Primary Children's Medical Center: A Diabetic Adventure

Our little "Diabetic Adventure" started on Tuesday, March 13th, 2012.

We had suspected something was "up" with Tyler for a few weeks (extra thirsty, extra hungry, going to the bathroom a lot, uncharacteristic bedwetting, etc.). We didn't really clue in to that it could be diabetes until about the 11th. (In fact, after hearing Tyler go in and out of the bathroom about every 20 minutes on Sunday night - the 11th - I remember specifically to Matt, "If Tyler has diabetes, I'm going to die!" - sarcastically, of course!) We decided to just watch him closely for a few days, but by Tuesday morning I just had a gut feeling. I called my sister-in-law, Mary Ann, and asked if we could bring Tyler over to check his blood sugar (her son, my nephew, Jessie was diagnosed when he was only 2 years old. He is 11 years old now, an a total "pro" at the whole diabetes thing). Matt took Tyler over to their house at about 6:30 pm, and I waited by the phone for about an hour....I gave up waiting, called Matt, and said, "is it good news or bad news?" He said in a very sad and serious voice, "bad news, Heath', we need to take Tyler to the hospital." Turns out that Tyler's blood glucose level was so high that Jessie's meter couldn't even read it (meaning it was over 600!....normal levels are 80 - 120). My heart sank. I asked Matt to come home right away and I began a hurried fuss of calling my mom (we were going to need a place for Sam/Lilly/Charlie to stay), calling our home teacher (we needed help to give Tyler a blessing before we left), calling carpool moms (Tyler/Sam were going to miss school), and then the quickest packing job I've ever done in my life (enough stuff for a few days at least for all 6 of us!). Our dear home teacher got to our house before Matt/Tyler even got back from Mary Ann's!!! He held Charlie for me so I could pack. Then when Matt/Tyler got home, Tyler received a wonderful priesthood blessing. I know without a shadow of a doubt that the blessing that Tyler received helped him stay calm and BRAVE for our entire adventure....and then some. We hurried and got everyone in the van, drove the other kids to Grandma's house (THANK YOU GRANDMA DEB!!!), and then we were off to Primary Children's Medical Center. I dropped Tyler and Matt off at the Emergency Room entrance while I parked the van. We waited in the waiting room for about 30 minutes, and then they took Tyler back and immediately poked his finger for a blood test. Sure enough, his blood sugar level was in the 500's....Tyler was DIABETIC. 

Here is my brave boy in the ER room while we waited to talk to the doctor, nurse, etc. and also waited for a room (to be admitted).

 You can just tell by the look in his eyes that he didn't feel very good, he was probably pretty nervous, but he was putting his brave face on! They gave him a dose of insulin while we waited for his room. He told me later that the shot didn't bug him, but the finger poke (notice he's holding his finger) hurt the worst!

By the time we got settled in his room it was well past midnight. We were all exhausted, but neither Matt or I wanted to leave our boy. There really wasn't much to do for Tyler at that point other than to wait for the insulin to do it's thing and then check his blood sugar again at 2:00 am....so we decided to try and get some "rest." So Matt got in the hospital bed with Tyler, and I got the cot. I tossed and turned until the nurse came in at 2:00 am to check Tyler. His blood glucose had dropped dangerously low so they had to wake him up enough to get some juice and cookies in his system. Poor guy was so tired he could barely chew. Eventually they got him stabilized enough. I decided there was no way I was going to get ANY rest if I stayed, so I drove to my mom's to catch a few hours of sleep, feed Charlie, and then be back when the doctors came around for rounds. When I got back to Tyler's room, this is what I found:

He was STARVING!!! Quite literally, actually. The nurse (who's name was Aaron, and he was so awesome with Tyler!) told Tyler he could order ANYTHING for breakfast....so Tyler ordered a cheeseburger, Fruit Loops, scrambled eggs, and a Sprite Zero! Too funny! But Tyler was in HEAVEN!

Our first assignment in our crash course in Diabetes was to figure out how many carbohydrates were in Tyler's breakfast, estimate how much of it he would eat, and then calculate (using some insulin:carb ratios) how much insulin he would need. 

Come again???

