M's Diagnosis

For may of you, this will be a repeat....just wanted to put it on this blog too!

660
Current mood: cranky
660 - that's what Max's sugar blood test came back as on Friday afternoon. What started out as a well child visit landed us in the ER and finally the hospital.

I mentioned a few things to the medical assistant that I had been worried about with M. He'd been flooding his bed at night, seemed kind of sluggish, was way out of control and was EXTREMELY thirtsty. He'd cry, even beg, for drinks. He would actually pitch fits, the likes of which I had never seen. He'd lay on the ground and scream, in the middle of the grocery store in fact.

Unfortunately, in an attempt to get M to eat better we'd been cutting out junk - granola bars, fruit snacks and such and not letting him have much to drink. Now, I know we were torturing our poor guy!

The MA thankfully, on her own, did a urine test. She was going to check his blood sugar and couldn't find the machine at first. The dr. came in and checked the boys out. He said they both looked and sounded great. I mentioned the symptoms and the urine check and he said everything was fine and no need to worry. It was just a phase. I asked the Dr. if he thought a blood test would help rule some stuff out, he said it wasn't necessary. I forgot to mention that Max had lost three pounds since his last visit a few months ago - but he should have recognized that....

We were getting ready to leave and the Dr. came running down the hallway. He stopped us and told me that M's urine had an extremely high sugar content and that he wanted a blood sugar test - I wanted to say "I thought you checked his urine and it was fine...". I held my tongue and held my screaming 18 month old who had just gotten three shots. Max was whining about his flu shot and it was taking them forever to find the machine. When they did find it, they checked his sugar and the tech said, "It must be broke, there is NO way his sugar is over 600." She tested herself and found the machine was indeed working. She told us not to move and that she'd be right back. She pulled the DR. out of a room and he gave me orders to imm. take M to the lab and get blood work done. He said he was 100% sure that M had diabetes. My stomach dropped. I knew it was the most likely cause of his latest issues, but I didn't want to believe it. It was a turn that I most definitely did not expect our day to take. There, in our Family Practitioners hallyway, the man who had deliverd M, told me that he believed he had a chronic disease...just like that.

I took him for the blood work - fun! It was supp. to only take an hour or so to get the results back. It took 9. As the day went on I got more and more concerned with the lack of results. My sister,who is a nurse, called and said that I needed to take M in regardless of what the dr. said.

I called the Endocrine departement at Children's and explained the situation. Her answer was this: "If I were you, I'd pack a bag for you and your son and come straight here. If you can't come here, take him to the nearest ER". I called the dr. back and he said he was getting ready to call me to tell me that same thing.

I packed a bag, called Matt home from work and loaded M into the car. We drove to Children's. When we finally got there M was sound asleep and had wet his pants - he hasn't had an accident like that in over a year.

We went in through the ghetto ER entrance - which looks horrid by the way and were taken imm. back to triage and to a room. Within the hour M had his blood work back and first dose of insulin in him. The drs. came in an told us his blood sugar was 602 and that he'd need to be admitted for a few days.

Long story short. M has Type 1 diabetes. We have NO family history of the disease. It's going to be a long difficult road at first, but with God's help, we'll walk through just fine.

Pray for Mr. M. He has to check his blood sugar roughly 6 times a day and he gets 4 shots a day. He is already in what they call the "honeymoon" stage which is GREAT!

They told us we caught it really early and applauded our vigilance with getting him diagnosed so soon. He had had NO damage to any of his organs and other than the diabetes is a healthy four year old.

There will be many more blogs to follow about all that we have learned the past few days and just some silly and sweet things that have come to pass..

Part TWO
Some lessons learned
There is NO comforatable place to sleep in a hospital. NONE!

You have to be your child's best advocate.

Don't wait for "treatment". The nurses and drs. sometimes overlook or forget about the treatments your kids need - hunt them down in the halls if you have too.

The hospital room service takes the same amount of time to send up a PBJ as they do a turkey dinner...

Nurses and Aides who turn on overhead lights in the middle of the night are mean...bottom line.

There are some CRAZY parents in the hospital.

Diabetes is a good diagnoses compared to some of the kids we saw and heard about.

Donnie is the best IV placer in the whole world - one poke on a screaming, wiggling, kicking and fighting four year old - not to shabby.

Max doesn't like shots or finger pricks...who does.

I don't like giving shots or finger picks....especially on my son.

A child's prayers can break your heart....and make you proud all at the same time.

Hospital floors are DISGUSTING!

Children sense everything.

Don't lie to kids about medical treatment. If it's going to hurt, tell them.

Samuel is the most empathetic little boy I know.

Max knows a pretty girl when he sees one. He was totally playing it up when a pretty nurse or dr. came in. He'd act shy and show of. If a not attractive person came in, he'd ignore them....WHAT!

Trust your gut with your kids. I knew something was wrong with Max and was going to let it go....don't second guess Mothers intuition