Before even opening my eyes, I could feel it. It started in the pit of my stomach – a kind of fluttering – and rose to my chest, where my heartbeat started to quicken.

I was low. Not horribly so – I could comprehend where I was and what was going on. But nonetheless, I knew that I would need to act soon. Well…soon-ish. I snuggled under the doona focusing on my heartbeat; willing it to slow down a little.

Even though our apartment is warm – beautifully so – I didn’t want to have to remove myself from the warm bedding, put my feet on the cool parquetry and pad to the kitchen.

My eyes were still shut and I wished that I had a jar by my bedside full of jelly snakes – like I do at home – so I could just reach my arm out.

But I’ve not found any sweets here that I like to use to treat lows. Jelly Belly jelly beans take too long to chew, and often I find myself gagging as I chew, chew, chew before swallowing. Gummy bears are pure evil and leave the most horrendous after taste. And I don’t like over-the-counter glucose tabs. (This is where I remind myself that I should organise a Gluco Lift order before heading home…..)

No. I would need to get up, go to the kitchen and find something there.

I opened my eyes and turned to the bedside table to check the time. And there, right in my line of vision was a tall glass of orange juice. I sat upright, very quickly.

‘How did that get there?‘ I asked

‘I put it there,’ said Aaron, who was awake and reading a magazine. ‘You’ve been low a couple of times in the mornings, so when I got up to get myself something, I brought it in for you.’

I looked at him gratefully.

It takes a village – I’ve said it before. Diabetes is constant, it doesn’t end, and each and every day there are dozens of things I do to stay healthy and try to be on top of things. Most of the time, I just do them – on my own, without fanfare or even comment.

So, it’s little actions like this make me truly appreciative. It’s not ‘just a glass of juice’; it’s someone noticing something about my diabetes and doing something to help. Not because they were asked to – I am pretty sure that I had not even mentioned that I’d woken low a couple of mornings – but just because they thought it would help.

I guzzled the juice – downing it in just a couple of gulps – and cuddled back down into the warm bed. Within a short time, I could feel my heart rate had returned to normal and the fluttering feeling in my stomach had disappeared.

‘Thank you, hon,’ I said. I knew that he wouldn’t want me making a big deal of it (he would be the one saying it’s ‘just a glass of juice‘). But it made one diabetes thing for the day less of a pain to deal with.