About 15 years ago, I found my dad curled up on the ground. His skin was so yellow and he couldn't eat anything. That was the first time I called the ambulance for him. Imagine a young ESL girl, too young to drive and without any relatives in the country to call for help. Yes, it was very scary and still is every time he has an episode now. At that point, I had no idea what was wrong with him. We later found out that he has Type 1 diabetes, which means that he's insulin dependent.
What changed the most after that was Dad's love for food. His weight dropped dramatically. Now I feel he's afraid to eat especially when it comes to sweets, his favorite. He's constantly watching his blood sugar level. It wasn't until this past year that he started having episodes after his new doctor at Kaiser Permanente decided to switch his medicines/dosage every now and then just to see if things would be any better. I feel like his doctor is using him as a human experiment. What will they do when he reacts badly to their new tests and no one is there to help him? Will they take responsibilities?
For the past 12 months, I have already called the ambulance three times. His medicines recommendations turned out to be too strong and he wasn't used to how much food he was supposed to take to balance it out. Luckily one time, his work knew to call me when he didn't show up to work. I instantly called for an ambulance to his place. The police department questioned why I am calling from 360 miles away. You don't know how frustrating this can be. Every minute is so precious at that point. I learned that the police departments in Southern CA is not connected to Northern CA and they don't have a system to look up numbers or transfer you to another location. Most cities only list 911 as their contact number instead of the actually office number.
I ran into a situation where someone near my dad wouldn't call the ambulance thinking that they would have to take care of the medical bills. Seriously? This is completely untrue. When someone's life is in danger and you're wondering about the medical bill, something is wrong with you. I'm just grateful that they at least knew to call me for help. I am very thankful for that.
When my Dad's blood sugar is too low, he will get an episodes of diabetic hypoglycemia. During an episode, he usually makes weird martial arts noise as if he's sleep walking. His eyes were often closed and even if they're open, he will look as if he some how doesn't recognize you anymore. He'll sweat heavily, shake, breath abnormally and act in a drunken stage. If his condition gets any worse, he can get a seizure and lose his consciousness that can lead to brain damage.
I hope that you will never experience this. The feelings that you get wondering about the unknown of your parent's condition is horrible. You don't know how scary it is for me to get any unknown phone calls from his area code.
I hope that whenever you're in a situation where someone needs medical help, that you won't ever hesitate to help. Every life is valuable and helping one person actually helps their family, friends and their entire community.
