Recent nightly routine...

Last night I brought the kids home from dinner at my parents house. I got them in their PJ's and then started to get all of their medications together all at once. I usually just do them without thinking, but since I was on my own tonight (Rod was out with friends) I was trying to do it all at once.

That is when it hit me. My kids have A LOT of meds to take right now. This is crazy!

Here is a list of what is shown in the picture from last night...

1) The Princess' antibiotic for a sinus infection. She has about 3-4 days left.
2) Tylenol for The Princess. She also has an ear infection and was complaining of pain.
3) The spacer for The Princess' inhalers.
4) Singulair. This is for The Princess' asthma/allergies. She takes this once per day.
5) Ear drops. The Princess has a current ear infection (ear tubes + ear infection = leaky ear). Used once per day for 7 days.
6) Flovent. Used for The Princess' asthma, twice daily.
7) Albuterol. Also used for The Princess' asthma. Used as needed, latelty has been 2-3 times per day.
8) The Superhero's blood glucose meter. Of course we must check his BG before bed. :-)
9) Xopenex. Used for The Superhero's "croupy" cough lately. 2 or more times per day. Will be seeing a pulmonologist soon.
10) Pulmicort. Used 2x per day for The Superhero's coughing.
11) Container used to put breathing meds into, and then hooked up to the SVN machine.
12) Triaminic cough medicine. Has been helping reduce his cough.
13) Flonase. Nasal steroid for The Superhero. 2x per day.
14) Allegra for The Superhero's allergies.


Yep. This is what our life consists of. I never would have thought this is what our "nightly routine" would consist of.

So thankful I get to have a BREAK this week. Rod and I are going away KID FREE! And as much as I LOVE my kids, I just can't wait to get away!

*Disclaimer: I am a mom of a T1 Diabetic child and a child with ITP/Asthma/Dysphagia. I am NOT a doctor. I just play one in real life. Please do not take anything in this post or any other post on this blog as medical advice. If you have questions or concerns of your own, please seek advice from your doctor.*

Another illness update

I wish I could be posting that we ALL feel 100% better, but, we are not.

I went to the doctor on Monday and was told I had bronchitis. Antibiotics started and I definitely am feeling better. not completely, but better for sure.

The Superhero is still on his antibiotics for the sinus infection. He is about 7 days in of the 30 day regimen.

The Princess, well, she is NOT better. Not completely anyway. I took her to the doctor on Monday and she was put on antibiotics for bronchitis. We also started up her breathing treatments again, every 4 hours, around the clock.

She was not getting enough better by yesterday (Wednesday) so I called and made her an appointment for this morning to get back in with the doctor. I was thinking she might have pneumonia, but I wasn't sure. She seemed to be breathing more shallow than normal and taking more breaths than normal. I had a HARD time sleeping last night. She was in bed with me and I just listened to her breathing all.night.long.

Took her in this morning and her lungs sounded great. I had done her breathing treatment not long before we had gone in. I went ahead and asked for the chest x-ray to ease my mind about the pneumonia. We went over to the radiologist and had her x-ray done. (this is where they place her in this barbaric looking contraption I had never seen prior to the last few x-rays she has had done, it works well at holding her still though)

We came home so she could eat lunch and nap. Then I got the call. It was our awesome nurse from the peds office calling to let me know the pneumonia was NEGATIVE. Which is GREAT news.

Then there was a BUT. Isn't there always?

BUT, she does have asthma. Keep the breathing treatments up every 4 hours. (paraphrased, of course)

She may be able to come off them for a while when she is feeling better. We will just have to see how she does. The air quality is POOR here in AZ which does NOT help.

Sigh.

So, now we have asthma to deal with and worry about. It had been mentioned previously since she has had issues in the past, but usually they don't actually "say" it until they are a little older.

Never a dull moment in the house with The Superhero and The Princess.


*Disclaimer: I am a mom of a T1 Diabetic child. I am NOT a doctor. I just play one in real life. Please do not take anything in this post or any other post on this blog as medical advice. If you have questions or concerns of your own, please seek advice from your doctor.*

Illness Update

Well, I am feeling better today. It was definitely a rough week of achiness (just made that word up). I am still coughing some, but not too bad.

I took both kids to the doctor yesterday. The Superhero needed a follow up from his hospital visit and was not complaining of ear pain. The Princess has been breaking out in hives and is now sounding croupy.

The Princess seemed ok at the doctor's office, of course. I had the doctor write the rx for steroids in case the croupy cough got worse. Which of course it did last night while we were sleeping, that is how croup works. :-) She started steroids today and should hopefully be better soon. The hives could just be related to the virus she has, we are keeping an eye on them/her for now.

The Superhero has yet another ear infection. I asked the doctor why he has had so many ear infections and bouts with croup lately. 4 ear infections and 2 times with croup since Thanksgiving seems like A LOT to me. She agreed and said it could be a sinus infection that just one round of antibiotics would not be clearing up, which is why everything comes back.

