Thursday, April 23
Busy day with lots of people to meet with. They told us that we can go home tonight as long as we get all of our classes done and her numbers continue to improve.
Last night Josh and I learned how to do the sugar testing and how to give shots. It was easier to watch the nurses give the shots than for us to give them, but we had to start at some point because we couldn't take a nurse home with us!
For some reason, Ellee's sugar was up at breakfast and lunch. We watched for keytones and luckily they were negative. Shortly after lunch, they decided to keep her for one more night to try to get her levels down. That was so disappointed because we just wanted to get out of there, but at the same time, going home was just as scary.
One of the student nurses offered to take Ellee down to the playroom so that Josh and I could go get something to eat. When we got back, El and Maddy were practicing giving shots (minus the needles) to a couple of bears that we had. It was the cutest thing ever! Maddy was nice enough to get a couple of those hospital bracelets and write the bear's name on it! Ellee was so proud of herself for giving the bear a shot that she was showing everyone how to do it!
Later on, Maddy took Ellee and another little girl (3 years old) out to the rooftop playground. We are up on the 6th floor and can see this from our room. She had been begging to get out there and play and it was heartbreaking to tell her no we've had too many people to meet with. El really needed this fun break and it was nice to meet some one her age going through the same thing.
When El and I got back from the playground, they told us that we could still go home tonight as long as we got all of our classes done. It was a mad rush to get everyone in there that we needed to see still, but we managed to do it! It was a mad dash with Beth going over the rest of the "classes" that we had to go through and test on. It felt like we walked into an advanced French class and had to cram for a test without knowing a bit of the basics of the language. When Dr. Steve said that we'd be overwhelmed with classes and info, he wasn't joking - that is exactly how we felt! I completely forgot about calling Mom to tell her the good news that we'd be coming home tonight, and the next thing we know - here they are! Oops... That was a long way for them to drive, just for us to go home, but it was so nice to have them there with us!
Winnie came in to go over our meter with us and spoke with Mom and Dad about having them come down for classes. Karen also stopped in to go over some stuff with us and we spoke about her dosage. Before we were able to walk out the door, they had already dropped her dosage down a half a unit. It may not sound like much, but any sign that we have it under control or that she's entering her "honeymoon" period is a victory!
Walking out of that hospital with our daughter was a great feeling! I know that some people who enter that hospital don't get to leave with their child. I know it's a grim way of looking at things, after seeing what some of the other kids in there are going through, it made the shots a little more tolerable. If having to do 4 shots a day is the price we have to pay to be able to take her home, then that small sacrifice! The girls rode with Grandma and Grandpa, and I wanted to stop at Tuttle Mall to pick up one of those Carb Bibles and look for ID jewerly.
At Tuttle, I went to the Things Remembered and looked for a bracelet to get engraved for her to wear. It was a little disappointing to find out that most of their stuff was too big. I did manage to find a cute one that was on sale that was slightly smaller and didn't fall off when she dropped her hand. Little did I know that this would be the first of many disappointments with trying to find ID jewerly for her to wear!
We go to leave the mall, the girls are in the truck with us and we're getting ready to leave when Ellee says some thing so small, but yet it throws Josh and I into a panic... "I'm Hungry". UUURRRGGGEEE... where are the nurses when you need them?! What do we do? It's almost 9pm and there isn't very much open and we know that he have to give her something that is 15 carbs or less. Mom suggests the apples from McDonalds, so I pull out my new Carb Bible and look them up. Great! The apples are less than 15, but she loves the "apple sauce" and that would put her up to 23 carbs. We didn't really have a choice, so we went ahead and got them for her. It sounds weird and sounds like something so trivial, but for newly diagnosed parents, this was a hard decision, what do we do? Since I am writing this a while late, I will say that looking back, I can't believe that we paniced about that! Now at night we purposely give her extra carbs to raise her level up to avoid a night time low!
Friday, October 16, 2009
Thursday, June 11, 2009
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.
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.
Arrival at Childrens Hospital - Columbus
Tuesday, April 21
Talk about a long drive, so I was so glad when she finally fell asleep half way there! When we first started out, she couldn't really see out the back window very well because she was so low, but for some reason was trying to pick out sites that she recognized to see where we were. We were right down the road from one place I knew she'd know, so I pointed out her friend Savannah's house. We read a George book, then about the time we picked up 33 around Huntsville, she fell asleep. I chatted with the EMT for the rest of the trip. We talked about how you don't know how strong you are until you are faced with a challenge, you do what you have to do.
