SERIOUSLY, looking for stories and photos of your pet(s) who share your T1 burdens.
Now, on to the MAIN EVENT: Noodle, the D.A.D.
I wrote about Noodle almost 2 years ago (see my initial post, 8 February 2018). I was just so taken with his gentle manner and sweetness, I’m crazy about dogs anyway, and I just couldn’t resist! Noodle is a sweet goldendoodle who shares a wonderful life with his human, David, a T1 and Lindsay, David’s wife. Over time, I’ve had many opportunities to “chat” with Noodle … and he just makes me smile. I can tell you that he is reserved, some might say shy … but serious and attentive.
David tells a story about Noodle which occurred during the initial adjustment period (which David was told would take literally 30-90 days), with night alerts being usually the last thing to come. Indeed, it was the very first night with Noodle: I put him to bed on a pad right next to our bed as I was instructed and then went to sleep…only to be awakened at 2am by Noodle hurling his entire 55 pound body on top of me and scaring the you-know-what out of both Lindsay and me in the process. I tested my blood sugar and sure enough he was right…I had high blood sugar…and probably high blood pressure from being startled!
I can just see that! It probably scared Noodle too!!!
One of the best Noodle Saves David stories: There was a night just a few nights ago where I tested my blood sugar right before bed and it was 128. As we were about to go to bed the smoke detector started chirping signaling the battery was low, so I spent about 10-15 minutes getting the ladder, getting a new battery, and changing it. I went to bed and Noodle started to alert me, and I tried to convince him that I had just tested 15 minutes ago and my blood sugar was perfect. So I told him to go “down” so I could go to sleep. He went down for about 5 seconds, and then got back up and alerted me, more forcefully this time, and again I tried to reason with him that I had just tested and was fine and that it was late and I just wanted to go to sleep. Of course there is no reasoning with a dog when he wants his treat, so to appease him I tested again so that I could go to bed, and my blood sugar was 60. It must have been from the exertion of carrying the ladder, but my blood sugar had dropped from 128 to 60 in under 15 minutes, and if Noodle had let me go to bed it would have likely continued down to 40 in just another few minutes. This alert likely saved me from another very dangerous low episode in the middle of the night.
I could go on … but as I was hoping for a Noodle autograph (you never know, he could be famous one day!!!), I was told, “Noodle does not sign autographs or shake hands or anything like that. The trainers actually told me to not teach him these things because his paws should only be used for alerting, and they don’t want him to get confused and use them for any other kinds of tricks.”
I guess this is the closest I’ll get!
Noodle rocks.