I took him over for an x-ray of his sinuses and waited for the call. The nurse called me yesterday afternoon and indeed, he has a bi-lateral sinus infection (both sides). He will be on antibiotics 2x per day for 30 DAYS. And then we will repeat the x-ray to see if it has cleared up.

I am hoping this will be the end of the illness string at our house. As much as I hate him being sick and needing antibiotics for 30 days, at least we CAN treat it and it should clear up this time.


*Disclaimer: I am a mom of a T1 Diabetic child. I am NOT a doctor. I just play one in real life. Please do not take anything in this post or any other post on this blog as medical advice. If you have questions or concerns of your own, please seek advice from your doctor.*

Finding the Blessings amongst the CrAzY

I have had this blog post swirling around in my head since all the craziness began last week. The title has changed several times. Here are some of the proposed titles I had going...

"The week from HE!!"
"You wouldn't believe it if I told you..."
"If it isn't one thing, it is another..."


Ok, you get the idea. For those of you who know me, you know that this last week has been one of the worst weeks EVER. I had planned to just blog about the events that have taken place in the past week and a half. After thinking about it some more last night, I decided to force myself to see the Blessing hidden inside all the Crazy. So, I will share the events of each day that had me going "WTH!!!" and then share the Hidden Blessing inside.

If you are a regular reader of The Superhero and The Princess, then you know we have been battling some illnesses since Thanksgiving. Pretty much someone has been sick in this house non-stop since then. Well, it all got worse in the last week and a half.


Tuesday January 4; 12:30am-The Princess throws up 7 times before 5:30am. In MY bed. She recovers ok and rests the rest of the day.

Hidden Blessing: The Princess was a trooper and did her best to stay hydrated. She was willing to go with the flow of the recovery process that day. I work from home and can take care of The Princess while she is not feeling well.


Wednesday January 5; Middle of the night. The Princess has a fever of 102.4. Sigh.

Hidden Blessing: We have Motrin to bring down the fever. I work from home and can take care of The Princess while she is not feeling well.


Thursday January 6; 7:15am - Just as The Princess was about to leave the house with Rod to spend the day with a friend of mine while I worked, she threw up AGAIN. Sigh.

Hidden Blessing: She felt fine afterwards and it was probably just a fluke. Thank God I work from home and she can hang out here with me, again.


Friday January 7; 3am- The Superhero wakes up with CROUP. Trip to Urgent Care at 4:30am. Home with some steroids and back in bed by 5:30am. The kids still spent the day with my friend, Kristi. Rod has not been feeling well for a couple of weeks, a cold/flu or something, but is managing to do ok at this point.

Hidden Blessing: Kids got to play with some friends and I got some work done, kid free!


Saturday January 8; REALLY early AM- The Superhero wakes up coughing. His first steroid dose from Friday wore off sometime around 8pm the night before and he is miserable. I gave him a second dose of the steroids at 1:15am. At app. 1:30am, he threw up. He threw up 2 more times in the next little while.

Rod and I made the decision to take him to the ER and get some Zofran and IV fluids. I called and woke up my parents. The Superhero, my mom, and I were off to the ER. We got him some fluids, Zofran, and he was feeling a ton better in a short time. We made it home around 1pm that day thinking all was well.

Hidden Blessing: Walking into the ER with a vomiting T1 diabetic with ketones will get you into a room with IV's started fairly quickly, especially if they actually throw up for the ER nurses.


Sunday January 9; The Superhero seemed to be feeling better and was eating ok. BG was on the lower end of normal, but we were ok as long as he was eating/drinking. Then he threw up, ALL.OVER.ME. Showers for both of us. Thinking we just over did it. We waited it out at home some more. Ketones were not out of control and BG was ok. Then after a short time, he threw up AGAIN. Forget it! Off to the ER AGAIN, knowing we would be admitted. BG was dropping and ketones were rising.

Again, we were taken right back with our vomiting, diabetic with ketones. IV started. They started with just saline. I PUSHED (a blog post for another day) to get glucose/dextrose with the saline since his BG was DROPPING. Once they listened to ME and OUR endo (again, a blog post for another day), they started it and his BG started coming up from the 70's.

Hidden Blessing: SO thankful for an awesome endocrinologist on our team! Also Blessed to have the ability to get IV fluids for The Superhero and more Zofran.


Monday January 10; Spent another day at the hospital with The Superhero. He slowly went from a liquid diet to a regular diet as tolerated. Love the endo team at the hospital and how they respected my abilities to be The Superhero's pancreas. (our 7.4 A1C for over 6 months helped :) ) --Side note: I start to feel sinusy and have a sore throat today; Rod is at home throwing up and still feeling "fluish".