I was very impressed when we got to the hospital. When they wheeled us in, the gal knew exactly who we were and where we were going. Those wheels on the stretcher never stopped once from the door till we got to our room! On the way through the hall a male nurse or intern gave Ellee a beanie baby! Once we got up to our room, we got El settled into her new bed and the nurse checked her stats and sugar so that she could go back to sleep. After she went back to sleep, the nurse briefly explained what all will happen. We had 5 people that we had to meet with and 5 "classes" that we had to take. she wrote every thing up on the dry erase board with a line to x them off as we did them.
Josh got to there shortly after we did. I was exhausted so I laid down on the couch to get some sleep. I remember a nurse coming in to check her sugar in the middle of the night and Josh was up helping her. After that he couldn't get back to sleep in the chair, so we switched places.
Talk about a long drive, so I was so glad when she finally fell asleep half way there! When we first started out, she couldn't really see out the back window very well because she was so low, but for some reason was trying to pick out sites that she recognized to see where we were. We were right down the road from one place I knew she'd know, so I pointed out her friend Savannah's house. We read a George book, then about the time we picked up 33 around Huntsville, she fell asleep. I chatted with the EMT for the rest of the trip. We talked about how you don't know how strong you are until you are faced with a challenge, you do what you have to do.
I was very impressed when we got to the hospital. When they wheeled us in, the gal knew exactly who we were and where we were going. Those wheels on the stretcher never stopped once from the door till we got to our room! On the way through the hall a male nurse or intern gave Ellee a beanie baby! Once we got up to our room, we got El settled into her new bed and the nurse checked her stats and sugar so that she could go back to sleep. After she went back to sleep, the nurse briefly explained what all will happen. We had 5 people that we had to meet with and 5 "classes" that we had to take. she wrote every thing up on the dry erase board with a line to x them off as we did them.
Josh got to there shortly after we did. I was exhausted so I laid down on the couch to get some sleep. I remember a nurse coming in to check her sugar in the middle of the night and Josh was up helping her. After that he couldn't get back to sleep in the chair, so we switched places.
First Hospital - Lima Memorial
Tuesday, April 21
I hate to say it, but I'm glad that I missed the insertion of the IV. In 6 months I've had to sit with her twice through blood draws she freaks out around those "straws". In October, after a blood draw to check for lead, she talked about how that needle "bit her" for a month!
I got to the room just in time for her first finger poke and blood glucose check. 668. I was upset that it was that high. This is where the self blame comes in. Why did we let it get this high? Why didn't we bring her in earlier? Why didn't we recognize the signs earlier? Dr. Steve kept telling us not to worry about her numbers. He also put things in perspective pretty well... even if we had caught it earlier, we'd still end up in the same place. He was very right. And as I found out later on after talking with other people, her diagnosis number was quite low, compaired to what some others were when they were diagnosed. Some were around 800, and some one else I talked to was up around 1,200. The important thing is that we caught it before she went into a coma.
Ellee got her first dose of insulin. I think it took two nurses and both of us to hold her down to get it done. Poor kid, she has no idea why she's in there, why she has an IV, or why they are poking her fingers or giving her a shot. It took quite a few minutes to calm her down and I can't blame her, she has evey right to be upset. They brought her up dinner, but she just picked at it. She had a rough afternoon and just wasn't all that hungry.
They arranged for the ambulance to transport us to Columbus at 8:30. The nurses change shifts at 8 and it gave them time to come around and do vitals before we left. I don't think it was more than an hour and a half after I called mom and they were up there at the hospital. They brought at goody bag for Ellee - coloring books and crayons, and plenty of George the Monkey books to read! Josh left to get Dani from Tonya's house, then went down to Wapak to talk to his dad and brother before going home to pack clothes and head down to Columbus.
We had a few hours to kill and spent most of it over in the playroom that was right next door. It was a pretty somber mood in there until Dr. Steve came in to cheer things up! I think there were a few points where he had me laughing through my tears!
The EMT came a little early, but in a way I was glad to head out and get to Childrens to get this process started.
I hate to say it, but I'm glad that I missed the insertion of the IV. In 6 months I've had to sit with her twice through blood draws she freaks out around those "straws". In October, after a blood draw to check for lead, she talked about how that needle "bit her" for a month!
