I represent The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Collin County on the Collin County VOAD Council (Volunteer Organizations Active in Disasters). It is a council where many different organizations get together to pool resources and make plans on how we can work together to cope in the event a disaster were one to happen in our area. I fall into the group of those representing a Faith Based Organization, namely the Church. The Collin County VOAD generally meets on the first Wednesday of each month at 9:00 a.m. in different locations many of them City and County government offices.
About a year ago our VOAD meeting was to be held in McKinney, Texas about 30 miles away from where I live. It was to be a breakfast meeting. I got ready to leave for the meeting and realized I had a few minutes to do a task before I left. I thought of something I could do, but realized there was not time to do it before time for me to leave. The words went through my mind, "You don't have time to do that, but you do have time to check your blood sugar."
I have Type II Diabetes. I should confess that I was not as good to take my blood sugar readings as often as I should have. Back then especially, I would eat when I was hungry, take my Metformin (a medication to lower blood sugar) and just rely on symptoms such as shakiness, brain fog, and hunger to suspect my blood sugar was too low. I should also say, it rarely happened that I would have low blood sugar. On this particular morning, the only symptom I had that my blood sugar may be low was hunger, but like Scarlett O'Hara, I would ". . . do my eat'n at the Barbecue," (or in this case the VOAD meeting).
"Yes," I remember saying to myself, "I do have time to take my blood sugar." I got out my blood sugar monitor and proceeded to test myself. I had to blink at the results that popped up on the monitor. I had never seen a reading as low as 44. I pressed the submit button on the monitor, sending the information to the system I was connected to (Livongo at that time). "That can't be right," I remember thinking. I tested again with the same result. Just in case it was correct, I went to the pantry and retrieved some peanut butter crackers and hastily downed those.
After eating the crackers, I went about trying to find another blood glucose meter. I had some other meters that I used before my insurance company sent the Livongo brand meter out to me. Failing to find a satisfactory meter, I checked my phone which had beeped. It had a message from Livongo. "We must hear from you immediately," the words read and there was a phone number to call. I called the phone number and began explaining what was going on to the customer service representative on the other end. After I assured the representative that I had eaten, he proceeded to talk me through testing my meter. It tested out as accurate.
After thanking my helper, drinking some orange juice, and checking my blood sugar again, I determined it was safe for me to drive to McKinney. On the way to my destination, I began pondering this experience. I realized that if I had not tested my blood sugar, I could have been in serious trouble as I drove the 45 minutes it would take me to get to my destination. I realized that it was the Holy Ghost who had prompted me to check my blood sugar. And even though I did not recognize it at the time, the prompting came in much the same way as other promptings have. Instead of thinking, "I have time to check MY blood sugar," the words in my mind were, "YOU have time to check YOUR blood sugar." This should have been a clue to me. The Holy Spirit had once again spoken to me in the second person as He so often does. I said a quick and silent prayer to my Heavenly Father thanking Him for sending two angels to watch over me that morning. I arrived at the meeting about 20 minutes late.
I have since gone off that insurance plan and onto Medicare which does not pay for a monitoring service. It would cost me $50.00 to have Livongo continue to do that. I decided I could take on the responsibility of monitoring my blood sugar myself. I am also happy to report that I have also gone on a very low carbohydrate diet and am now controlling my blood sugar without medication, but that's another story for another time.
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