Saturday, April 2, 2011

Home from hospital

Reuben is home!  The blood tests showed he was fighting a nasty virus called coxsackie - a strand of enterovirus, also known as Hand Foot and Mouth.   EEERRRGGGHHHH.   No wonder he couldnt swallow!

Now, Im familiar with this virus.   Reuben had it last year - right before he was diagnosed with diabetes.   It has been linked to organ failure in mice, and been linked by some researchers as a potential 'cause' of diabetes.   It made him pretty sick - this time he only had the throat inflammation/blisters and nothing else so initially they threw about tonisilitis?

The antibiotics and sugar in his drip really helped.   His numbers were great, until we brought him home.   Trying to keep the boy quiet until hes 100% is hard!   His appetite is back and thats all great.


A few significant things have happened.


Danger Dad spent the time in hospital with Reuben and it gave us an opportunity to re-open dialogue about our family routine and habits and things we could do to improve his management.  It also gave him 48 hour responsibility for R's diabetes perhaps this was a blessing in disguise?  Im sure hes gained confidence in his abilities.


We have formulated a few questions for the endos/DE's for our next appointment.    They have switched up his insulin, so we are still doing MDI, Levemir and Novo Rapid, but dropped his basal by half , day and night, and are adjusting the meal time doses currently.  Im looking forwards to not feeding the insulin all day and night.    What I do want help with is -what do you feed your D-kids for supper to carry them through the night?   Im prepared to try ANYTHING to get more stable night time reads.  Please leave a comment and tell me your experiences/ideas.    Danger Dad and I need sleep :)

The ambulance workers were wonderful.   As they went to leave the female ambo said to me, 'I have a type 1 kid, hang in there it'll be ok Mum.'    I nearly burst into tears that she understood.    Then came my R E A L L Y ? moment.   I honestly asked the lady 'Type 1?'   WTF is wrong with me.    This pisses me off, when people ask, type 1 or type 2.   I think it was a combination of being tired and caught off guard, but also that I have in real life met type 1's, MODY's, type 2's and one with neonatal diabetes.    So I guess I have to kick myself up the butt.  Its not always ignorance  - right?  I know all about type 1.  And I still asked!

Also, we got given a One Touch Verio to try.   We used it 4 times or so , and IT DIED!!   We just stocked up 200 strips for the dang thing!

Thankyou for the sweet comments and support Ive been fragile and terribly stressed! xx




7 comments:

  1. I'm so glad to hear he is home! I hope things settle down a bit for you all and you get the much needed rest you are seeking.

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  2. So glad to hear your home and things are on the mend. It usually takes me at least a week to recover from crazy stuff like this...be kind to yourself...and remember WINE HELPS :)

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  3. HI! I am glad he is home and on the mend! As far as what we do for Joshua we give dinner and just give him what we do for the entire family. What we do now though is give between 9-12 carbs uncovered before bed time. So at 8pm we check his BG and give uncovered carbs usually milk and some mini ritz crackers as a bedtime snack. we still have to test at 12 and 3 and do bananas overnight based on the BGs then. It has helped a lot but it still isn't perfect! hope you get more ideas Ill check back and use some my self!

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  4. When Joe was 3 and on MDI, we gave him a bedtime snack of about 12 grams...a complex carb snack...like pb and crackers.

    I am sooo glad Reubs is home and that he is on the mend. Love to you and the fam. Loved seeing a "glimpse" of Danger Dad too! I think he could use some cool goggles or a cape or spandex or something though...the "Danger" part of his name needs some "accessories". xoxo

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  5. So glad your little guy is home a feeling better!

    We give Elise an uncovered snack at bedtime (uncovered because her long acting insulin has a peak about 4 hours after it is given). We make sure it's a complex carb and some protein. She almost always gets peanut butter on whole grain bread and some apple slices (15g cho total)

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  6. Sorry I missed your last post! I wasnt getting your updates either!

    What a cutie pie! Glad he is home and getting better.

    When Justice was MDI we did a 15gc snack. Ice cream is what our endo had us use and it worked..most of the time :)

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  7. Hi Jules,
    You say "Im prepared to try ANYTHING to get more stable night time reads." You need to get Reuben an insulin pump and preferably with a CGMS. With injections, you can't give him the tiny amounts of insulin he needs. I know you've researched pumps, so you'll know they can deliver a minimum of 0.025u. WIth the use of a CGMS, most nights my sons BG is very stable. I don't need to give him a snack because the pump gives him the right amount of insulin his body needs without food.
    Pump starts are hard, but after a while, they make life a lot easier. You will still have to check BG in the night, but you should be able to get away with once if he's not ill. I completely relate to everything you say, but I wouldn't be so at ease with my sons d if I didn't have the pump for him. He's stayed out of hospital several times because I could adjust his basal rates on the pump.

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