I got to the room just in time for her first finger poke and blood glucose check. 668. I was upset that it was that high. This is where the self blame comes in. Why did we let it get this high? Why didn't we bring her in earlier? Why didn't we recognize the signs earlier? Dr. Steve kept telling us not to worry about her numbers. He also put things in perspective pretty well... even if we had caught it earlier, we'd still end up in the same place. He was very right. And as I found out later on after talking with other people, her diagnosis number was quite low, compaired to what some others were when they were diagnosed. Some were around 800, and some one else I talked to was up around 1,200. The important thing is that we caught it before she went into a coma.
Ellee got her first dose of insulin. I think it took two nurses and both of us to hold her down to get it done. Poor kid, she has no idea why she's in there, why she has an IV, or why they are poking her fingers or giving her a shot. It took quite a few minutes to calm her down and I can't blame her, she has evey right to be upset. They brought her up dinner, but she just picked at it. She had a rough afternoon and just wasn't all that hungry.
They arranged for the ambulance to transport us to Columbus at 8:30. The nurses change shifts at 8 and it gave them time to come around and do vitals before we left. I don't think it was more than an hour and a half after I called mom and they were up there at the hospital. They brought at goody bag for Ellee - coloring books and crayons, and plenty of George the Monkey books to read! Josh left to get Dani from Tonya's house, then went down to Wapak to talk to his dad and brother before going home to pack clothes and head down to Columbus.
We had a few hours to kill and spent most of it over in the playroom that was right next door. It was a pretty somber mood in there until Dr. Steve came in to cheer things up! I think there were a few points where he had me laughing through my tears!
The EMT came a little early, but in a way I was glad to head out and get to Childrens to get this process started.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Second Doctors Appointment
Tuesday, April 21
After her draw, we went up stairs to the doctor's office. We waited in the waiting room briefly, then they took us back to one of the larger rooms to wait for the results of the blood test. We were hoping to meet with Dr. Steve but it was mentioned earlier that he is on call for the night and didn't get in till 4. A nurse came in and took Ellee's stats and left.
We were both on pins and needles waiting for a doctor to come in. We had no idea what all this would entail or what would happen next. Poor Ellee was so tired that she curled up on Josh's lap and fell asleep against his chest.
After a while, Dr. Mary came in to see us. "Elizabeth is Type 1 Diabetic and right now her glucose levels are sky high. You need to decide what hospital and Endocrynologist you want to use so that she can be admited as soon as possible." Those are some of the hardest words a parent can ever hear. An Endo-what??? Dr. Mary was very wonderful with explaining our options. The bad news is that the only Endo in town mainly deals with adults, not children. Now we have to decide what Children's Hospital we want to go to. Josh laid Ellee on the examining table since she was still sleeping. They brought in maps to the closest Childrens along with where their satelite offices were and left us to decide what we want to do. Josh got on the phone to call work to find out which Endos were in our network and the whole time I'm still trying to figure out how to pronounce it!
Dr. Steve came in to check on us. I think he was filled in ahead of time on Ellee's condition since he'd have to deal with us tonight. He explained that we needed to admit her as soon as possible to get her hooked up to an IV to get all of that excess sugar flushed out of her system. We all agreed that it would be best to admit her to Lima Memorial to get every thing started, then have her transfered to Childrens in Columbus after they verified that they had a bed ready for her. Knowing how much an abulance ride costs after my two rides last year, I wasn't excited about seeing that bill, but at this point, it was the least of our worries!
Josh and I had to decide who was going to stay at the hospital with her, what to do with Dani, and what seemed like a thousand other things that needed dealt with to get us through the week. Luckily, my boss assured me not to worry about work and that they would get every thing taken care of for how ever long I needed to be gone. We decided that I would stay with her at the hospital and he would get Dani and pack clothes for us. I wanted to go to the library to get books and read up on all of this over the next few days, so he went with them to admit her to LMH while I was gone.
This was definitly the hardest phone call I ever had to make. On the way to the library, I called mom. "Is dad there too?" "No, he's up at Jason's." Oh, I was hoping to have them put me on speaker phone so that I could explain it to both. "Sit down... Ellee has Type 1 Diabetes and needs to be admitted to the hospital". We both bawled through that conversation. I don't really remember the rest of it except for asking if they could take Dani while we were in Columbus.
