This goes out to everybody please if your child is sick take them to be seen! Saturday my son was sick, throwing up. He was drinking enough and sugar was not super high so I figured he had the flu....no biggie. I underestimated what happens to a sick person that has T1. He stopped throwing up Saturday but by Monday he could no longer walk or talk. I called an ambulance at 8:30 am. He is now in a hospital in the pediatric ICU on a breathing machine and a tube in his head. Turns out that his brain swelled and he was on the verge of dieing. They did not expect him to make it through the night last night. Since he made it through the night they took him off of the chemically enduced coma to see if he could react to stimuli which he did. Once they seen he could react they put him on a med to keep him asleep but not in a coma. He is now reponding to our voices and wants to wake up even though they wont let him yet. They are planning to take him off the sleeping meds in the morning.
Now why did this get so bad?
- I underestimated type 1 and wanted to treat him as a normal child with the flu
- I ran out of ketone strips. He had NO sign of high ketones (no high sugar,no belly pain,no fruity breath)
Now my life is a nightmare. And to make matters worse now CPS is involved. The social worker assured me that it is rutine when a child is in this condition because they have to make sure that it was not abuse related but that does not make me feel better. He said nobody is trying to take my kids away this is just something they have to do. It still scares me greatly though.
So Ladies I BEG of you if your child gets sick take them to be seen right away and NEVER run out of ketone strips!!! The doctor told me a lot of T1 people go through this at least once because the parent thinks their child just has a cold or the flu. Please do not underestimate this disease because no parent should ever have to see their child like I have to see mine right now. Please pray for us.
UPDATE- I have decided to post updates here so there is no trouble finding them. They took him off of the sleeping meds today and he has woken up a lot. He has been able to move everything they have asked him to and has even been talking some! It is so amazing how strong he is. He actually started crying earlier and when I asked him why he was crying he told me he just wants to go home :(. God is healing him in ways the doctor did not think possible!
I had been telling the doctor and nurses that I had been begging his doctor for the pump and she simply refused. I told them his sugar seems impossible to control most of the time! At first they looked at me funny but now they see what I mean. His sugar jumps all over and they have him on an insulin drip. They took him off of the drip earlier and in an hour he went from 74 up to 256!! I was actually glad his sugar jumped like that just so they would know that I am not lieing about it. They have changed his doctor for me so hopefully we will get to start the process of getting the pump soon! Keep the prayers coming please!!!
Update 2 - Today was a good day. He now has all tubes out of him except 1 IV and he is allowed to eat and drink. They also needed him to pee on his own since they removed the cathider and he had a lot of trouble with it. The nurse then asked him if he wanted to stand to pee so it would be more natural. He said he did and she and his dad helped him stand up at which point he stood by himself and held the pee jug! - that is the highlights of the day and he has had me up since 5:30am and it is now after midnight. I am going to try to get some sleep. I will try to write more of an update tomorrow. Keep praying because God is listening!
I wanted to take this time to say a huge thank you for all the prayers and thoughts. They moved us to a regular pediatric ward yesterday at dinner time which we thought was great. Nathan was up walking so much last night that when the doctor came in today the nurses told him how great he was doing. He then came in and had Nathan walk all over the unit and then told him to go home!!! It amazes me that not one doctor or nurse thought he would make it through that first night and here we are home almost a week later. He is still very tired today but that would be because he kept me up all night last night and then he was up all morning/afternoon. When we got home I let him take a little nap until dinner time and then another little nap. He has now taken his bedtime shot and is out .....hopefully for the night! I have to call tomorrow and make him an appointment at his reg. diabetes doctor for a week to 10 days. Again ..thank you all so much for keeping him in your thoughts and prayers. Please ladies never ever underestimate this disease like I did. If your child is sick at all do not treat it like you would another child even having a cough or cold can turn into something like this. I pray that none of you will ever have to see your babies like I have had to see mine so please learn from our mistake, I know we have!
I am so sorry! I hope he gets better soon!
And, yes, this is a reminder to everyone that you should always check ketones during any illness because you can have low blood sugar and large ketones. They are commonly called Starvation Ketones.
I'm glad he is doing better!
Please don't take this the wrong way but the pump isn't a magic cure all. This would have happened if he was on the pump, too. He was sick and got ketones... The pump takes a lot of work and is harder than shots in my opinion. It's actually easier for a child to end up in the ER when on the pump because it's the only source of insulin and if a infusion site fails or the pump itself fails he can go into DKA in as little as 4 hours. Because of that doctors want to make sure you have a good handle on counting carbs, checking bg, checking ketones, etc. Just keep that in mind if the new doctor wants to wait on the pump.
so glad to read your update. I saw your posting yesterday, and you've been in our thoughts and prayers. My 9 year old was diagnosed this past July, and we had our first experience with a stomach bug last week. She was pretty sick--it was horrible. Then my 12 year old caught the same thing and was back to basketball in a day. I guess diabetes just magnifies everything.
I'm glad that you are able to start the pump. We pushed hard for the pump, and I think that it has made a world of difference in her sugar control. It's also a great quality of life boost--she can dose herself at friends' houses,. She's wearing the omnipod. We like it, but it's a pretty significant expense, even with good insurance.
I am so glad things are getting better! The only medical professional I have found that actually understands a child diabetic is our pediatric endocrinologist! Even our family doctor who diagnosed her doesn't understand the complexities of all of it - but he understands that he is not the expert and refers to her other doctor. Most don't even know the difference with type 1 and type 2 and how getting the flu is very hard on them or even that a child diabetic body is different from an adults diabetic body -there are so many things to this and I hope people think before they judge. We all need help and support! How many people have children that have a cold and it turns to pneumonia - are they a bad parent! So sorry you have had to deal with all of this you are in our prayers!
i am so sorry you had to go through this. unfortunatly everyone ill develope ketones when they are sick (even non-diabetics it just dont affect us the same) but yes even with good blood sugars when a diabetic is sick they can develop ketones. as far as the vomiting goes i know when my son does if he does it more than 3x they have me take him in, i believe its because of his age possibly hes 2. but yes T1 can be brutal on anychild who is sick. they canreact way differently. my son once spent 2 weeks in the hospital because he caught a 3 day virus. we were released after 5 days and 2 days later were back with more issues. we have been in the hospital for 4-5 days for something that would keep a non-diabetic out of class for 1 day. we do have to watch our babies a little more when they are sick.
our doc actually warned us that people on the pump are more susceptable to DKA simply because they may think they are getting insulin but the site is messed up and i reality they are not getting any! pumps may seem wonderful (and yes we have been pumping since july) but even on the pump we spent 2 weeks in the hospital. so yeah they arnt a magic cure, yeah you can have tighter control if done 100% properly but things do go wrong
Quoting Jadegirl1819:I'm glad he is doing better!
Please don't take this the wrong way but the pump isn't a magic cure all. This would have happened if he was on the pump, too. He was sick and got ketones... The pump takes a lot of work and is harder than shots in my opinion. It's actually easier for a child to end up in the ER when on the pump because it's the only source of insulin and if a infusion site fails or the pump itself fails he can go into DKA in as little as 4 hours. Because of that doctors want to make sure you have a good handle on counting carbs, checking bg, checking ketones, etc. Just keep that in mind if the new doctor wants to wait on the pump.
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