The Journey

On Wednesday,  the educators at Children's decided to make a basal rate change to Michael's insulin. That meant I'd have to check a 2:00am blood sugar for the next 3 nights.

10/02/15-  2:00am check. Done.

10/03/15-  2:00am alarm goes off. I come back to reality from dream-land and start heading towards Michael's room.  I always check his CGM receiver (which we keep outside his door) before I grab the blood sugar meter. As I bent down to grab the CGM, my foot stepped on what felt like a wet spot. So I pushed the button on the CGM to shine its light on the ground. I saw what I thought were several wet spots.
Oh no, I thought. Akuna peed inside. But I knew the spots were too many to be urine spots. So an even more horrible thought came to mind. Oh no, Akuna pooped. I turned the CGM's light towards the living room. I could see the spots. I turned the light towards the master. I could see more spots that led all the way into the room! Oh my gosh. Akuna has pooped all the way down the hallway and into our room! I headed into the bedroom to get Aaron. I would need his help cleaning up. Why? Why on our anniversary? Why when we're trying to sell our house? Why when I'm in the middle of a blood sugar check? I got into the room and said "Aaron?"
"Yeah?" He replied.
"We have an issue."
"Yes ma'am?"
That's weird. He never calls me ma'am. I decided just to let it out. "Akuna has pooped all the way down our hallway and into our room."
"No he hasn't. That's not poop."
I stopped and shone the CGM light on our floor. Aaron sounded so confident that it wasn't poop. I tried to figure out what the misshapen spots were. I thought Socks? No way. Aaron doesn't even have that many socks. And why would he have socks all down the hallway? I decided it couldn't be socks.
"It's our anniversary. Use your imagination." Aaron said.
Oh great, I thought. He's sleep-talking. I turned on the light. I wanted him to see the spots. He rolled over in bed.
"Just follow them." He said.
And then it hit me. I turned off the light. Aaron had not been asleep. I had not stepped in poop, but rather a flower petal trail. I said "Now? Do I follow them now?"
"Sure." He said.
Led by the light of the CGM, I followed this trail of rose petals down the hallway, through the living room, and into the dining room where there were 6 roses each in its own glass. Tucked in between the glasses was a card.  I read it in the illumination of the CGM.  Here it was, 2:05am, I'm reading a card that talks about how much Aaron and I have been through together-- I'm reading the card at that time because I'm up doing a blood sugar check for our son with Type 1 Diabetes.  I'm reading this card by the light of a piece of technology we use to help us manage Type 1 Diabetes.  I set the card down and go back to the bedroom to thank him.  I'm overwhelmed with joy and gratefulness.  My love language is Words of Affirmation, so it means so much to me when someone says I'm doing a good job, or that they are thankful for my help.  This card said all of that.
"I'm sorry you had to find out about the petals this way.  But I guess it's kind of fitting." Aaron said as I hugged him.

And there you have it.  Six years after this day:

We'd be celebrating our anniversary by the light of a CGM in the 2 o'clock hour of the morning during a non-routine blood sugar check for our oldest son. How far we've come.  And sometimes, those vows that are said on wedding days  ("In sickness and in health...") don't always only pertain to you and your spouse.  Those vows cover your whole family.  So as we learn to be two late-20-somethings who are parents to two young boys, one of whom has an incurable medical condition, we are learning to love more and more each day.

I am so thankful for Aaron and what he means in my life.


Until Next Time,
Much love, Reba