Today I witnessed what I would call a diabetic emergency. There were a lot of things about it that were really interesting to me. First of all, dad seemed aware and was able to follow some directions, but totally incapable of intelligible speech. When asked to smile, he barely got the corners of his mouth up, but it seemed the same on both sides. He was also able to raise both of his arms in the air at the same time. He really appeared to be having a stroke as he looked right at me like he knew I was there, but no words could be formed, just grunting, groaning and choking. He even grabbed my hand and squeezed it tight. I wanted to help so badly, but we were waiting for paramedics to arrive, and we really had no idea what was wrong. We were asked by the 911 dispatcher to ask him to say, “the early bird gets the worm.” The first go was nothing but groans, but right before paramedics arrived a very sloshy version with slurred words and no enunciation was repeated. Paramedics tested his blood sugar, took vitals, med records, and determined that the problem was low blood sugar. The numbers were 34 on the first stick and 38 upon a reaffirming second stick. Working as a team, the paramedics were busy doing different things to help. I felt a little bit in the way, but I stayed in the room to observe and help if needed. One of them got an IV in his arm, pushed in what I imagine was glucose and then flushed with another saline syringe. Within minutes he was talking, joking and laughing. We asked him what he remembered and nothing was there until the glucose hit his system. I found it fascinating that he didn’t remember following the simple commands or any of the interactions where he seemed coherent. I ran to Jack-in-the-Box to get him a favorite sandwich and we sat and watched him eat as if nothing had happened. I figured he would feel tired, groggy, worn out, but he was completely back to his usual self with no side effects. It was simply amazing to me that minutes before, he was struggling with consciousness, and probably close to death, and then miraculously, he recovered. He has had type 2 diabetes for over 25 years, but this experience was a first. We asked the paramedics what to do if it were to happen again. I’ve seen a lot of films where candy is stuck in someone’s cheek and the patient recovers. However, this is the wrong answer. Whenever the patient has altered consciousness nothing should be put in the mouth because of the risk of choking. I suppose if we had been stranded with no medical intervention, we would try that method anyway, but since we are not, we will stick with the professionals. We are grateful that the cure was relatively easy and quick without serious repercussions, but I think it’s time to get a continuous glucose monitor.