Hidden Blessing: I have a wonderful support system, in person (my Parents and friend Kate) to watch The Princess for me AND I have ALL.OF.YOU (online friends) supporting me from all over the globe. I honestly NEEDED the support emotionally and it meant so much to me to see so many FB messages of support for me and our family.  


Tuesday, January 11; I had them turn off the glucose drip in the morning to see how the BG stabilized without it.The Superhero was doing a TON better and we were able to go home in the afternoon. After we got home, The Princess broke out in HIVES on her left leg. Not sure what THAT is about. I gave her a bath and used some calamine lotion to clear it up. I thought she must have been bitten by something and then scratched at it, making it look worse.--Side note: I feel worse, Dayquil is my friend. Rod is feeling a little better and has orders from the doctor to take time off work this week to rest.

Hidden Blessing: I got to see my Princess again after several days. I REALLY missed her and I know she missed me too. She keeps following me saying pathetically "Hold me". The Superhero felt a TON better.


Wednesday, January 12; I took the day off from work to re-cooperate and get my house in order. The Princess broke out in HIVES AGAIN. This time they were ALL over her legs and arms in patches. I covered her in calamine lotion and messaged a friend of mine with a picture (the awesome nurse from our pediatrician's office). She mentioned giving her benedryl so we could go at the hives and whatever was causing them from the inside out. I don't know why I didn't think of this!? Dosed her up and the hives were gone. Hoping they don't come back, or that we can figure out what is causing them. 

Hidden Blessing: Awesome friends to help me diagnose/treat symptoms in my kids as needed. I love my nurse friends. Naps are awesome too.


Thursday, January 13; I.feel.worse. I am back to working today, but am planning to re-schedule all of my conferences from this week for next week so I can catch up on other things and be prepared for them. I am SO achy today and tired. I have both kids home with me. We made the decision earlier in the week to pull The Superhero out of pre-school for the rest of this year. I am tired of paying $300 per month for him to not be going due to illnesses right now. So, we told him the school year was over and moved on. Hoping to rest while the kids nap today. I had a hard time sleeping last night due to yesterday's nap. 

Hidden Blessing: I work from home and my job can be somewhat flexible. The kids feel better and are playing nicely today (mostly). I am going to rest during nap time.


And THAT is a rundown of my life in this new year so far. Sigh. Hoping things improve soon and we can get rested. Hoping NO MORE illnesses strike our family for a LONG time.

I have CRIED more in this past 2 weeks than I have in a LONG time. I held it together pretty well until we had to go back to the ER the second time. Then.I.LOST.IT. I am SO grateful for all the love and support from everyone on FB. I NEEDED it more than you know.

On the way to Urgent Care with The Superhero on Friday EARLY morning, I started thinking to myself "What is God trying to tell me?". I am still working on this one. Not sure what the message He is trying to send our way. Hopefully I will hear it more clearly soon.

Please PRAY that our family can get better and our immune systems have time to catch up before we get sick again. Sigh.


*Disclaimer: I am a mom of a T1 Diabetic child. I am NOT a doctor. I just play one in real life. Please do not take anything in this post or any other post on this blog as medical advice. If you have questions or concerns of your own, please seek advice from your doctor.*

Mommy, My Tummy Hurts

Something the Parent of a Child with Diabetes NEVER likes to hear.

BUT, in our house, when The Superhero says this, he USUALLY just needs to go potty. You see, he can hold his bladder like no other and wait until that very last second before he heads in to release a gallon of pee. No joking. (ok, I don't measure it, but you get the picture)

Well, his epiphany of needing to potty USUALLY happens the second we sit down for breakfast in the morning. And today, like every other day, he sat down to eat, said his tummy hurt, then he JUMPED up and ran to the potty.

He came back and started eating. Then he kept saying his tummy hurt. I told him if he did not eat, we were NOT going to church.

You see, I already pre-bolused part of his breakfast, as I always try to do, especially when we are eating FRENCH TOAST. So now, he has 1/2 unit on board (1:30 ratio). This is A LOT of insulin for The Superhero.

He proceeds to eat anyway, because otherwise he knows we are NOT going to church.

Then I hear him coughing, as I am weighing out his grapes that he whined for, I look over and see him THROWING UP.

WHAT?!

Ok, did he just choke on his food, or was his tummy REALLY upset, this time???

He had chugged 1/2 his milk before throwing up, and had a few pieces of the aforementioned french toast.

And now it was all sitting in his lap and on the table. Yuck! And Oh CRAP!

Clean him up. Check BG, 168. Check ketones, 0.1.

Tell The Superhero that we are NOT going to be able to go to church today because he just got sick from breakfast. Now I have to watch him more closely until that IOB is out of his system. (did a -50% temp basal to combat the IOB as well)

And sadly watch as the TEARS well up in The Superhero's eyes because we are not going to church AGAIN today. We have not been in WEEKS because someone has been sick every weekend.

All he wanted was to go see his friends.

