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Did you hear about this dad that found himself on the wrong side of the diabetes tracks? This may be ancient news by now, viewed from the internet eyes of the informed masses, but his story is touching and thought provoking. In North Platte, Nebraska a six year old little boy took over steering his father's vehicle after the man passed out from low blood sugar. While driving home from a restaurant dinner, the dad's blood sugar tanked and sent him slumping back into the driver's seat, without accelerating, but with the car still rolling down the road. His young son hopped on his dad's lap, grabbed the wheel and steered around until a patrolling police officer could intervene.

It brings to reality the inopportune times diabetes is able to steal the show. I know most of us can relate to a low blood sugar running up from behind and blind-siding us. I suspect, or at least could envision from personal experience, that the father had too much insulin in his system compared to the carb count of his dinner. Like when you bolus for that extra 25 carb grams worth of french bread, but get lost in the huge salad in front of you, not actually including that bread in the meal. Mix in some slowly digested chicken parmesan for the main course and that early meal bolus becomes an unwelcomed guest to the party.

Hirsch's book, Cheating Destiny, has a similar example that was powerful to read and still finds its way into the forefront of my brain sometimes. The ending was not as happy as the Nebraskan families, Hirsch ending up crashing, but luckily everyone ended up in one piece at the end of both stories.

Does diabetes get in the way of daily life, or is it the other way around? Sometimes it seems that all of the days decisions have to be about diabetes and if you let the real world sneak in, problems ensue. What a depressing thought...