My husband and I basically share our birthdays. I have analyzed this and, most likely, over analyzed why the Lord would bring to me a husband born four days after me. I have many theories, the least of which is simply out of a sense of humor. How humbling it is for me to have a husband younger than me!!!

My other theory is so that I will not forget his birthday. This is most likely the reason the Lord had us born when He did. I always forget family members birthdays. If anyone gets a card or even an email from me, consider it a blessing. My own children have felt the birthday neglect of their mommy. There have been more than one birthday parties in which the cake was bought 20 minutes before guests arrived - and it was my mom who bought it. One party was a first birthday. In our years together, I have fought to remind myself of my husband's special day. And I have failed on more than one occasion.

This year, I was keenly aware of our birthdays and wished to high heaven that I wasn't. My birthday came with the realization that I almost lost my husband, my dear friend.

Right after Christmas, my husband and I usually decide what we want to do for our birthdays. This year, we wanted to have a nice dinner at a new restaurant (well, new to us) and go to a movie. We planned which day, Saturday, February 2nd, right between our birthdays and over the weekend. We were working on an overnight sitter for the kids. It has been a long time since we have been on a date!!! The excitement of just the two of us going out made me feel like a giddy teenager.

Around this time, we had noticed some changes in my husband's health, but were able to explain most. All through December, he was incredibly thirsty and drinking tons of water and juice. I couldn't get enough water either. The weather had been so dry, our skin was dry; we needed water during the night and all day. However, by January, my symptoms let up and my husband's increased. Only a new symptom came about as his nightly drinking of huge glasses of juice and water and milk made him wake several times to release all that liquid built up in him. It began as only a few times a night, but by mid January he was waking at least once an hour. Yet with all this drinking juice and milk and water, he couldn’t get keep his mouth from being real dry.

The first week of January, we had come across a scale. Being that we didn't own one, we all got into weighing ourselves. The kids were within range given their ages. I am underweight as it is, so I just ignore it. My husband weighed somewhere around 185 lbs, not bad for him. About mid January, my husband started back to school. More than one person there asked if he lost weight. Four weeks from our last scale encounter, we found ourselves by the same scale. The kids and I didn't change that much in our weight. My husband's weight, however, was down over 20 pounds. During those past four weeks, his intake of juice and milk increased even more and his appetite stayed the same. Looking back, though, he was eating slower. We bought a scale as this sudden weight loss really began to concern us. During the day my husband would gain around 7 or 8 pounds, and loose close to 10 at night. It was the craziest thing.

His need for juice and milk increased, as did his need to wake at night to relieve that entire intake, but his need for food started decreasing. By this time, water started tasting like mud to him, so he started drinking those flavored drinks the doctors tell you to give a person who is dehydrated. We had no idea that he was starving and dehydrating himself to death. We did make an appointment with a doctor on campus.

I know many of you are yelling, "Diabetes, Shannon - Get him into the hospital." We had strong suspicions that this was the most likely culprit, however, his symptoms fit a few other diagnoses. And he didn't fit the typical diabetic, except Type 1, which is mostly discovered in young children. Though my husband is younger than me, he isn't THAT young. His symptoms weren’t adding up and simply didn’t make any sense. There was no way we could have known his glucose levels.

Through most of January, his symptoms didn't "seem" to be getting worse. He was going to school, working, playing his drums. We have no insurance for him, so we were cautious in making an appointment. The campus clinic was only $15. This was to be the most expensive $15 we ever spent! The appointment was Monday, January 28th.

The doctor said that his symptoms sounded like Diabetes or Hyper/hypo-thyroidism. That was mostly what I came up with, only the doctor could order the blood work to determine exactly. It was a fasting blood draw, so we had to wait until Tuesday morning. After his appointment, my husband came home. The kids and I had a big day in town, so we wouldn't be home until after dark. After our chores and such, I called my husband to let him know we were on our way home, no answer. I told myself, and to validate the reason, said aloud to the kids that daddy was playing his drums and didn't hear the phone. I tried once more sometime later, no answer. Because he hadn't slept a whole night in months, it wasn't out of the realm of possibilities that he was tired and trying to take a nap. I get very fatigued if I go three nights without sleep, and I had gone several days due to his waking every hour!! How much more my husband who has awakened through the night for months!!

We drove up to the house, no lights on. For the first time, I was terrified. I fully expected to hear the drums and see every light on. Nothing. I went into our room and saw that he was sleeping. He only got up to drink juice and milk, visit the bathroom, then back to bed. He was beginning to get a little delirious. He is such a strong person on many levels and very driven, I completely didn't notice his delirium until the next day. After 8 that night, he forced himself to only have water, which tasted totally gross to him.

New Mexico weather can sometimes be something of an anomaly. The weekend had been nice. Monday was cold, but Monday night brought on and ice storm. An ice storm! I had only heard of these! Tuesday morning all of Albuquerque, to include the Student Health Center, was on a 2-hour delay. The Lord be praised that the school wasn't closed!!! My husband fell asleep while the kids and I started school. By 9:40 am I noticed he hadn't gotten up to do his blood work and go to his classes. He had every intention of making it to his classes and his estimate, for our business, that was later in the day. Did I mention his drive? He literally drove himself into town with no food or drink save water for the last 12 hours.

Let me pause here because I have a challenge in forgiveness of myself. How could I let this man drive himself to a fasting blood work lab after being sick and fatigued? What an unobservant wife I am!! He wasn't himself and I left him alone.

After his blood work and drinking a half a gallon of chocolate milk and orange juice and eating a breakfast burrito, he drove to the law school and slept in the car. For two hours. He called and said he was coming home, but only for a little while as he had his estimate to give that afternoon. I canceled the appointment after he realized he was too tired to get out of bed.