And even more than that, he REALLY wanted to go see his Daddy. (he works at the church on the weekends, second job).

Seeing the tears in my sad little Superhero's eyes this morning, makes me cry too.

I hate Diabetes.

I hate that Diabetes is holding him back from seeing his friends and going to church.

And now, keeping him away from his Daddy today.

Back to School

(Day 13 of NaBloPoMo)


FINALLY! The kids are feeling better (mostly) and I am sending them back to preschool/daycare TODAY!

About a month ago The Princess had strep. 3 weeks later she had strep AGAIN. Then just 5 days later she and The Superhero got sick again. This time it was a NASTY virus that caused HIGH temperatures, body aches, runny noses, watery sick looking eyes, and COUGHS. The Princess has been on steroids for 3 days for her croupy sounding cough. We have given her countless breathing treatments.

We took them both to Urgent Care last Sunday and were told it was just a virus for both and to wait it out.

They were both not getting better by day 6, so I took them back to the pedi and they both have ear infections! The Princess has a single and The Superhero has a double. More antibiotics for both.

A few days later now and they are finally starting to get better. The cough is still lingering, but the fevers are GONE and they are acting more normal and fighting with each other/annoying ME. :-)

Now, I just need to keep The Princess healthy until our trip to Indiana in 1 1/2 weeks. I am thinking she will go to daycare this week and stay home with me next week before the trip. (Can't wait to see my family and to get to meet Hallie!)

I am SO looking forward to being about to get my work done without interruption this week and not having to keep the kids quiet. Then hopefully, when they ARE home, I can focus on just them.

How was YOUR Sunday?

Mine consisted of the following events...

1) 5am-6am The Princess was in my bed, COUGHING. Finally got up at 6 and gave her a breathing treatment.

2) Took my shower.

3) Get Rod off to work. (2nd job on the weekends)

4) Make cranky kids breakfast. They refuse to eat. Both kids don't feel well. The Superhero has a small fever. Give The Superhero TYLENOL without thinking.

5) Call my parents to let them know I will be dropping the kids off early so I can run to the store for cough meds for The Princess. My dad asks me what medicine it is that The Superhero CANNOT have because of his Dexie, OH CRAP! TYLENOL! What was I thinking!?! We have had Dexcom for 9 months and in that time I have NEVER needed to give The Superhero meds for fever, so without thinking I chose to give him tylenol. Oops!

6) Get kids ready to go spend the day with NaNa. Get myself ready for a marketing event at the baseball game. Pack everything we need, including all D-Supplies and The Princess' breathing machine/meds.

7) Get kids in car. Begin drive to my parents house and realize I forgot the ONLY thing The Superhero asked me to bring with us, Toy Story movies to watch on NaNa's couch.

8) The Superhero begins his Not-Feeling-So-Great-MELTDOWN. I tell him I will drop them off and run back home to get his movie when I get The Princess her medicine for the cough.

9) Drop kids off. Run back home and grab both Toy Story 1 and Toy Story 2. Run to the store and grab cough meds, more ibuprofen, and some yummy looking powdered donuts.

10) My co-worker meets me at my mom's (thank goodness for Starbucks, and Thanks Kimberly!).

11) Change The Superhero's Dexie site since it is not working and needed to be changed out today anyway. Instructed my mom to start the sensor in about 2 hours when the Tylenol would be out of his system. Then to check his BG 2x 2 hours later. (still kicking myself for giving him TYLENOL)

12) Head to the baseball game for work. Talk to a few interested families. Got to meet one of MY students and another one I enrolled a few months back.

13) Go back to pick up the kids. The Princess was still sleeping, The Superhero was just waking up. He did NOT look good. I went and sat by him and could feel the heat radiating off of him. I asked my mom for a thermometer, which she could not find. So I ran to the store to get one for their house. (and I picked up some GREEN gum, since that is how I convinced The Superhero to let me leave)

14) Get back. The Princess is now also awake and bright, pink cheeks. Not good. Check The Superhero first, 102.1 fever. The Princess next, 101.0 fever.

15) Go in the kitchen to get the meds. Measure 1 tsp for The Princess, she takes it like a champ. Go to give The Superhero his dose, 1 1/2 tsps. He GAGS himself and throws up ALL OVER. He is not a fan of medicine and said it was yucky. I then remembered I bought NEW Ibuporfen this morning at the store and I then PRAYED it was a different flavor. Thank goodness, it WAS. Bubblegum! Smelled just like the yummy antibiotics he liked a few weeks ago. My mom and I convince him to try them, and after some convincing, he did, and he liked it much better. No gagging this time!

16) After a few more minutes and lots of moaning and "I don't feel good" looks from both kids, we decided to take them to Urgent Care. My mom and I packed up the kids and headed out.

