Tuesday, November 4, 2008

How we spent the last 3 and a half days


It started Saturday evening with nearly 3 hours of unexplainable "High BG -- over 600" readings. We bolused, changed sets and insulin, bolused again, gave injection and, as a last resort, had Sain take a warm shower to get the insulin going.

I almost went to Children's at that point but the numbers finally started to go down.

Sunday the pain began. Sain rarely complains about physical pain -- if anything she's a bit too stoic but I was startled Sunday morning to hear her scream in pain from the bathroom.

(I will skip ahead to Sunday afternoon)

After a number of hours of pain and high blood sugar I took Sain into Children's ER. It seemed pretty clear cut, probably a urinary tract infection. All tests came back fine -- no infection, no acidosis, all labs were fine. The doctors were actually amazed at how healthy Sain is. After 4 hours of tests she was given an IV because of the dehydration from the highs and we were sent home and told to come back if the pain continued or got worse.

Monday it got worse. I decided to try Urgent Care from the local hospital (a 2 mile drive versus a 20 mile drive) and was pretty much told I was a hypocondriac mom whose child had uncontrolled diabetes. (Side note on that, Sain hasn't wanted to eat of late so when she wanted a maple bar I got her one. She ate it about 45 mintues before we went to urgent care so her BG was high and there was sugar in her urine sample.) All the Urgent Care doctor would focus on was the high BG and he treated me like I was an idiot who didn't know how to care for my daughter. I swear he only spent 5 minutes with us.
We spent Monday night alternating between advil and tylenol for the pain and doing many, many extra boluses to lower BG. Also, Aidan got sick on Monday night. :(

This morning I went to work for an hour to get some urgent things done and then took Sain back to Children's. They retested her and found a very aggressive urinary tract infection that didn't show up on Sunday's test. She was in severe pain most the afternoon but seems to be responding to the very strong antibiotic they prescribed. (She and Aidan are doing karate in the living room right now.)

Hopefully the BGs will come down soon - -she's 342 now and, sadly, that is a good number for today! (but no ketones!!)
AND HAPPY 41ST ANNIVERSARY MOM AND DAD!

3 comments:

PancreasMom said...

You are a great mom, don't ever doubt that, your persistance and their ignorance is what makes you a better mom (and doctor) than any one you encountered in your few days of uncertainty... never doubt mama's intuition... even down to the maple bar... Trust yourself, trust your daughter... and know, as Sain does, that everything you do is out of love, and concern for her (and your son). Thoughts out to you all...and a speedy recovery to Sain.

Unknown said...

Angie,

pancreasmom is right: You are an amazing mom. I am mad that any doctor would treat you so poorly or doubt your knowledge. (I'm also surprised Sain didn't say something to the rude doctor.)

I am sending much love to you and Sain and Aidan. I can only imagine the ups and downs and worry that you went through the past several days.

Much love and prayers to you all. GET WELL, SAIN!

Sherry said...

I echo the sentiments of the previous two posts. Unfortunately, some doctors lack sensitivity. There is sometimes an arrogance about them that causes them to lose the caring that is such an important part of their delivery of "care".
Hugs to you and your daughter.