I had made this deliciously fattening green chili chicken soup, with chips, cheese and all things bad (sour cream). He didn't even try one bite. He only drank juice, milk, and that horrid stuff doctors tell you to give someone who is dehydrated. All night!! During the night, he became quite disoriented and even got lost in our room. Something was severely wrong and we needed to go to the doctor. I resolved to call the doctor as soon as the clinic opened at 8:00 am. The phone rang at 7:20 am. It was the doctor with the results of his blood work.

The doctor confirmed my husband had diabetes ("big time") and he needed to come in NOW! For the ride into town, he had a 24-ounce jug of milk and juice and the last 12-ounce horrid drink. He drank all but half of the juice by the time we got there. We left Actress in charge of her brothers. She proved herself very capable to lean on in times of extremes need. Besides, how long will this take? The doctor called while we were on our way to make sure we were coming. This concerned me greatly. Exactly how bad was his condition. When we showed up, we found out that his fasting glucose levels from the day before were 576. Normal is between 80-120. The doctor took my parched husband's juice away and said it was bad (I think he used the word “poison”). The orange juice we had bought for my husband has remained untouched to this day.

An IV of saline was started and the ambulance called. An ambulance?! The EMTs poked his finger to get a glucose reading. The monitor said high, over 600. I wasn't leaving him this time. We rode to the hospital, literally across the campus, in the ambulance. When we got to the ambulance emergency room, we waited. And waited. I called the kids and they were fine. Became even better when I told them they could watch a movie. This visit was taken longer than I thought.

Finally, his blood was drawn to get an accurate glucose level. And the doctor let my husband have some ice chips. His mouth was incredibly dry; he hadn't been able to hydrate it for weeks. The nurses said that the saline would help him feel better. We waited, again, and waited for the saline to do its magic. The doctor told us that he needed a room to help bring his glucose level down. We were beginning to expect that. Most likely, he'd be in the hospital overnight. Doctor left and we waited, again. I started making calls to family and to see if anyone would be able to keep the kids overnight. The saline was taken its sweet time to make him feel better.

The doctor came back with the results of my husband’s lab work. His glucose levels were over 1000. Normal is 80-120. The general floor couldn't take care of that, the doctor explained, he needed to be in ICU. We heard that to get glucose levels lowered from that high would take days. The first thought we both had? "Sounds expensive!" My husband has no insurance and we have no choice.

We had been in the ambulance ER for a while, so my parents persuaded me to eat. My husband was able to take a small nap, so I left to eat a big meal not knowing when I would eat again or what would happen. My little sister was able to keep the kids overnight (Auntie B & Uncle J totally rock!). By the time I got back, the hospital staff was getting ready to transport my thirsty, delirious husband to ICU.

When we got to the ICU room, his insulin was started. This would have been around noon. He could only have ice chips and very little water. By this time he was quite out of it, though he was given nothing to make him so other than his extremely high blood sugar. He entered ICU at 155 pounds on Wednesday, January 30^th; the day before my birthday.

At this point I was fielding questions and concerns from family and when I got tired of that, I just sat on his bed. This was the first time in months that he slept longer than 30 minutes. The rest of the day was spent with him sleeping or awake and trying to talk to me.

One of the many questions we were asked was if diabetes was hereditary. Since my husband’s dad was adopted, we could only speculate. When I called to tell his dad what was going on, he offered to see if this applied as a medical emergency to find out more of his history. It did and we learned a few interesting facts. One of his parents, the mom most likely, was Danish. More medically important, though inconclusive, was that someone one generation from my husband’s dad did have some type of diabetes, but the biological mom didn’t know much about the details. She was 21 and the father was 59 and not married. This means that my husband might have a grandma still alive, though I think his grandpa isn’t. The adoption was in 1950. Interesting though this was, my husband was too sick and delirious to really care at the time.

It didn’t hit me until later how close to death my husband was. He jokes about talking with ancestors and seeing a light. “And it was beautiful.” I saw it as my husband wasn’t knocking on death’s door, he was flung there and Providence kept it from opening!

By night, the ICU doctor came in to talk with us. My husband was up and his glucose levels were down, below 600. The doctor told us that medically speaking; my husband’s case is fascinating. Given the nerds we are, we totally understood what he meant. My husband’s turn around was quick given the dire situation he was in and given that he had no reliable history of insulin dependent diabetes. The doctor was amazed and I praised my Lord! Later I’ll explain my theories on this, but for levity we tell people that it was a financial decision.

Since my husband was doing well, the doctor wanted him to eat something. The nurse and doctor agreed that the hospital food at night was gross, and the Subway located conveniently in the hospital would work. Being that my business is to educate others and help prevent Type 2 Diabetes, which deals mainly with diet, I know what foods spike blood sugar. Subway is better than most. The doctor suggested a wrap. Though tortillas do spike your glucose levels, I bought him a wrap. He ate three bites.

Through the night his glucose levels kept lowering and he slept as often as the nurse allowed. All I wanted to do was to climb into his bed with him, but with all the IV’s and monitors hooked up to him I was to afraid of messing something up. I would lay at his feet for short periods, just to touch him. I think healing occurs not only when our body is getting the physical needs met (in his case saline and insulin), but also when the spirit is being filled through the prayers and touches of a loved one. He needed me probably more than I needed him. However, I’m not sure whose spirit needed touching more, but I do know he recovered faster than anyone expected. We were able to leave ICU the next day, after a crash course in checking glucose levels and giving insulin. Thursday, January 31^st the best present I could ever have hoped for on my birthday was walking out of the ICU with the man I love.