Why are there so few books on this subject? And as I soon found out, so many books lump Type 1 and Type 2 together, when they are almost opposite. One book that I picked up that ended up being the best one was a book "How to Parent a Child with Diabetes" by Gloria (don't remember the last name). I ended up getting all the techinical information I could handle (plus more) from the nurses in Columbus, but this book was from a mother's view. Armed with 5 books, I headed back to the hospital to start this new path of our lives.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Blood Draw
Tuesday, April 21
The girls went to Tonya's house for the day. When she watches them, I would leave at lunch to take Ellee to preschool then go back to work and she would pick her up from school. Dani hates this! When I get there to pick up Ellee, she wants to go too! She'll go to the door and try to make a run for it as soon as that door opens so that she gets to go.
As soon as I dropped Ellee off at school and got back to work, my phone rang. I didn't recognize the phone number and decided to let it go to voice mail. As I was listening to it, my heart sank. It was Dr. Beth and said that the urine sample had an excessive amount of sugar in it. At that point the office phone rang and my boss handed me the phone, saying it was some woman. I knew it was her trying to get a hold of me. She suspected Diabetes but wanted us to come in right away for a blood draw. She highly suggested pulling her out of school to come up to the hospital and doctors office. No, not diabetes, not my kid. At this point I had not grasped the whole concept of this or what all it would entail, all I could think is that she's very healthy and very active and how could she possibly be diabetic??? Little did I know that in a matter of 8 hours I will be completely schooled on the the differences between Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes.
I broke down. I've worked at this job site for 6 years and I think this is the first time I've ever walked out of that gate completely consumed in tears. I've walked out of the gate to go to the hospital to give birth to a child two hours later, but have never walked out crying. I rehearsed my phone call to Josh in my head while walking through the parking lot and tried to calm myself down so that he'd be able to understand me. I got in my car and as soon as I dialed his number and heard his voice, I lost it. I some how managed to choke out some rambling that I'm not sure how he was able to understand any of it but we agreed to meet at the hospital to get the blood draw done and meet with the doctor.
I managed to calm myself down by the time I got to school to get El. I walked up to the door and knocked. Mrs. McKinney came to the door and stepped outside to talk to me. "I need to pull Elizabeth..." and I lost it again. Why is this so hard to say outloud when I ran the conversation through my head only minutes ago? Through my tears, I explained that I need to pull Elizabeth out to go back to the doctors for a blood test because they think she has diabetes. She tried to calm me down and got Elizabeth to come out in the hallway. El wasn't sure what was going on, but she wasn't feeling quite right so she didn't question what was going on.
She had a cup that I put in her school bag. In the car she said she was thirst, but I didn't have any thing for her to drink. We got to the hospital and I told her that when we finished getting the paperwork done for the blood draw, she could get a drink. That took us a little while longer than I thought it would, but Josh wasn't there yet and my phone battery died so I couldn't call him. The area we had to go to was not that far from the main doors. They weren't ready for us because they had to wait for another nurse to come down and help. Not a problem, that gave us a chance to walk down to the drinking fountain to fill her cup with water and to watch for Josh. By the time we walked back to the waiting area, she would have all 6-7 oz of water gone and wanted more. Since we didn't see Josh yet, we kept walking back and forth. 4 trips for water before he got there and before they were ready for us. One of the nurses started to arguee with me about the type of test they were taking because it's a fasting test and she hadn't fasted. At this point, it doesn't matter if she fasted or not, they need to get an idea of her levels now!
The draw in itself was a major ordeal, but we got through it. I wish they would have let me sit in the chair and hold her on my lap instead of the nurse, but we managed to get through it. The whole time I kept flashing back to October when I was down there with both girls getting blood drawn to check lead levels because our house is over 100 years old. For weeks Elizabeth would tell everyone about the mean needle that bit her in the arm and how much it hurt. After I stood up and held Ellee to comfort her, I could see the tears in Josh's eyes from watching the whole thing. I remember watching him tear up when Ellee was 5 days old and we had to take her in to get blood drawn from her feet to check her biliribon levels. There are times when watching your child hurts you more than it hurts them, and there are times when you would give any thing to trade places to keep your child from pain.
And now, the waiting game...
