No. 7 THE WAY YOU SHAKE AND SHIVER
@whumptober
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Shaking Hands | Seizures | Silent Panic Attack
The last thing Harrison expected to see wasn’t Taidgh seizing on the floor, but it was close.
Tai wasn’t meant to have seizures, this wasn’t meant to happen. Using his phone to call an ambulance, he swiped Tai’s against his arm.
1.2. Fuck.
That explained that. He grabbed the emergency kit from the coffee table, trying to protect Tai as he did so.
“Ambulance, is the patient breathing?”
“Not properly.”
“Is the patient conscious?”
“No. he’s a diabetic, he’s having a seizure from a hypo. His BM is 1.2 and going down, about to give his glucagon.”
“Alright, I’m arranging some help for you now, stay on the line for me and-”
Harrison zoned out slightly, occasionally humming a response. It was a struggle to hold his arm still, but he managed, apologising as he did so. He moved to Tai’s head, stroking his cheek as he waited for it to work. They’d never been this bad before, never been this low. His phone always lagged behind, too, so quickly checked manually. It was worse than he’d expected at 0.7, the lowest reading they’d had and the lowest Harrison had seen, even at work.
“C’mon Tai, sort yourself out, pull this back, yeah?”
The shot seemed to finally be working, Tai’s seizure slowing and then stopping. Harrison rolled him more onto his side, trying to clear his airway now that he could. A quick swipe told him it was starting to raise, which was more than he’d expected. The ambulance was taking forever, they always felt like an eternity when you needed help. He kept murmuring to Tai, trying to reassure what little he was aware of.
There was a knock on the door, and finally a shout. "Ambulance!"
"In here!" Harrison called back. "Just come through."
"Hi, can you tell us what's going on?"
"Uh, yeah. This is Tai, he's type one, normally well controlled. He was last seen half an hour ago, I came back fifteen minutes ago and he was seizing on the floor as you see him. His blood sugar was alarming on his phone, so he's obviously had a hypo - it was 1.2 when I swiped it. Gave the glucagon as I called you guys, and then checked manually too, it was 0.7."
"Sorry, zero seven?"
"Yeah." He let out a quiet laugh. "Zero. I've never seen it that low. Stopped seizing after the glucagon, about three minutes after? He's just starting to come round a bit. When he's been really low, he can get a bit aggressive, but he's just scared and confused."
They nodded. “Alright. I’m sure he’ll be more settled with you here, so you stick with him. You know him best.”
“He doesn’t mean it, he always feels shit for it when he comes round.” Harrsion kept talking, running his fingers through Tai’s hair.
“Which is fair enough, really.”
“What’s his sugars at now?”
“1.3 now.” They said, after a quick moment to check.
“Oh, it’s coming up then.”
“It’s still not where I’d like it.”
“No, course not.” Harrison shook his head. “Least he’s easy enough to stick.”
“One of the better cannulas I’ve had today.”
“He’s got good veins.”
“Got one good thing going for him, then.” They joked, trying to put him at ease. “You work at George’s don’t you?”
“Yeah, was meant to be my day off, believe it or not.”
“Always the way.”
Taidgh gave a groan, uncoordinatedly trying to pull away from the hand holding his.
“Hey, Tai. You’re alright, just an idiot, eh?”
The paramedic smiled to themselves. “Alright, well done. It’s Tai, is it?”
Tai rolled onto his back, blinking at the paramedic. He had no clue what was happening, or who was talking to him, but he’d heard his name.
“Welcome back to the land of the living.” They said gently.
Tai grunted, deciding to roll back onto his side, and trying to fall back asleep. He pulled his arm over his head, trying to hide himself from the light.
“Careful, Tai. You’re gonna pull your cannula.”
“Here, let’s have this arm.” The paramedic said gently. “Let me look after this, yeah?”
Harrison moved quicker than Tai did, gripping his arm to stop him swinging. “Gentle, Tai, they’re trying to help.”
“I’m sorry, Tai. I know it’s not nice.”
"How much of that glucose has he had?" Harrison twisted to look. "He's going to have to go in, right?"
“I’m afraid so. He’s responded really well to it, but given the seizure and how low he is, I’d like him to go in and get looked at properly.”
"Yeah, I thought so." He hummed, stroking Tai’s forehead. "He'll not be happy with that, bless him."
“Hopefully it won’t be for too long.”
"You're gonna be better off trying to move him sooner than later." He said, then looked up guiltily. "I'm not trying to tell you how to do your job, not at all, I've just had to do this a few times with him. He's got less chance of refusing treatment if he's strapped in the ambulance."
They smiled. “You’re not telling us how to do our jobs. You’ve got the experience with him, he’s your partner. I’d much rather do it the easy way - he’s a big guy and I’d rather not get punched today, this is my first shift of four and it’s going to suck working the rest with a black eye.”
Harrison managed a laugh. "He's got one heck of a right hook."
“I’d rather not find out for myself, if it’s all the same to you. And I doubt he wants to hurt me either.”
"He's soft as shite really."
Tai gave a snore in response, grumbling sleepily to himself as he tried, and failed, to get comfortable. Harrison smiled sadly, hating hope small and vulnerable Tai looked. The other paramedic had disappeared off to grab the trolley, leaving the other to redo Tai's obs.
"Oh, that's better. 2.1." The paramedic hummed. "Definitely responding to the glucose there. We'll give him the last 100 there, and get him off to hospital. Hopefully he'll be more with it in a little while."
When the other paramedic returned with their trolley, they were quick to get Tai up and onto it before he fought them too much. It was nicer for everyone if they did it that way. Soon enough, he was in the ambulance, and they were able to get going.
Just as Harrison had said, Tai started to become more aware in the ambulance, his grumbles growing more coherent.
"'ars?"
Harrison smiled, squeezing his hand. "Hey, love. You're alright."
"'urts."
"You had a bad hypo."
Tai hummed. That sort of explained that, but he had to admit he didn't really care.
“We’re going to get you looked at and feeling better.” The paramedic reassured.
"'m better."
“Not quite better enough.”
"He's pretty sure he is." Harrison laughed.
"I am." Tai agreed, rubbing his face with his free arm. "My tongue hurts."
“Yeah, it will, you had a bit of a seizure.”
"That's Finn."
Harrison laughed again. “Not today.”
"Are you sure?"
“As sure as I can ever be.”
"Was I low?"
“Really low.”
"How low?"
Harrison didn’t want to scare him. “Uh, very low.”
"You're lying to me."
“I wish I was.”
"You won't tell me how low."
“At one point it was 0.7.” He admitted.
"Oh." That was low. His face screwed up as tears started to fall, and he pulled his hand from Harrison's to rub them away.
That was why Harrison hadn’t wanted to tell him. “It’s okay, it’s coming back up now.” He said gently, brushing his tears away.
"I feel rubbish. I didn't mean to."
“I know.”
"I tried."
“It’s not your fault, it happens. We’re looking after you.”
"I'm sorry."
“You don’t need to be sorry.”