17) Urgent care. 2 hours after throat swabs for both, urinalysis completed with catheter for The Princess, ex-rays for The Princess, and a good once over from the doctor and we were on our way. They are fine. Other than a virus/cold. And a side note, the doctor there tonight has volunteered at the local Diabetes camp (7 years ago) and she was telling me how hard it was doing the night checks on the kids and then having to do it all over again the next day/night. She said she has more respect for Diabetes parents than ever before. And that you cannot fully understand unless you live it...I might love her. :-)

18) Pizza at my mom's house for dinner. Praying that works out for The Superhero's BG. I attempted another combo bolus.

19) Head home. Drug up my kids with meds (Ibuprofen for both, and the following for The Princess...prevacid (acid reflux), orapred (steroid for croup), and Triaminic (for the cough) )

20) Give The Princess her breathing treatment. She is almost asleep from the busy day. Rock her for a few minutes. She is a little restless and coughing a ton. But falls asleep anyway.

21) I am sure The Princess will be up again soon and climbing in my bed.


ONE LONG DAY and I am HEADING TO BED early!

Night all!

Mommy Intuition

I am SO thankful for the Mommy intuition!

I KNEW something was NOT right with The Princess for DAYS now. I kept hearing how she must be getting her molars.

I really had a feeling it was MORE. And, it turns out, I was RIGHT!

After dropping The Princess off at daycare this morning and her FLIPPING because I was leaving, which is SO not like her, I decided to make her a doctor appointment. I picked her up from daycare early, thinking it was just another ear infection. Drove our 30 minutes to the doctor.

Ears are FINE. I mentioned her acid reflux and how I switched her back to the medicine we tried last year, but this forgetful mommy kept forgetting to give her on time. (20 minutes before dinner). I wondered if the dosing was still right since it was written almost a year ago. Dosing was fine. The doc agreed that The Princess' mood COULD be from that flaring up, BUT we tested for strep anyway, just in case.

The doctor came back in and was as shocked as I was, POSITIVE! The Princess JUST had strep 3 WEEKS ago! Since she is allergic to the typical meds they would prescribe for strep, we had to put her on a STRONG dose of Zythromax. I am wondering if it did not kill the strep the first time and it never went away? Or she just caught it again since she goes to daycare and The Superhero goes to preschool.

So, another round of antibiotics. And she is staying home tomorrow from daycare.

I also took The Superhero in to get his throat checked, just in case, and he was negative!

So, I just want to say I am SO thankful for Mommy Intuition! Hopefully now my little girl can start to feel better and sleep better!

Sick, sick, sick!

Time to remember what I learned last time The Superhero was sick!

I knew there was a reason he was low for the last couple of days. I knew there was a reason he was not interested in eating much yesterday. I knew something was not right.

That something came "up" tonight! Ugh. I heard him in his room fussing at 1:30am. I sent Rod in there. I hear him trying to get my attention through the baby monitor. I head in there to see The Superhero throwing up. :(

The Princess was sick last week on Thursday and Friday. I guess it is The Superhero's turn now. I was hoping what she had was a fluke and that no one else would get it.

I sent Rod up to get the anti-nausea meds filled. Why did I not get these filled the last time he was sick? Thank God for 24 hour pharmacies.

Please pray that ketones stay away (currently none), his BG stays up (currently 124), and that he gets over this REALLY fast.

After he threw up, he said "I feel SO much better now" in his cute little Superhero voice.

Then we were watching Dora the Explorer and Diego happened to be on the same episode. He saw them both (Dora and Diego) and started laughing and saying "Mommy, there is Dora, Diego, and Boots. That's funny!"

At least he still has his cute sense of humor at 2am.

DONE!

I am SO DONE with illness right now!

2 weeks before Christmas The Princess had an ear infection.

1 week before Christmas The Princess had Croup.

Thank GOD she was healthy for Christmas.

Now one week later, she is sick AGAIN! This time it is a stomach bug. She seemed a little "off" on Thursday and cried most of the morning. I fed her lunch like normal, nursed her, and then IT happened! She threw up ALL over the both of us.

She enjoyed her first shower ever. We both got cleaned up and I put her down for a nap. She seemed a little off the rest of the day. She ate a little at dinner, but not a whole lot.

She still seemed a little off the next morning. I put her down for her nap a little early so I could run some errands while she slept. When I got home she started to wake up and was crying in her crib. It was not a normal cry. This was the "mommy, something is wrong" cry. I knew something was wrong. I go in to her room and sure enough, she threw up all over the place. She was just sitting in the mess crying. I felt so bad for her. After chatting with Nurse Wendy last night I decided it must just be a stomach bug. I needed to keep an eye on her and make sure she was hydrated.

She continued to seem "off" for the rest of the day. She has been WAY crankier than normal. She has not thrown up since yesterday, but is still not feeling well. It took me 2 hours to get her to take a nap today. She just would not stop crying. She is miserable.

