OT: A life changing day

[Mr_Vindictive]

I hate posting personal stuff on this board, but this is something that I need to talk about.

My parents babysat my two year old daughter, Autumn, Thursday night with the intentions of spending Friday with her.  On Friday, they decided to go buy a lumber kit for a new deck for the back of their house.  The house that I grew up in was destroyed in a hurricane a few years back and they are now just getting settled into a new home where the old one stood.

They made the trip to Kinston, which is about two hours away.  They took their truck and a tow behind trailer for the wood.  They left Kinston at about 1:30PM.  I recieved a phone call from a paramedic at 2:10 yesterday.

Apparently on their way home, they were hit by an 18 wheeler on the freeway.  They were doing about 40mph on the freeway due to the lumber.  They had their emergency flashers on, and had a piece of red tape wrapped around the lumber in the trailer.  The driver of the 18 wheeler didn't see them and hit them, while they were moving, at apx 70-75mph.  Their truck was pushed over 600 feet and was completely totalled.  Everything from the back seat back was destroyed.

My parents, before leaving yesterday decided to drop off my daughter at her day care.  She was there when the accident happened.  

The police say that her car seat was the only thing that saved my mother's life.  Apparently a 2x4 flew through the back of the truck, directly into her empty car seat and into the back of the passenger seat where my mother was sitting.  If Autumn had been in there, which she almost was, she would have died immediatly.

Luckily, both of my parents are ok.  They made it with only a few cuts, scratches and a few strained muscles.  It would have been awful if they would have passed away in the wreck, but I can't imagine what would have happened if Autumn would have been there and would have been killed.

It's something like this, that honestly makes you appreciate the people in your life much much more.  I'm so glad that they made the decision to take her to her day care.  I love my daughter more than anything in the world, and I don't know if I could go on if she were to die.  It's a painful thing to think about, especially when I know that she was a "whim decision" away from death.

I'm going to start appreciating my own life a bit more from now on.  I've recently been diagnosed with diabetes, after falling into a minor diabetic coma a few weeks ago.  I'm going to start working out, eating better, and try to make my life a bit better.  

Anyway, it doesn't matter if nobody replies to this post.  I just needed to type it out, it makes it a bit better.  At the moment, my wife and I are staying with my parents at their house since they are still quite stiff/sore and need some looking after.

[daveblackeye15]

Whoa Skaboi, I'm shocked. I'm very glad that your parents are okay, and agree that it was a very good thing that your daughter was put into a day care. And it's good to see that you've taken up a healthier lifestyle to fight diabetes, I had no idea.

I'm glad you let it out.

[odinn7]

That's harsh Skaboi...I'm glad everything worked out and your parents made the decision to use daycare. I understand your comments about the thought of losing your daughter, I have thought of that before and I doubt I could handle something like that and still go on.

[Menard]

Thank you for sharing your experience. As I was reading it, I was so afraid that something more tragic had happened, and thankfully that was not the case. Even though it was not more tragic, as you said, it is a life altering experience which gives one pause.

It is good to hear that everyone is safe; we have had too much tragedy among the members of the board. You have certainly provided the rest of us with a life lesson to contemplate.

How has your health been as of late?

Was the onset of diabetes preceeded by fatigue or any other health problems?

Do they have you on a diet regimen for treatment, or was it necessary to start you on insulin?

My sister is a diabetic; two shots a day. She was diagnosed at the age of 13. I have several friends who are diabetics as well. Most of them, not all, who have had adult onset diabetes, have been able, at least early on, to treat it without going to insulin.

Sorry to ramble.

Again, I am happy to hear that nobody was seriously injured in the accident. I hope you are doing well yourself.

[Mofo Rising]

Damn, Skaboi.  I'm glad as hell you all made out as good as you did.  It's always a swift kick in the pants when life lets you know it's not messing around.

If life is so good to you that you can sit back and watch a horrible movie, just to spend time with the ones you care about. . .

Cherish those moments, it is time wasted well.

[Andrew]

That is amazingly fortunate and I am glad to hear that everyone is, more or less, okay.

Katie and the kids caught some sort of stomach virus here.  So far I have not, perhaps even fought it off.  However, I have done an awful lot of laundry and cleaned up a lot the last few days.  It was the first thing I thought of when I saw your subject line.

[AndyC]

Wow, I'm glad everyone was all right. I was worried that this would be another story like JohnL.

As one of several fathers of little girls on this board, that story hit very close to home for me. I don't think there's a day goes by that I don't think of just how helpless and fragile my daughter is at this stage of her life, and how much I want to protect her from the dangers in the world. Something like this is a reminder that there are some things you just can't control. I'm glad luck was on your side.