Actually we spent all day learning how to do this. We also learned wayyyyyyy too much about things that I never thought in a million years I would be expected to master....like pancreas function. What the?

Seriously, my brain hurt. Really bad. 

I was TIRED, I was DRAINED, and I was OVERWHELMED.

But I had to pay attention and learn this stuff so that I could take care of Tyler.

That is a lot of responsibility.

Here I am studying in Tyler's hospital room.

(Matt didn't need to study and/or learn quite as much as me because he already knew the basics from being a Registered Nurse. This was just a TAD bit frustrating for me because the doctors and nurses would treat Matt one way....and talk to him in medical jargon.....and then they would have to "dumb it down" for poor old me. They were all nice about it, but I felt a lot of pressure to catch up to all of them...and QUICK!)

Tyler got to do all sorts of fun stuff while we learned and studied....like color, play BINGO on the T.V., watch movies, play video games, order room service, drink all the Sprite Zero he wanted (it has no carbs!), and borrow Legos and other cool toys from the playroom. He was one happy camper!

(Please ignore my nasty hair....didn't have time/energy to shower!)

Here's Matt taking a break from the "fun" and watching some March Madness on the T.V.. Tyler was kind enough to let Dad watch some hoops while he enjoyed some Legos. 

Tyler went to the playroom several times while we were at the hospital. It was a great escape for him to just go play and not have to worry about finger pokes, shots, or any of the other blah-blah-blah stuff that the doctors, nurse, and mom/dad were talking about all day long! He loved this car ramp:

Later that day, while Tyler and Matt were having dinner, I drove back down to my mom's house to get the other kids to come visit Tyler. Sam, Lilly, and Charlie had a wonderful day playing at Grandma's house (although Sam was seriously concerned about missing school!!!) but it was also fun for them to come visit Tyler too. We took them all to the playroom. Charlie loved sitting in this Bumbo chair (although it was PINK):

 Lilly loved all the girly toys and the attention from the staff. Sam loved playing with the car ramp with Tyler and Matt. It was nice to be all together after a stressful day. When we got back from the playroom, Aunt Kara came by to visit Tyler and bring him a present. That really made Tyler feel so special! (Aunt Mary Ann and her kids also came up later, after I had left,with even more presents! Tyler is so loved!) When Sam/Lilly/Charlie got restless I took them home to our house so we could get a good night of rest. Matt was so kind to offer to stay the night with Tyler again. It was a bit sad for me to take the other kids home and not have Tyler with us. I missed him a lot that night.  (I think Charlie did too because he SCREAMED for over an hour before I finally got him to bed. Argh.)

The next morning (Friday) I got the kids ready, dropped Sam off to school (he INSISTED that he go!), dropped Lilly/Charlie off to my mom's house again (Grandma Deb is the BEST!), and went back to PCMC for more learning, training, medical terminology, practicing with syringes, talking to doctors/nurse/social worker/dietician/pharmacist/etc......good times, right? Tyler was still "enjoying" the ability to order ANYTHING he wanted for meals (yes, he had another cheeseburger!...see picture below!), playing/watching anything he wanted, and getting a ton of attention. They really know how to cater to the kids at PCMC. Tyler was so busy having fun that he didn't have to worry so much about getting diabetes. He really was so BRAVE the entire time...he didn't even cry once! I knew, deep down, that it wouldn't last....that once we got home to reality it would be different - - it would be harder. 

Later Friday evening Tyler was finally discharged. I was happy to go home but nervous to leave all of the medical support that we had at the hospital. It was VERY reassuring though to know that Matt had enough medical background to make sure that Tyler would be ok....but we ALL needed to get used to our "new normal" - - living with diabetes. Even though Tyler is the diabetic, we are all going to be living with it. So we decided to just accept it, learn what we need to know, and move forward.

 Thank you to all of those who have called, emailed, left blog comments, said prayers, and offered to help. We really have felt your love and support. 

** I hope to write a post soon with a little bit of Type 1 Diabetes 101....with some myth busters and such. Please don't hesitate to ask us about Tyler, about Diabetes, or whatever! We would rather educate our loved ones about this than to have people not understand or feel like it is a "taboo" subject!! **