Another reason why booze, diabetes and being a dad don't work out.
One fateful December evening I was busy trying to kick two large fellows out of my pub when one decided to give me a good old slap. Not too long afterwards I was being whisked to hospital with a shattered wrist and blood pissing from a cut that ran up my face.
My wife, in the back of the ambulance with me, phones up my parents to tell them what has happened to their son. Dad answers his phone saying he's in Brighton on a works Christmas do and will meet us in the hospital.
We get there first and are setting up camp in A&E watching the drunks try to injure themselves even more than they were when they came in.
Dad walks in, spies us and strolls over.
He looks horrified, his son is there, face covered in claret and arm in a sling. Naturally, upon seeing these injuries, he comes up and starts pawing/stroking my face in what he thinks is a gentle, affectionate manner, but is more like being mauled by a spastic. I jerk away and point out to him that my jaw hurts from being punched and his hamfisted attempt at comfortig me is getting dangerously close to tearing the sticy stitches from my cut up face.
He looks a bit dejected, he's only trying to show his love for his son. So he tries tact number two, walking behind me, he starts to pat, quite heavily, on my shoulder. The one with the sling on. The one supporting my shattered limb. This is quite painful, and I tell him in a not so polite manner to back the fuck off, sit down where I can see him and keep himself at arms length.
He shuffles over to a seat opposite, looking like a small child in a huff as he scuffs his feet along the floor, moping over to the little plastic chair, where he sits down and pulls out his copy of Le Monde to read. Only he's holding it upside down.
"My God," thinks I. "He's drunk and he's having a hypo." So up I get, walk to the nurse and ask them if there's anything they can give my dad to help him out as he's forgotten his insulin.
So there I am, freshly beaten and having to look after my drunk, diabetic dad, who has come to do his dadly duties.
Doesn't change the fact I love the man.
( monkeyboyalpha jumping on the bandwagon since, Fri 26 Nov 2010, 9:32, 3 replies)

Drunken patting. Gotta love the sentiment.
Hope he felt somewhat sheepish the next day.
(boozehound is drinking your bar dry, Fri 26 Nov 2010, 10:16, closed)

Erm.....
If he was hypoing he hadn't forgotten his insulin - he'd either had too much insulin or hadn't had enough to eat. Diabetics MUST ALWAYS be given glucose when they appear to be hypoing - NEVER insulin - you could kill them giving them insulin.
How do I know? My son's Type 1 diabetic and it's a really shit condition. Hope your dad was okay.
( chickenlady b3ta's very own Elizabeth Taylor, Sat 27 Nov 2010, 16:41, closed)

Yep
what she said. Probably he'd taken his insulin and forgotten to eat after it.
( Undercovercarrot got done for gross misconduct on..., Mon 29 Nov 2010, 15:24, closed)