We’re off to the Children’s Hospital

It has been quite the “Friday the 13th” for our household. As I sit in the emergency room with HD hooked up to an IV and Ms. Gail playing quietly nearby, I thought I’d take a moment to type out what’s been going on here.

As I mentioned in my previous post, we had friends come to visit us over spring break. I was surprised when HD slept in until 8:30 in the morning on the morning they were set to leave. I believe I may have even whispered, “Praise the Lord!” because this kid is usually up at 7:00a on the dot so I welcome the extra quiet time in the mornings when I get it. He knew we were going to go swimming in the morning, so it was unlike him to over-sleep when fun is to be had! However, by Sunday morning he was sleeping in until 9:30am. He didn’t seen quite like himself but Perry and I figured he was going through a growth spurt and just needed extra rest.

A couple nights later Perry and I were discussing him after the kids went to bed. He’s always been a small, skinny kid, but Perry thought he was looking extra thin lately. I hadn’t noticed because I hadn’t seen him without his shirt off in quite a while. He also prefers to snuggle with his aunt instead of his mom...because of that, I welcomed him to sleep with me when he woke me up late Monday night. I knew he had gone to the bathroom before he went to bed so I found it a little off for him to go pee again (a lot a lot) before crawling into bed with me. He woke up in the early morning to go again and then once more when he woke up in the morning.

 I had been in contact with his teacher, checking in on how he was doing academically so while I was at it, I asked him how he had been at school the past couple days. He also noticed HD seemed a little out of it. With his exhaustion increasing, I made an appointment with his doctor on Friday to be seen. The appointment couldn’t come soon enough. He took a two hour nap that afternoon and then still went to bed at his usual time. He wasn’t eating and was just overall moody. The day before he bawled at Costco when we didn’t buy more protein bars. Tears running down his face. It was horrible.

I had a good idea of what could possibly be going on with him by Wednesday night, thanks to Google. I searched for fatigue, excessive thirst (he has a water bottle from his aunt he had been drinking out of, but I had initially thought it was just because it was hers and he felt “cool” using his aunt’s things), excessive urination, moodiness... it all pointed me in one direction.

By the time his appointment came around this morning, he was hardly eating anything and was very fatigued. I was going to send him to school and then scoop him up later in the morning but I knew he wasn’t up for it when it came time to wake up that morning. I had let him sleep in the living room curled up in my chair, and he was not bothered in the least by people moving around. I managed to get him to eat *some* oatmeal before we left, but he wasn’t feeling it.

I was fortunate to have Robin come along with Ms. Gail, HD, and me to the doctor this morning. When listing out the symptoms, you could tell his nurse practitioner already knew what was up before we ran a few tests. Robin was good at helping me explain the changes we’ve seen. She’s been such a great resource to have this past eight months. Before we headed to Portland, it was confirmed with his blood sugar reading of 440 (normal is between 70-120 before eating) it was very likely he has Type 1 Diabetes but would need to be confirmed by the endocrinologist at the Children’s Hospital. Without my previous research, I would have been shocked to hear it, but I kept it together pretty well.

I’m feeling terrible about his weight loss though. Last fall when I was making weighted blankets, he hopped on the scale and clocked in at about 51 lbs. At the doctor today he weighed a measly 43 lbs. He did not have any weight to lose! Without his shirt on, you can see each one of his ribs. When looking at his legs, his knees are like balls in the middle of a rod. His wrists are incredibly small. I just wish I would have noticed sooner. Yes it’s the winter and he wears long sleeves and pants and sweaters but still. I’m trying to not be so hard on myself.

Right now the hardest part is seeing him so out of it. He’s not my bubbly little boy who has the tendency to drive me nuts on occasion. I want my prankster back. As much as I’m enjoying his willingness to let me snuggle with him, this is not the child I know. As his mom, it’s incredibly hard to see him in such a long state of fatigue, crankiness, and just  looking overly weak and pale. We’ve got a bit of a hospital stay ahead of us, but we’ll be leaving with a bunch of resources and so much new knowledge to retain.