The girls went to Tonya's house for the day. When she watches them, I would leave at lunch to take Ellee to preschool then go back to work and she would pick her up from school. Dani hates this! When I get there to pick up Ellee, she wants to go too! She'll go to the door and try to make a run for it as soon as that door opens so that she gets to go.
As soon as I dropped Ellee off at school and got back to work, my phone rang. I didn't recognize the phone number and decided to let it go to voice mail. As I was listening to it, my heart sank. It was Dr. Beth and said that the urine sample had an excessive amount of sugar in it. At that point the office phone rang and my boss handed me the phone, saying it was some woman. I knew it was her trying to get a hold of me. She suspected Diabetes but wanted us to come in right away for a blood draw. She highly suggested pulling her out of school to come up to the hospital and doctors office. No, not diabetes, not my kid. At this point I had not grasped the whole concept of this or what all it would entail, all I could think is that she's very healthy and very active and how could she possibly be diabetic??? Little did I know that in a matter of 8 hours I will be completely schooled on the the differences between Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes.
I broke down. I've worked at this job site for 6 years and I think this is the first time I've ever walked out of that gate completely consumed in tears. I've walked out of the gate to go to the hospital to give birth to a child two hours later, but have never walked out crying. I rehearsed my phone call to Josh in my head while walking through the parking lot and tried to calm myself down so that he'd be able to understand me. I got in my car and as soon as I dialed his number and heard his voice, I lost it. I some how managed to choke out some rambling that I'm not sure how he was able to understand any of it but we agreed to meet at the hospital to get the blood draw done and meet with the doctor.
I managed to calm myself down by the time I got to school to get El. I walked up to the door and knocked. Mrs. McKinney came to the door and stepped outside to talk to me. "I need to pull Elizabeth..." and I lost it again. Why is this so hard to say outloud when I ran the conversation through my head only minutes ago? Through my tears, I explained that I need to pull Elizabeth out to go back to the doctors for a blood test because they think she has diabetes. She tried to calm me down and got Elizabeth to come out in the hallway. El wasn't sure what was going on, but she wasn't feeling quite right so she didn't question what was going on.
She had a cup that I put in her school bag. In the car she said she was thirst, but I didn't have any thing for her to drink. We got to the hospital and I told her that when we finished getting the paperwork done for the blood draw, she could get a drink. That took us a little while longer than I thought it would, but Josh wasn't there yet and my phone battery died so I couldn't call him. The area we had to go to was not that far from the main doors. They weren't ready for us because they had to wait for another nurse to come down and help. Not a problem, that gave us a chance to walk down to the drinking fountain to fill her cup with water and to watch for Josh. By the time we walked back to the waiting area, she would have all 6-7 oz of water gone and wanted more. Since we didn't see Josh yet, we kept walking back and forth. 4 trips for water before he got there and before they were ready for us. One of the nurses started to arguee with me about the type of test they were taking because it's a fasting test and she hadn't fasted. At this point, it doesn't matter if she fasted or not, they need to get an idea of her levels now!
The draw in itself was a major ordeal, but we got through it. I wish they would have let me sit in the chair and hold her on my lap instead of the nurse, but we managed to get through it. The whole time I kept flashing back to October when I was down there with both girls getting blood drawn to check lead levels because our house is over 100 years old. For weeks Elizabeth would tell everyone about the mean needle that bit her in the arm and how much it hurt. After I stood up and held Ellee to comfort her, I could see the tears in Josh's eyes from watching the whole thing. I remember watching him tear up when Ellee was 5 days old and we had to take her in to get blood drawn from her feet to check her biliribon levels. There are times when watching your child hurts you more than it hurts them, and there are times when you would give any thing to trade places to keep your child from pain.
And now, the waiting game...
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
First Doctor's Appointment
Monday, April 20 - Ellee's 4th Birthday
I had read in a magazine where some one had filled their child's bedroom up with a ton of balloons and how excited the child was when they woke up on their birthday and seen all these balloons. It's been a long 10-11 months since I read that till Ellee's birthday came around so that I could try it! After Josh and I had our late lunch Sunday afternoon, we went to get balloons. We ended up getting a cute little grouping of mylar balloons, one was a butterfly that said happy birthday and the others were stars in complimentary colors. I tried so hard to keep this a secret from her and surprise her, but who would have thought that balloons would be so noisy?! Needless to say, she heard me walk in her room and set the balloons down on her floor. I could tell that she wasn't quite herself, but I told her happy birthday and to go back to sleep.