Then my mom called. She did not want to scare me, but wanted to remind me of the fall The Princess did on Wednesday at the Picture People. I was not with The Princess when she fell, so I did not know how bad it was. She apparently fell and hit her head pretty hard on the hard floor. My mom said she seemed stunned and only fussed for a minute. The Princess acted fine the rest of that day so we did not think any more about the fall, until today. We started to put the pieces together.

Hit head = possible concussion = throwing up = irritability = etc

I put in a call to Nurse Wendy to see what we should do. (Thank God for friends like her!) She said we should take her to the ER and get it checked out. So off we went!

They did the routine checks at the ER. Felt her head, listened to her heart/ lungs, looked in her throat/ears, blood pressure, pulse, weight, etc. The determined that it must just be a tummy bug.

Due to some bad experiences with ER docs leading up to The Superhero's dx, I have a hard time trusting the ER docs. I think he could tell that I did not fully trust what he was saying. He sent in another doc to confirm what he was telling me. I am REALLY trying to trust that this is just a tummy bug. It probably is.

BUT I am usually right when I have a gut feeling about something. Every time my kids have an ear infection, croup, rash, etc I have been right. It is hard for me to trust that they know what they are doing/saying.

So for now, we are at home. She is still cranky, not sleeping well, not eating well, and just miserable all around. I gave her some motrin in case she is any pain (I was thinking headache). I can't wait for this to pass.

Cough, Cough, Cry...

I am so sick of the kids being sick right now!

It all started the weekend before Thanksgiving. The Superhero and Rod both got sick. Cough, aches, runny noses, etc.

The Princess and I tried avoiding them at all costs. We left the house during the day and only returned for nap time and bed time.

It did not work! We both ended up getting sick ON Thanksgiving. Rod and The Superhero were getting better as The Princess and I were getting worse.

A few days later, we all seemed to get better. We were still coughing some. Still had runny noses sometimes. The usual lingering of the cold that happens.

Just one week later, The Superhero started coughing like CRAZY! I could not believe how congested he sounded. He continued with his cough for the whole week. We went to his dentist appointment, endo appointment, and his 3 year check up all in the same week.

While at the pedi’s office, The Princess was getting her follow up H1N1 shot. I meant to have the doc look in her ears because she had been pulling at them a little for the past couple of days and that is the one area that I cannot tell if something is wrong. Of course, I completely forgot to have her check. We had way too many other things going on at that moment.

Friday afternoon after the kids’ naps (same day as pedi appt.) BOTH kids woke up with fevers! The Superhero was in the 99’s and The Princess was around 101.5. He was still coughing the same as he had been all week, no better, no worse. The pedi did not really say anything about his cough at all, so I figured it must not be anything serious.

The Superhero continued feeling the same, coughing, but acting fine. The Princess on the other hand has been SO CRANKY! She fussed ALL day Saturday! She had a runny nose and the fever continued. We kept giving Tylenol and Motrin throughout the day. That night, she was insanely MISERABLE! She was up every couple of hours and I could not console her. No matter what I did, she would not stop screaming!

She was still very cranky when we woke up on Sunday and still had the fever. After posting on Facebook that I was thinking about taking her to Urgent Care, Wendy replied telling me she would take her in and that it sounded like an ear infection. I took Wendy’s advice and took her to the local pediatric urgent care when they opened at noon.

Sure enough, Wendy was right! Ear infection in her left ear. No wonder she has been so miserable! Even though I kept asking myself "Why did I not have the pedi look in her ears on Friday? I knew something was wrong.", I was happy to have an answer.

I got her Rx filled on the way home and started her meds that afternoon. She still was miserable all of Sunday and sounded horrible! She was becoming very hoarse and sounded like she was losing her voice. I started doing breathing treatments for her again on Sunday, hoping to help her breathing. (we were told she might have asthma back when we were told she had eczema). The treatments seem to be helping some. She is sleeping a little better.


The Superhero is still coughing A LOT! So now when either of them coughs, they cough a couple of times and then begin to cry because of the pain. It is the most pitiful thing ever!

The Princess had her second dose of the antibiotic today and I am hoping she feels and sounds even better tomorrow. We have TONS of fun stuff planned in the next couple of weeks and they both need to be better!


We are supposed to go to Zoo Lights on Friday with the Starlight Foundation.


We are supposed to go to the local support group Christmas Party on Saturday (Santa will be there!).


We are supposed to go to my Grandma’s for our yearly Sunday before Christmas family dessert.


We are supposed to go to play mini golf, go to dinner, and have cake for The Superhero’s birthday on Monday.


Not to mention Christmas coming before we know it.


They HAVE to be better!

Ketones and IV Fluids, Part 2...

It was 2:30am by the time they left. I tried to go back to sleep. I knew he was in good hands with his Daddy and Pompa, but I still felt SO guilty. His mommy should be there for him.