[Mr_Vindictive]

Thanks for the thoughts guys.  It's good to know that some of the kindest people in the world reside on this board.  Your thoughts really mean a lot.

In response to your post Menard, I have been feeling bad for a while now without any real cause.  I've been doing technical support for an ISP for about three years now.  Before that, I had a job that required me to be outside and constantly moving.  Now, with tech support, I mainly sit without much activity.  This caused me to go from about 230 pounds to a bit over 300.  I was constantly feeling weak, and couldn't figure out why, although I knew it had to be related to my weight.  I've pushed back down to about 270 at the moment, and that is when the problem got worse.

I live in North Carolina, and sweet tea is a big thing down here.  At home, I usually made a gallon every other day and it was a staple in my diet.  One night after drinking some of the tea, I felt like I was going to faint.  It was a dizzying feeling, like I was going to pass out or vomit.  I eventually fainted.  Luckily, my wife who is in the medical field, had bought a blood level tester a few days before.  She brought me around, and checked my blood sugar which was hovering around 30.  Normal is around 90 if I'm not mistaken.

I went to a doctor and it seems that I am "hypoglycemic".  Here's a definition from Wikipedia:

"Hypoglycemia is a medical term referring to a pathologic state produced by a lower than normal amount of sugar (glucose) in the blood. The term hypoglycemia literally means "low blood sugar". Hypoglycemia can produce a variety of symptoms and effects but the principal problems arise from an inadequate supply of glucose as fuel to the brain, resulting in impairment of function (neuroglycopenia). Derangements of function can range from vaguely "feeling bad" to coma and (rarely) death."

The doctor said that when I fainted, I fell into a very mild diabetic coma.  So, now I'm laying off the sweet tea, and too many carbs and such.  I still need to lose quite a bit of weight, so I'm going to start walking after work and maybe start bicycling again.

Anyway, like I said, thanks again for the kind thoughts.  You guys are real friends, and it's great to have you guys around.  Thank you.

[Mofo Rising]

About three years ago my father lost a bunch of weight.  He thought it was because he was working out moderately.  Turns out he had an undiagnosed case of diabetes.  Stuff will make you go blind if you let it.  My mother is now diabetic as well, so it's probably just a matter of time for me.

I'd agree with you on quitting the sweet tea.  I switched to diet soda about a year ago.  I also moved a bit farther from my work, which I bike to.  With no effort I lost about 20 pounds over the course of a year, and I'm a little guy so that was over 10% of my total mass.  Yes,  I drink a lot of soda.

Anyway, diabetes isn't that bad if you're willing to make a couple of changes.  Still no picnic of course, but them's the ropes.  Just remember, exercise is much easier to go back to when you have fun while you're doing it.

[dean]

Wow, I've been offline for a few days and this thread is at the top of a very long list of threads to get through.  

I'm very glad that everyone's ok.  When I was reading the post, like someone else, I was thinking that it was all to end in a bad way, thankfully it's not the case.

Still, I bet you'll still have the shivers a few days later when you think of it.  It's a very lucky set of circumstances from what I've gathered, since if your parents didn't look after your daughter in the first place, there would have been no chair to help brace the impact.  I'm a very superstitous person when it comes to things like this, so I get shivers myself reading stuff like this.  

[trekgeezer]

That's a scary story. I'm glad it turned out to be a "what if" and not a total tragedy. I hope your parents are doing well.

As far as the diabetes, excercise, excercise. I have a friend at work that has had diabetes for quite a few years and was having trouble controlling her sugar  and taking a hefty dose of insulin. She started doing water aerobics and it reduced her insulin dose and really brought her sugar under control.

The governor here in Arkansas has kinda made a name for himself in the weightloss arena. He lost more than a hundred pounds over a year and it "cured' his diabetes. He wrote a book called "Quit Killing Yourself with a Knife and Fork" about his experiences.

[Neville]

Man, you must feel all shaken now. I had a car accident myself a couple of months ago, and while no one was injured it was one of those situations that if it hadn't been for a couple of casualities they could have been far more serious.

Give yourself some time and get yourself together again.

[LH-C]

I myself have been going through some weird times, including a minor car accident a week ago (my mom was driving and we are both fine) and dropping out of a history class today that I just couldn't keep up with because I just wasn't prepared. I'm going to try and re-take the class during the Summer or next Fall.

[Flangepart]

Man!
I can't add much to what the rest of the gang has said.
Guess life seems more prechious now. These things sure open the mind.