as he hit the bed he became unresponsive, breathing, but unresponsive. I panicked a bit, had no idea where the tester was and flashbacks of ICU danced in my head. I didn’t hesitate long, I called 911. The ambulance came and the paramedics came. They put in an IV and juiced him up on some sugar and he came around. No, it wasn’t that easy, he was combative, his skin is tough so they tried 4 spots for an IV and it takes awhile for it all to take affect but nonetheless, he came around.
Once he was sitting up and answering questions like a trooper I looked at him and said “Well, I can now say I’ve had 6 men in my bedroom”. Without hesitation he replied “It’s too bad all the attention was on me”. The paramedics looked horrified and then one finally said “I think he’s fine”.
Again, let me stress before I get hate mail. Diabetes is not funny. It is a horrible disease, like lots of other diseases and I hope a cure surfaces sooner than later. My coping mechanism is humor. As I’m crying about something tragic I can help myself deal with it by finding something humorous either in the situation or something around me.
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