First Day at Childrens Hospital

Wednesday, April 22

We have SOOOO much to learn over the next few days. We have really didn't know how long we would be there because we didn't know how long these classes would take or how long it would take to get Ellee's levels straightened out. We met Beth, the lady who will be our day nurse for the next two days. She gave us the run down on the disease, what likely caused it and the course of action we would be taking. She also gave us a brief rundown on how to order food for Ellee. They had a neat little menu with a good assortment of food and the carbs listed behind it. For now, we had an allotment of 30-45 grams of carbs that she can eat per meal. For breakfast, that was a little hard to stick with because she loves pancakes, but for other meals, it was hard to get up to that 30.

I don't know how to explain that day other than Josh and I felt like we were stuck in slow motion and every thing around us was in fast forward. There was so much information to learn but for some reason we couldn't get past the first sentence - "your daughter has diabetes". Have you ever had to read a book for school and after you "read" the first page, the only thing that your remember and comprehend is the first line? It's like the book Tale of Two Cities, all I remember is the first line - "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times".

Ellee was pretty groggy for the first part of the day. I dreaded the time when she would say that she was hungry. We had to try to get her to tell us what she wanted to eat and make sure that we had the right amount of carbs, order it, then wait about 45 minutes for it to get to the room. Then the horror show begins. By the time the food gets there, she is starving and cranky. But before she can eat, we have to poke her finger and get blood. If the meter reads above a certain number, then they have to try to fill up this little tube with blood to send down to the lab to verify the level. Next is the worse part - the shot. It would would take both of us and some times another nurse to hold and try to calm her down while Beth gave her the shot. Now she can eat, and I would pray that she would like the food because if she didn't eat it, then we'd have to substitute food that she would eat to make sure she had ingested the right amount of carbs for the insulin dose that they gave.

Shortly after lunch, Ellee started to feel better. She was smiling and was more playful & goofy. We were finally getting our Elizabeth back! That afternoon, we were so thrilled when Beth said that they would unhook the IV, but they were going to leave "the straw" in just in case they wanted one more blood draw. Figures, about the time Ellee got use to maneuvering the stand and cords when she had to go to the bathroom, they unhooked her! Okay, time for my rant... why wouldn't they put children size furniture in a CHILDREN'S hospital??? The toilet was just a tad too high for her and with the straw in her arm, she couldn't lift herself up so one of us had to go with her every time. Then the sink was just a tad too high and it made it difficult to wash her hands. Okay, I'm done!

The day was filled with meeting lots of new people . I think at one point all 5 of the people that we were suppose to meet with were in there to decide what time they would come back and go over their spiel with us. Not to mention the countless nurses who were doing their clinical that would come in and ask if they could check her stats. It was one of those things where when we were alone, no one wanted to see us, but when we had a visitor, everyone came to visit! When Wynola was talking with us, we had umpteen nurses, plus all of the Endos stop in while doing their rounds!

I remember the dietitian talking with us. Questions about her eating habits, how to calculate carbs, how much at each meal. Very over whelming. That was another moment when we felt like we were in a fog. Things were making sense, but they weren't really sinking in.

Mom had found the greatest things ever invented! Twistable Crayons!!! It doesn't sound like much to get excited over, but for a child that pushes really hard when they write and constantly break crayons... these things are wonderful! They hardly broke, and if they did, then we just lost a little bit of it. Can anything get better than that? YES... Fat Twistable Crayons!!! Mom's goody pack that she sent up with us was great! It kept Ellee busy for most of the day till we were able to go find the playroom in early evening after all the educators left for the day.

I have to say that I'm so thankful that Dad decided to take the retirement option from the State when he did. I don't know what we would have done through all of this if he wasn't able to watch Danica for us. It also helped that Mom was working the M-F day shift position that she's in now. Not having to worry about Dani so that we could concentrate made things go a lot smoother. After Mom got off of work that day, they brought Dani up to the hospital to visit.

While they were there, they told us to go some where and get some thing to eat. We went to Pizzaria Uno. We talked a little bit, but we mostly sat there holding hands and crying. We can get through this, but the next month is going to be VERY rough.

Sure enough, they wanted one more blood draw. For some reason, Ellee didn't want them to take the straw out when they were done. I think she just got use to it being in there, so it took some coaxing to get her to let them take it out. It probably hurt more to get all the tape off from the split that kept her elbow extended than it did to take the straw out!

We all three had a rough day. Josh went to sleep on the couch and El and I got a Winnie the Pooh movie out of the closet in the hall way to watch. At that point we haven't really explained to her what all was going on. She just knew that she had this IV in her arm and that she had got pokes and shots quite a bit that day. I was laying in bed with her watching the movie and we started talking. "Hunny, I know that you don't understand what is going on, but you have some thing in your body that isn't working like it should so we have to give you these shots to make up for it." "Oh, okay... Why doesn't it work?" "I wish we knew. We have to get use to these shots so because the medicine will make you feel better." "Okay. I love you mommy. Good night." "I love you too baby. Get some sleep."

I think every parent watches over their newborn baby as they sleep. That baby is the a wonderful gift that you've been given and have to figure out how to take care of it. They admire that cute little bundle that is so peaceful while sleeping, yet worry about what if something goes wrong. I laid there watching her sleep while while brushing her hair off of her face. Exactly 4 years ago we were in a hospital with her starting a new journey in our life. Here we are today, in a hospital again, on the same journey, but we had to take a slight detour.