I kept texting with my dad to see how things were going, instead of sleeping. BG was going up and ketones were going up. The ER docs had no clue what to do with regards to the Diabetes.


They also did not have a blood ketone meter. I am SO thankful I sent ours with them. BG had gone up to 360 and ketones were 2.1. The ER docs did nothing for the BG. The Daddy bolused The Superhero for the BG to get him to come down. The nurses were very upset that he did this without telling them.


They did get and IV with fluids started. They took some blood to run some tests. They were testing to see how much, if any, acid was in his blood. This would determine if we would have to stay for 24 hours or if he could go home soon.


The blood came back and it was determined that he was already in mild DKA because he did in fact have acid in his blood. They would keep him for 24 hours.


I was anxiously waiting at home for The Princess to wake up so I could nurse her and then head to the hospital. I ended up waking her up to nurse her, since she actually decided to sleep longer than normal. I fed her and then my mom took over sitting here with her so I could go see my little man.



I got to the hospital and went into his room. He was lying in his bed with his Pompa (my dad) watching a movie. He looked at me and did not make a sound. All I saw were tears coming out of my poor little man’s eyes. (Just picturing him with the tears, is bringing tears to my eyes all over again!) I could tell he was happy to see me and sad for all they had to put him through already. He showed me his IV on his hand. I laid in bed with him for a while.


Over the next several hours, we had the endo on call and the pediatrician from the hospital come in to visit. I asked what we needed to do to get him home. They wanted him to be able to hold down food and get rid of the ketones. I verified that if he did this before 24 hours was up that we would be able to go home. They assured me that we could go home once those two things happened.



He ate breakfast and kept it down. Still had small ketones, so we continued watching movies to pass the time until they checked again.


He ate lunch and kept it down. Ketones were gone! Woo Hoo! We get to go home, or so we thought!



The endo was fine with us going home. The pediatrician at the hospital on the other hand was not. She wanted his BG to be back in range. He had been running higher all day. Any parent of a kid with Diabetes (or anyone with common sense) knows that little to no activity all day, fatty hospital foods, and the dreaded breakfast spike WILL cause BG to run higher. It did not matter what we did, though we were cautious of dosing amounts of insulin because he can be very sensitive. He was running high ALL day! No matter what we did. He was high.


Because of the higher BG’s, the pediatrician did not want us to bring him home until he was down into the 200’s again. She said she would think about it after he had dinner. I explained to the nurse (because she was the in between person, since the doc would not come talk to me herself) that if he eats dinner, he will be high from the hospital food, again, and we would be continuing the cycle.


After going back and forth for a couple of hours the endo on call convinced the pediatrician that we knew what we were doing and she agreed to send us home.


So, after all this, I have learned a few things…

1) If The Superhero has a fever and is appearing to come down with something, do NOT decrease his basals if he refuses to eat and BG is low.

2) Get him to eat ANYTHING to be able to give him insulin so ketones do not develop.

3) Get the prescription filled for the anti- nausea medicine.

4) Bring ketone meter to hospital, since they have no clue what one is. Urine ketones are not current/accurate.

5) Give your child insulin if his BG is above target in the hospital, despite the nurses freaking out.

6) Convince the pediatrician that YOU know more about Diabetes than she does.


And last but not least…

7) The Superhero thinks it is REALLY cool when Mommy catches his pee in a cup. :)



I REALLY hope we can avoid the hospital in the future, but am also pretty sure, this will be the first of many visits for The Superhero.

Ketones and IV Fluids, Part 1 (part 2 to come later this afternoon/evening)

Since I am in the process of catching up on some blogging, I decided it would be good to document our most recent trip to the ER/hospital for The Superhero.

On October 29, 2009 The Superhero woke up from his nap with a fever, 101.5 (or around there).

I assumed it was similar to the one The Princess had had a few days prior. She had the fever one afternoon and it was gone and she was back to normal by the next morning.

He was definitely acting sick. He spent the afternoon lying on the couch. He did eat his snack, but then refused to eat any dinner. His blood sugar was ok at that time, so we let him skip dinner.

He fell asleep on the couch around 6:00pm. We tested his BG and he was starting to drop, somewhere around 100 at that time. We did a temp basal decrease on his pump for a couple of hours to get his BG up to a more comfortable sleeping number.

Re-check a bit later and his BG was coming up some. We checked his ketones with the blood ketone meter and he had small ketones at that time. We figure this was due to the temp basal decrease and not eating dinner combo. He has barely had any insulin all afternoon/evening.

I went to bed and told my husband to check him in a bit and keep an eye on the ketones. Well, The Superhero woke up around 10:30 not feeling well. He stayed on the couch with Daddy for a bit. His blood sugar was at or below his range, so no insulin was given. Ketones were climbing up to the moderate-high range. My husband was not sure how high on the blood meter was too high, so he waited to wake me up.

