Solo safety.
I made a big decision this week. I’m moving out of my house with three room mates into a place of my own. With my new job’s location (all over the county), the stuff I’ve accumulated over the past four years living here, and the fact that a very special person in my life happens to live about 20 minutes north of my current location, it’s become very apparent I’ve outgrown my current living situation. I am super stoked to strike out on my own and create a new space for myself as I develop in new ways professionally and personally.
However, I haven’t lived alone in oh, well, ever actually. I was at home until 18, had room mates all through college, and have lived with other people for the past five years since graduating. It’s not that I’m not a capable person - I know how to set up a cable box and that all fears of things that go bump in the night can be quelled by the thought of my samurai sword being kept in close proximity (no seriously - I have a real, authentic samurai sword - my karate teacher gave it to me years ago).
But always living with people meant having a buddy system in case of a diabetic emergency. Knock on wood, I’ve never had one since living with room mates, but it was always something that made me feel at ease. All my current room mates are trained on using a glucagon kit, and the symptoms of low blood sugars. We also have a system with my bedroom door - if it’s still closed after 9am on a workday or 10am on the weekend, they need to knock on the door hard and call or text me, just in case an overnight hypo has attacked. Oy. Shudder.
Living on my own will present a new diabetes risk for me, and adding to the issue is the fact that I no longer report to an office for work since I’m now in the field. There’s no boss that sits next to me to check in if I don’t show. I’ve heard some horror stories about folks living with diabetes and being struck by a hypo that left them unable to take care of themselves, and I’ve also heard of PWDs that are extremely dependent on others checking in on them because they have frequent hypo episodes. Neither of those situations is one I want to find myself in, so I’ll need to be extra on top of my safety and care.
Two things are keeping the fear abated for me though, and those are that I’m thankfully very hypoglycemic aware and the fact that I am on a CGM, which alarms when I dip below 65mg/dL and will (and has and does) wake me out of a dead sleep. I also know my boyfriend and friends will be over and calling and texting frequently, so I’m confident that I have some checks in place. How about you readers though? For those of you that have lived alone, were you afraid of having an emergency? What did you do to prevent it? Let me know if you have any good tips. So excited about a place of my own!
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Comments
Doesn’t even need to be a fridge. When I lived alone, I wouldn’t go to sleep without juice boxes and glucose tabs next to my bed.
If I did something that made my blood sugars really unpredictable - massive exercise, drank too much - I tended to stay with my boyfriend.
Mind you, this was pre-CGM, which would make all of the above much less of a worry.
Congratulations!
I am also more careful when sleeping alone and don’t take an chances. I always have a juice box nearby and the last few months I have gone back to checking my sugar at 3 AM and making any needed corrections. I did this during my pregnancies and it sure helps me avoid waking really high or low. This week I am getting trained on the CGM though, so maybe that will change things for me!
congrats on your new place!
DiabetesCommunity
Congrats on the big decision!
I was married right out of college, so I don’t have much experience with long-term living alone. However, I do travel a fair amount for work, and I do admit to consciously running higher when I’m sleeping alone.
At home, I try to keep the CGM humming around 100 overnight, but I find when I travel, I’m happy to be 130-150 overnight. It’s certainly not ideal, but it beats the alternative.
M