Where to begin...
Well, last Monday night, after martial arts class, Goose sounded terrible.
I could hear her wheezing without putting my ear to her chest.
So off to the ER we went.
Which we are lucky enough to live down the street from.
A Children's Hospital even!
So, after immediately hooking her up to albuterol, they take an x-ray.
She has never had asthma.
The pictures show a bacterial pneumonia!
Well, she isn't responding to the albuterol at all so
we are admitted to the hospital for the night.
At 2am we are transported, by ambulance(Goose thought this was cool), to the hospital's
satellite where they treat respiratory illnesses.
Thank goodness it is only a five minute drive!
Here's a history of what's been going on with Goose in the last several weeks.
She has had stomach trouble, headaches, and she has had some serious frequent urination.
Her doctor, who we visited twice in the last three weeks, said it was all stress.
So back to the hospital, they did a urine sample and the glucose levels were very high.
So they did a blood glucose test which came back very high.
So they did another blood test, a1c, it's called, which gives an average of her blood glucose levels for the past 2-3 months. It came back showing that Goose was type 1 diabetic.
Well this was not what I was expecting, as you can imagine!
After Goose's breathing was under control we were taken back to the main hospital to meet
with the endocrinologists and prepare for taking home a diabetic child.
This meant two days of education, checking blood glucose levels ourselves and lots of questions!
Goose was scared! But when she learned how to test herself and got her own insulin pen, she felt a lot better. Now it looked like Goose was still in the early stages of type 1. Which meant that her glucose levels were good again and that the pneumonia had caused her pancreas to work overtime which is why her glucose levels were so high. Basically, that her immune system hadn't killed all of the insulin-producing cells quite yet. Which is what happens with type 1. You get sick, like a cold, the flu, or pneumonia, and your antibodies start killing all the "germs" in your body, like they are supposed to.
But, then they begin killing the islets that produce insulin and once they start, they never stop.
Eventually your pancreas loses the battle and completely stops making insulin.
So we were in the "honeymoon" phase of this disease.
There were still enough cells left for her to get by, for now.
We were the classic case as far as how it is usually diagnosed, the right age, the right symptoms and glucose levels.
Well, Thursday night another a1c blood test was done, which they always do before you leave the hospital.
The results were very odd!
They came back in the normal range.
Now, for a blood test that measures your average glucose levels for the past 2- 3 months, it isn't really possible to have such a discrepancy. And it was a huge discrepancy!
The endocrinologist was shocked. She fully expected it to be where it was the first time.
So they didn't know what to say, and Friday morning we were sent home.
The conclusion we came to was that one of those tests was done incorrectly.
And now we have to wait for the last blood tests to come back from Colorado
to give us the true diagnosis. What those are looking for are 4 auto antibodies that would be present, and attacking her islets cells, if she is indeed positive for type 1 diabetes.
And these results could be two weeks away!!!!!!!!!!
I am already going crazy waiting.
And my poor Goose! She is scared, exhausted, not feeling well, and terrified that the results will be positive!
She doesn't want to be alone, not even for a minute.
I've had to sleep in her bed since we've been home.
I can only imagine what is going on in her head. She is worried that her friends will treat her differently if she does have it. She is worried she might get really sick. And I don't have an answer for her!
There is so much to do at home, but I think what the kids and I need is to escape for a little while.
I am thinking maybe the zoo today.
The weather is great and we deserve some fun!!
