I've been struggling with how to do this, because I wanted to tell it as a chronological story -- but blogger doesn't easily work the way I want it to, namely, putting the newest post at the bottom instead of the top. For the first three posts, I tricked it into doing it that way, but I can't decide if it is worth it. Plus, every now and then a little story pops into my head and I want to blog it, but it isn't in order of the story that I am trying to tell, so I don't let myself do it. But the whole point for me of doing this at all is to put all my feelings down -- as I'm having them, not when I catch up to it in my storyline.
And now the baby is crying furiously, and I haven't even had time to type anything of substance yet. Which is why I can't get the story part down quick enough to catch up with the things that I am feeling right now!!
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Monday, May 19, 2008
The Beginning
My son wants to know what I mean by silver linings, so I'll start there. He'd never heard the saying before; my definition to him was "the good thing inside the bad." And that's what I mean -- inside of the bad stuff going on, there's always the good. The bad stuff is what I find the need to write about, but I have to remember that the good stuff is there too, or I'll go crazy!
Thirst
So, my diabetes story starts with thirst. Incredible thirst. My sweet little two year old daughter so thirsty that she would drink anything, anytime, anywhere; and peeing through 5-7 diapers a day, and waking soaked in urine every morning; and me knowing, knowing that this was really wrong, but not able to make myself do anything about it because I was 8 months pregnant and in the middle of a move. A my-husband-has-already-moved-and-I'm-showing-the-house-and-finding-a-new-OB-in Texas-and-mourning-the-move-away-from-friends-and-trying-to-wrap-things-up-in-Tennessee-and-I-feel-so-stressed move. I guess I was kind of wrapped up in me . . . for weeks I was terrified that my baby would be born while I was in TN and hubby was in TX. Then it got close enough to the move that I was terrified the baby would be born in the 10 hour drive down to TX. (Can you say "rural Mississippi"?) And anyway, all she was doing was drinking and peeing. We all drink and pee, right? So how bad could it be, right? But it was pretty bad. She was also, un-noticed by any of us, losing 10% of her body weight. Okay, so I did think she looked thinner, but I thought she'd just grown taller. And her eyes looked so big on her face, but why would I think that they looked so big because she had lost her sweet little baby cheeks? yeah, so I'm almost crying remembering how stupid I was not to know. How does a mother not know?
So, it began with thirst. An insatiable thirst, while her body slowly ate itself because it couldn't process her foods. And the silver lining is that even though I ignored that mom's-gut feeling for at least three weeks, we drove her in our car to Texas Children's Hospital, and she wasn't rushed there in an ambulance.
So, it began with thirst. An insatiable thirst, while her body slowly ate itself because it couldn't process her foods. And the silver lining is that even though I ignored that mom's-gut feeling for at least three weeks, we drove her in our car to Texas Children's Hospital, and she wasn't rushed there in an ambulance.
Diagnosis
But in the end, I think that it was best that she was diagnosed in Texas. Because we live an hour and a half from Texas Childrens Hospital, and her care there has been phenominal. And we didn't have to worry about transferrring her care from TN to TX. And our baby was born first, so I wasn't having the baby at the same time as the 2 year old was being diagnosed. Although this was only separated by two days!
So here is the story.
On March 5 at 12:45 am, my precious baby girl was born. That was a Wednesday. Thursday afternoon, we were discharged, but were told that we needed to take baby in to the pediatrician's office for a weight and bili check the next day. During that very routine check (everything fine with the baby), we mentioned, oh by the way, we need to make an appointment for our two year old, who is very thirsty and peeing all the time. RED FLAG. They wanted to see her and do some tests that day. And they found such high levels of sugar in her unrine that there was no way it really could be anything but diabetes.
So the doctor is telling us that she most likely has diabetes, and that we need to get in our car and drive to TCH, and do we have any questions, and we are looking at him like deer caught in the headlights. So he talks some more, trying to tell us what the hospital stay will entail, and that we should pack for a few days, and we still stare. Finally, my husband says, "you mean, we have to go tonight?"
That evening we pack all 6 kids (yikes, still not completely used to that 6 kids thing) into the car and drive to Houston. Luckily (that silver lining thing again . . . see?) we used to live in Friendswood, so we drop the four oldest off with two wonderful families who immediately said not just "yes, bring them over tonight," but "thank you for thinking of us" and "what else can we do to help?" And then Mom (that's me), Dad, brand-spanking-new-baby, and sicker-than-we-ever-guessed two year old head off to the TCH ER to begin our adventure.
So here is the story.
On March 5 at 12:45 am, my precious baby girl was born. That was a Wednesday. Thursday afternoon, we were discharged, but were told that we needed to take baby in to the pediatrician's office for a weight and bili check the next day. During that very routine check (everything fine with the baby), we mentioned, oh by the way, we need to make an appointment for our two year old, who is very thirsty and peeing all the time. RED FLAG. They wanted to see her and do some tests that day. And they found such high levels of sugar in her unrine that there was no way it really could be anything but diabetes.
So the doctor is telling us that she most likely has diabetes, and that we need to get in our car and drive to TCH, and do we have any questions, and we are looking at him like deer caught in the headlights. So he talks some more, trying to tell us what the hospital stay will entail, and that we should pack for a few days, and we still stare. Finally, my husband says, "you mean, we have to go tonight?"
That evening we pack all 6 kids (yikes, still not completely used to that 6 kids thing) into the car and drive to Houston. Luckily (that silver lining thing again . . . see?) we used to live in Friendswood, so we drop the four oldest off with two wonderful families who immediately said not just "yes, bring them over tonight," but "thank you for thinking of us" and "what else can we do to help?" And then Mom (that's me), Dad, brand-spanking-new-baby, and sicker-than-we-ever-guessed two year old head off to the TCH ER to begin our adventure.
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