Running on Insulin

Chapter 31

"STOP!!!! STOP!!! I'M SORRY!!!"

Samantha's screaming woke me up before the alarm that I'd set to check her sugar. I looked at the clock. One thirty AM.

I got out of bed and heard Jenna get up as well. We met Josh in the hallway.

"What on earth?" He asked. I didn't say anything to him. My priority was Samantha.

I sat on the edge of her bed as she thrashed.

"Sam, honey, it's Tyler," I said, touching her shoulder and giving her a light shake. She opened her eyes and moved away from me with fear in her eyes.

"It's okay sweetheart," I said soothingly. "It's me. It's Tyler. Jenna's here too."

Samantha's eyes darted around the room. I think for a minute, she forgot that we had rearranged the furniture a bit. Relief washed over her face as she came into awareness of her surroundings.

"I'm sorry," she said.

"No problem," I said, touching her arm. "It's okay. You had a nightmare. You're okay. You're safe. Since it's already one thirty, let's test your sugar, huh?"

She looked around the room again and her eyes landed on Josh standing in her doorway.

"I woke Josh up," she whispered.

"Nah," he said, yawning. "I was awake."

Samantha looked at him, clearly not believing him, but not wanting to disagree.

I picked her test kit up off her night table and handed it to her.

"Let's check your levels, huh?" I said.

Josh watched from the doorway. Jenna sat on the end of Sam's bed.

She pulled the test kit out and tested. Her blood sugar was 93.

"That good?" I asked. She nodded and yawned.

"Good, okay, back under the covers with you," I said. Jenna and I both gave her a kiss on the forehead. "Are you okay?" I asked her.

She nodded.

"Do you want me or Jenna to stay?"

She looked like she was thinking about it, glanced at Josh and shook her head.

"Okay. Call us if you need us. Okay? Sleep tight."

"Good night," she said.

Jenna and I returned to our room. Josh went to his.

I woke up at 6:30 am and woke Jenna up to get Samantha up and test her sugar. I went downstairs to start making breakfast but was confronted by Josh already in my kitchen, beating some eggs in a bowl.

"I couldn't find bacon, I don't know if you have any. But I thought I'd make cheesy eggs for the kid's first day at school," he said.

"Josh, you didn't have to get up to make breakfast," I said, pouring myself a cup of coffee from the pot he'd brewed.

"No. I didn't. You're right. But I wanted to. I feel like she doesn't like me very much and I want her to," Josh said.

"Funny," Jenna said, coming downstairs. "She said the same thing about you."

"What? She thinks I don't like her?"

Jenna nodded.

"Huh. Guess we have that in common," he smiled.

I shrugged.

Samantha came downstairs and sat at the breakfast bar. She was quiet.

"Hey there kiddo. How were your numbers?" I asked.

She shrugged.

"Sam?" I looked at her. "What's wrong?"

She shrugged again.

"Are you nervous about school?"

She shrugged, sighed and then nodded.

"Well, that's totally understandable. New school, new people, middle of the semester. But you'll see. It'll be okay. And to get you off on the right foot, Josh made cheesy eggs," I said.

"The cheesiest," he said, putting a plate in front of Samantha. "But don't you need to take your insulin first?"

She looked at him, then at me. I nodded at her while sipping my coffee.

"Go ahead, sweets," Josh said, handing her the kit we kept in the kitchen. With her insulin in it.

"I don't need to test though. I just did upstairs,"

"Alright. So, two pieces of toast and some eggs and cheese," I said. I watched her fingers fly and she took a deep breath, primed the needle and then turned the dial.

"How many units do you need?" I asked.

"Ten," she said. I looked at the dial. She'd turned it to ten.

"Hey! Good job!"

She smiled and gave herself her injection.

Jenna sat down beside her with a notepad.

"I thought we could go shopping after school for groceries. Stuff you can have. Give me some ideas so we have them on the list. What do you like to have?"

"Well," she said. "I can have pretty much anything as long as I take insulin to cover it. Which I'm trying to do. But sometimes having sugar free options makes it easier. So, like, low sugar jam, although they sometimes taste gross. Sugar free chocolate syrup, sugar free drinks. I pretty much just eat regular stuff. Not much special, really."

"Okay, so we'll get you a few sugar free options but we'll go to the store later and you can pick anything you want. Within reason. I'm not buying you a case of beer or a lobster," Jenna smiled.

"Can I have a lobster?" Josh asked.

"You can buy yourself a lobster," Jenna quipped back.

Samantha and I laughed.

Once we were done breakfast, Jenna handed Samantha a binder with some notepaper, a pencil case with some pens and an old backpack she must have dug out of the basement storage room.

"Hey, that's the bag I used in the 'Stressed Out' video," I smiled.

"Oh. I won't use it then," Samantha said.

"No, go ahead. It was just collecting dust anyway. You need a school bag and if you don't want to use it after today, we'll get you a new one. I think you're going to need more notebooks, too. We'll see once you get settled at school," I said.

Samantha ate her breakfast, a little bit slowly, but it was obvious that it was nerves. Once she was done, we got going.

"I'm gonna stay here," Josh said.

"I was going to suggest that," I said. "We have to get this kid registered, probably talk to the principal, you know. And then we have appointments with her doctors."

"Why are you going to my doctors?" Samantha asked, looking a bit panicked.

"Well," I said. "We need to know how best to help you and keep you healthy. Like, what do we do if your blood sugar gets too high, like last time. I'd like to avoid going to the hospital, if we can help it."

Samantha dropped her head.

"Because the hospital is expensive, I know," she said.

"No, because we'd like to keep you healthy enough that you're not going to get a blood sugar of 410 again," I said. "And I find our house a lot more comfortable than a hospital."

She looked somewhat unconvinced, but shrugged.

"Alright, missy," Jenna said, coming back downstairs from having gone upstairs to get a sweatshirt. "Let's get you to school, huh?"