Around 11:30pm I wake up to the sound of The Superhero throwing up all over the living room floor. I find out that his ketones were now in the large category and his BG was in range. He was not keeping anything down. We kept trying to get him to drink ANYTHING we could find. He was not interested.

We called the endo on call, just to make sure we were doing everything we could/ should do. At that time, we were. Pushing fluids. He even ate a cracker or two. She said if he threw up again to bring him into the ER for an IV. We REALLY wanted to attempt to get through this at home on our own.

We continued to push fluids. We checked his BG and ketone levels A LOT! He continued to have ketones in the Very LARGE category. (I think they got as high as 1.5 at home).

He started to doze off on the couch again. Around 2:00am or so, he woke up and said he did not feel good. Then he threw up again.

That was it; we knew we had to take him in for fluids. I called my dad to see if he could go with The Superhero and my husband since I am still nursing and The Princess would be up anytime to eat.

Off to the ER they went!

Croupy Princess, Curious Superhero, and Soapy Kids

Ok, this has been one crazy week and it is only Wednesday!

The Princess started doing a weird breathing thing on Friday of last week. We waited through the weekend and took her to the doctor on Monday. Turns out she has croup. She was put on steroids to help with her swollen throat so she could breathe better.She has been on the steroids since Monday afternoon and has 2 ½ more day to go. She is a little more fidgety and has a hard time sleeping. I am pretty sure she is a little dizzy from the meds since she wants me to hold her non-stop and keeps putting her head down on me, this is not normal for my busy and active baby.

We went for a follow up today and she appears to be getting better, but due to her eczema (also told about this on Monday at her appointment), she may need to have regular breathing treatments. Her oxygen level on both Monday and today was 96, not too far from normal, but they are keeping an eye on her. We go back on August 3rd for her 9 month well-check and they will determine then if she needs breathing treatments (she will be off the steroids then).

The Superhero. Oh, The Superhero. My curious little boy. He continues to “look” for trouble.

A little back story: The Superhero does not always come to find The Daddy and I when he wakes up in the morning. We installed a gate in the hallway of our old house and he was forced to come to our room first. In the new house the kids are on the opposite side of the house from us, so the gate does not do us a lot of good. We do not usually latch it at night because The Princess’ room is right next to it and he would wake her up should he come out of his room before morning.

Fast forward to this week on Monday…

On Monday morning I woke up and had a feeling The Superhero was out of bed. I looked on the monitor (yes, we have a video monitor), and sure enough he was up. The Daddy got up and found The Superhero in the kitchen. He was sitting there with his blankie and binkie, and the following: Parmesan cheese, mustard, chocolate syrup, and cotton rounds (used when we check his blood sugar). He sat there and smile for the camera as The Daddy took his picture.

The Daddy and I swore we would remember to lock the child lock on the fridge regularly. We had gotten out of the habit of doing this.

Last night was a ROUGH night in our house. The Princess had a hard time sleeping. I finally got her to “stay” asleep at about 10pm. She woke up at 1:30am to nurse. At 2:30 I woke up to The Superhero coming into my room. No biggie, The Daddy puts him back to bed. (I suspect he was up from the time The Princess was up at 1:30 until 2:30 when he came in our room)

3:30 am The Princess wakes up, again. I go in and rock her back to sleep. I go back to bed.

4:30 am I hear something in the living room. I tell The Daddy that I think The Superhero is up. He looks on the monitor, says no, it looks like he is in bed. I tell him that I am pretty sure The Superhero is up and he should check..

Sure enough, The Superhero was up. The Daddy found him and went back to bed.

I get up this morning and take my shower, come out and see that The Superhero is up with The Daddy (now 6:45am or so). I ask The Daddy about The Superhero being up at 4:30am. The Daddy had stayed in The Superhero’s room from that time on to when I woke him up so I could take a shower, he needed to watch The Princess.

He said I needed to see the kitchen. Oh great! I was not prepared to see the kitchen. I walk in and find a HUGE mess! He had the parmesan cheese ALL over in front of the sink on the rug, mixed with lotion (we did not know it was lotion for a few more minutes). There was also chocolate syrup out, though he did not open it.

We also found a toy bowl with parmesan cheese, parmesan cheese on the floor, and lotion on the toys and floor in the toy room/ office.

What a way to wake up.

Always looking for trouble…

This evening The Superhero climbed into the Pack N’ Play with The Princess despite me telling him that he was too big. He continues to do this on a regular basis. Tonight he did it again and I ignored him because I just needed a few minute break and The Princess loves having him in there with her.

I was doing a little work on the computer and noticed it was getting a little quiet in the other room.

Quiet is NEVER good in this house.

I go in to find The Superhero and The Princess COVERED in Dial foam soap that The Superhero found on the kitchen counter. He covered his sister and himself! I did not think fast enough to take pictures. I ran them both in to my bathroom and rinsed them off in the shower.

This boy is constantly looking for trouble! What will it be next?