My alarm goes off - 3AM. Doug and I roll out of bed, get the meter and everything together, I put on the headlight (yes, we wear an oh, so fashionable flashlight headlamp. It was actually a kind of gag gift for Doug for Christmas!). I poke Ollie's finger - great drop of blood first try! The meter reads it (287 if you were wondering), we get everything put away in probably under 5 minutes! I'm reaching for the sharps box and .... Drop the lancet. We're talking a tiny little semi clear/light blue thing on our white bathroom floor.
It's still missing. Be careful if you go into my bathroom.
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Monday, February 25, 2013
Totally Not Current Normal New Normal
I'm not an idiot. I like to think of myself as a fairly educated person. Add on to that the facts that I've worked in an Emergency Room (as a secretary, but you pick up on a lot being in an environment like that) and I'm in a Respiratory Therapy program, I have a good portion of medical knowledge.
That being said, when I took my son to the pediatrician on Friday 2/22/13, for what I assumed to be a stomach bug, maybe the flu, worst case scenario appendicitis (Olliver had been complaining on and off of stomach pain for a week or so, had been throwing up and very lethargic for 2 days) and the pediatrician had a nurse come check his blood sugar - my brain was confused. Blood sugar? Why would that be an issue? I guess he's just checking it for a baseline to rule it out. When the meter read 544 - my brain went even FASTER. WHY is it so high? Dr M came back in and could read my face - I knew that was super high. Like, holy crap high. He told me that Ollie has diabetes and is in DKA. All of a sudden the past couple weeks made sense. Olliver had started drinking tons of water and peeing more. I figured this was just good habits. He had been eating more - I figured a growth spurt. Ollie had been getting SUPER cranky before meals (which I now know is his blood sugar peeking). His "tummy bug" was actually DKA. We were sent to the Pediatric ER and told to expect to stay in the PICU. I came home, grabbed some stuff, picked up Doug and Emi - dropped Emi off at my in-laws and raced over the mountain. We were taken back immediatly where his Accucheck read "Hi" (Yep, hi to you too, Meter but I don't feel like chatting right now. Kthanksbye). Ollie got a line placed and barely whimpered. We were admitted to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit with a blood sugar of about 500. He was a picture perfect patient, no screaming, no complaining. The worst part of the night was that Ollie was NPO - he wanted water but we couldn't let him. The Pediatric Endocrine Fellow came and spent a good amount of time talking to me. Friday night we had nurses coming in hourly for accuchecks and they did labs several times overnight as well. Ollie slept through all of this. I however slept about 3 hours.
Saturday morning, Ollie was allowed to eat.. and not happy. We now have to carb count his food out and dose him with insulin according to how many carbs he has. Thank goodness I had purchased Amazon Prime for the streaming videos for him. It was seriously a lifesaver! Saturday was a whirlwind of a day - doctors, nutritionists, family.. lots of people in and out of the room. We met the Pediatric Endocrinology attending, who said we'd probably go home on Monday best case scenario. We were moved to a regular room in the evening and Ollie got a wagon ride out of there -
On the regular pediatric unit, we had to share a room. Ollie got his bedtime snack, accucheck and insulin and we both fell asleep around 9:30. Somehow, I slept through the midnight check (as did he!).
Sunday started out cranky. Ollie wanted his food, which wasn't coming up quick enough for him. We had an AMAZING nurse, Kelly. He got his breakfast, was eating and FINALLY had to poop (it had been days, seriously). When we came back from the bathroom... the breakfast tray was gone. The very efficient tray lady had picked it up. Which, while normally would make a pre-schooler cranky... this one NEEDS his carbs because we dose his insulin depending on how many he's going to eat. He had only eaten about half so um, PANIC MOM. I gave him an extra carton of milk, some grapes and called the nurse. She said I did exactly the right thing and brought a pack of graham crackers as well. Dr L (the Fellow) came back in and said again, I had done the right thing. I was starting to think I might get the hang of this, finally! Dr C threw us a curve ball and asked if we'd like to go home after lunch if we felt comfortable - um, YES! Ollie's after lunch numbers were high, so I had a momentary defeated feeling, but they let us go home because that was kind of normal for him at that point and we felt comfortable treating it.
