STAT
August 31 2010 The scariest day of my life.
That’s been today.
I had some light-hearted post ready to publish this morning. But Jedi still wasn’t feeling well, his eyes sunken and his mouth dry and he was just so tired, that I put it off until after we took a visit to the doctor. I was expecting to come away with an obligatory bottle of pink antibiotics and call it a day. It’s just an ear infection, I thought, or some other kind of bug picked up from his first week of kindergarten. Instead he was sent for blood work and we were advised to stick around, we would have the results stat.
When they finally came in, we were told to drive immediately to the hospital. His blood sugar numbers, which are supposed to be around 100, were over 820. Whatever they call the number that measures dehydration, which should never be any higher than 20, was at 50. He needed fluids and insulin, stat.
I had no idea. How is it possible to not have any idea something so wrong is going on in our body? My son, my little 6 year old, spent the day getting IV’s poked in his hands and fingers pricked. In the PICU. More blood drawn. More medicine. More fluids. His sodium levels were high. His potassium numbers were off. Apparently, his system was going haywire. Or shutting down. Or, God, I don’t even want to think about it.
The light-hearted posts can wait. Until he’s back at school, with a new regimen of unfortunate but necessary injections and healthier habits. Ones that he’ll need to keep for the rest of his life. We’ll make it work, he just needs to get better. Stat.
10 Responses
on August 31 2010
Oh my goodness you are all in my prayers. How frightening.
Midwest Mommy’s latest post: Childrens Farm
on August 31 2010
Oh gosh, he’s in my thoughts and prayers for sure.
Amber’s latest post: The First Day
on August 31 2010
Oh my! What a day! Big, big hugs to you.
on September 01 2010
I’m so sorry for Jedi, and you. Since I’m Type2 diabetic I’m lucky enough to have only been on insulin for a little under 2 years of my life (while I was trying to get pregnant and then when I was pregnant). I am well aware of what a difficult medicine insulin can be to manage. I can only imagine how hard it will be to teach a 6 year old how to manage it.
I have friends that have children that were diagnosed with Type 1. It can come on very very suddenly. I’ve been talking with my endocrinologist and there are some thoughts that it is caused by a virus and that’s why it comes on so suddenly.
Once his sugars return within normal range, I’m sure he’ll feel so much better.
Hugs to you!
Marilyn (A Lot of Loves)’s latest post: What I Learned- August 2010 & Wednesday of Few Words
on September 01 2010
I came over to your blog to see if you had written about this incident and to add my voice to the many others that have offered support and encouragement.
As a mom, you feel like you should know everything about your child, so when something unexpected happens, especially healthwise, it kind of shakes up your whole world.
I’ll be thinking of Jedi all day today.
The Amber’s latest post: Living on Faith
on September 01 2010
Holy cats! I am so scared for you and your little guy from afar. Good vibes & prayers for you. Hang in there!!
on September 01 2010
I am still in shock Crystal! Even this morning. I cannot believe a seemingly healthy little boy could have so much going wrong inside of his poor, helpless body. I love you guys so much and I am wishing him the speediest recovery!!
Candace’s latest post: 12 weeks
on September 01 2010
I am SO sorry you had such an awful day of it and so very sorry to hear your son is sick. I hope that they figure out the issues and get him back home fit and well soon. Do not beat yourself up – young children go from being perfectly OK to perfectly not OK very, very, very quickly. So quickly that they do not have time to realize it themselves, even less you.
on September 04 2010
I followed all of this on Twitter, praying for you guys the whole time. I’m so sorry. Six! Ugh! I’m so glad he’s okay, though, that there’s something you can do at least. I would have been terrified.
Maggie’s latest post: In which Jack has yet to succeed in driving me to the psychiatric ward
on September 07 2010
C, I know I am coming to the conversation late, but I know that the PICU can be a very stressful thing. I am relieved that he is doing ok and he is now at home. Sending you hugs all around!
Rudri Patel’s latest post: Grateful