I called the doctor's office to set up an appointment for her to come in. I knew something was wrong, but I didn't know what, so I told them that I thought that she may have a kidney or urinary tract infection and had to be there at 3:45 that afternoon. Dad was watching the girls, so I called him to let him know that I would pick her up from school. Ellee hates when I pick her up from preschool because she'd rather spend the rest of the afternoon with Grandpa or Tonya (depending on who is watching them that day). She had a great day at school though, she got to wear a birthday crown and gave every one a cupcake for snack! She was on top of the world for her special day and loved to tell everyone about her birthday balloons!
Sitting in the waiting room, she was back and forth between me and drawing on the chalk board. All of a sudden, she look at me with this look and says that she is going to throw up. A nurse just happened to talk through the door when she told me this and rushed us through the door to the bathroom in the back instead of going out into the hallway bathroom. Thankfully the Dr. Beth told us to go ahead and sit in one of the patient rooms instead of going back into the waiting room. Ellee did have a touch of food poisioning on Saturday (we are blaming that one on daddy!), and even though she told me a few times on Monday that she felt sick, she never did get sick.
We talked with Dr. Beth and discussed her symptoms, the excessive thirst, urination, bed wetting, sleep walking, and a few other things that we've noticed lately. We did a urine sample which she was going to send out for testing right away. She mentioned 4 possible things that Ellee may have - UTI, Kidney, something I never heard of, and lastley the possibility of diabetes. She would know with in an hour if it was an infection at which point we would start antibiotics right away.
We had dinner at mom and dad's house that night for Ellee's birthday. It wasn't anything fancy, but she ate like a horse. Infact, I can't say that I've ever seen her eat so much! We had cake and ice cream and she opened a few presents. The doctor's office never called back that night so I thought that "no news was good news".
I had read in a magazine where some one had filled their child's bedroom up with a ton of balloons and how excited the child was when they woke up on their birthday and seen all these balloons. It's been a long 10-11 months since I read that till Ellee's birthday came around so that I could try it! After Josh and I had our late lunch Sunday afternoon, we went to get balloons. We ended up getting a cute little grouping of mylar balloons, one was a butterfly that said happy birthday and the others were stars in complimentary colors. I tried so hard to keep this a secret from her and surprise her, but who would have thought that balloons would be so noisy?! Needless to say, she heard me walk in her room and set the balloons down on her floor. I could tell that she wasn't quite herself, but I told her happy birthday and to go back to sleep.
I called the doctor's office to set up an appointment for her to come in. I knew something was wrong, but I didn't know what, so I told them that I thought that she may have a kidney or urinary tract infection and had to be there at 3:45 that afternoon. Dad was watching the girls, so I called him to let him know that I would pick her up from school. Ellee hates when I pick her up from preschool because she'd rather spend the rest of the afternoon with Grandpa or Tonya (depending on who is watching them that day). She had a great day at school though, she got to wear a birthday crown and gave every one a cupcake for snack! She was on top of the world for her special day and loved to tell everyone about her birthday balloons!
Sitting in the waiting room, she was back and forth between me and drawing on the chalk board. All of a sudden, she look at me with this look and says that she is going to throw up. A nurse just happened to talk through the door when she told me this and rushed us through the door to the bathroom in the back instead of going out into the hallway bathroom. Thankfully the Dr. Beth told us to go ahead and sit in one of the patient rooms instead of going back into the waiting room. Ellee did have a touch of food poisioning on Saturday (we are blaming that one on daddy!), and even though she told me a few times on Monday that she felt sick, she never did get sick.
We talked with Dr. Beth and discussed her symptoms, the excessive thirst, urination, bed wetting, sleep walking, and a few other things that we've noticed lately. We did a urine sample which she was going to send out for testing right away. She mentioned 4 possible things that Ellee may have - UTI, Kidney, something I never heard of, and lastley the possibility of diabetes. She would know with in an hour if it was an infection at which point we would start antibiotics right away.
We had dinner at mom and dad's house that night for Ellee's birthday. It wasn't anything fancy, but she ate like a horse. Infact, I can't say that I've ever seen her eat so much! We had cake and ice cream and she opened a few presents. The doctor's office never called back that night so I thought that "no news was good news".
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