And away we went!
To answer questions that I'm sure are out there : Yes, we have to give him insulin - 4x a day. Before each meal and before bed. Yes, we give him accuchecks 9x a day. Before each meal, 2 hours after a meal, at bedtime, midnight and 3am. Yes, he can pretty much eat anything anyone else does... as soon as I figure out how to carb count it!
That being said, when I took my son to the pediatrician on Friday 2/22/13, for what I assumed to be a stomach bug, maybe the flu, worst case scenario appendicitis (Olliver had been complaining on and off of stomach pain for a week or so, had been throwing up and very lethargic for 2 days) and the pediatrician had a nurse come check his blood sugar - my brain was confused. Blood sugar? Why would that be an issue? I guess he's just checking it for a baseline to rule it out. When the meter read 544 - my brain went even FASTER. WHY is it so high? Dr M came back in and could read my face - I knew that was super high. Like, holy crap high. He told me that Ollie has diabetes and is in DKA. All of a sudden the past couple weeks made sense. Olliver had started drinking tons of water and peeing more. I figured this was just good habits. He had been eating more - I figured a growth spurt. Ollie had been getting SUPER cranky before meals (which I now know is his blood sugar peeking). His "tummy bug" was actually DKA. We were sent to the Pediatric ER and told to expect to stay in the PICU. I came home, grabbed some stuff, picked up Doug and Emi - dropped Emi off at my in-laws and raced over the mountain. We were taken back immediatly where his Accucheck read "Hi" (Yep, hi to you too, Meter but I don't feel like chatting right now. Kthanksbye). Ollie got a line placed and barely whimpered. We were admitted to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit with a blood sugar of about 500. He was a picture perfect patient, no screaming, no complaining. The worst part of the night was that Ollie was NPO - he wanted water but we couldn't let him. The Pediatric Endocrine Fellow came and spent a good amount of time talking to me. Friday night we had nurses coming in hourly for accuchecks and they did labs several times overnight as well. Ollie slept through all of this. I however slept about 3 hours.
Saturday morning, Ollie was allowed to eat.. and not happy. We now have to carb count his food out and dose him with insulin according to how many carbs he has. Thank goodness I had purchased Amazon Prime for the streaming videos for him. It was seriously a lifesaver! Saturday was a whirlwind of a day - doctors, nutritionists, family.. lots of people in and out of the room. We met the Pediatric Endocrinology attending, who said we'd probably go home on Monday best case scenario. We were moved to a regular room in the evening and Ollie got a wagon ride out of there -
On the regular pediatric unit, we had to share a room. Ollie got his bedtime snack, accucheck and insulin and we both fell asleep around 9:30. Somehow, I slept through the midnight check (as did he!).
Sunday started out cranky. Ollie wanted his food, which wasn't coming up quick enough for him. We had an AMAZING nurse, Kelly. He got his breakfast, was eating and FINALLY had to poop (it had been days, seriously). When we came back from the bathroom... the breakfast tray was gone. The very efficient tray lady had picked it up. Which, while normally would make a pre-schooler cranky... this one NEEDS his carbs because we dose his insulin depending on how many he's going to eat. He had only eaten about half so um, PANIC MOM. I gave him an extra carton of milk, some grapes and called the nurse. She said I did exactly the right thing and brought a pack of graham crackers as well. Dr L (the Fellow) came back in and said again, I had done the right thing. I was starting to think I might get the hang of this, finally! Dr C threw us a curve ball and asked if we'd like to go home after lunch if we felt comfortable - um, YES! Ollie's after lunch numbers were high, so I had a momentary defeated feeling, but they let us go home because that was kind of normal for him at that point and we felt comfortable treating it.
And away we went!
To answer questions that I'm sure are out there : Yes, we have to give him insulin - 4x a day. Before each meal and before bed. Yes, we give him accuchecks 9x a day. Before each meal, 2 hours after a meal, at bedtime, midnight and 3am. Yes, he can pretty much eat anything anyone else does... as soon as I figure out how to carb count it!
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