Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Wednesday Wednesday Wednesday!

Oh brother! Emily's blood sugars started plummeting around 3am. All morning, her sugar was reading between 30 and 40. The low limit for "keto kids", as she is now called, is 45. So she got treated with syringes of apple juice every 30 minutes until the sugar reached 50.

The keto nurse and dietician conferred with her doctors from neuro and endocrine all day, and they agreed that rather than give her a dextrose IV, they would continue to give her apple juice "shots" as needed, while adding more carb via more apple juice to her formula mix. Since apple juice is mostly water, it only adds few grams of carbs; enough to keep her blood sugar up, but still keep her on the diet.

We had a surprise class/meeting with the social worker, I missed lunch, and then had to get to class #2 - Sick Days. With such a regimented diet, keto kids have to be very careful of medicines they might get if they get sick. All medicines will have to be given in tablet or caplet form - even Tylenol. Those Tylenol concentrated infant drops have carbs and that's a no-no. And even some tablets and caplets have carbs, so we might have to add fats when giving meds to counter balance. Steroids are totally out.

Interestingly, lots of other things have to be counted as well. Tom's of Maine toothpaste and Oral B are ok, other brands have too many carbs! Shampoo and lotions are ok. Oral swabs are not. Chapstick is ok, kiddie lipstick is not.

Anyway, finally around 5pm, Emily's blood sugar reached 62! Yay! And I did eventually get lunch. (Cafeteria had lobster bisque today - mmmmmmmmmmmmm) We're hoping for the best for tonight and the rest of our stay. If we can't get her sugars regulated, we'll probably have to stay here until we do. :( Or, we might have to give up the diet all together. None of the doctors or nurses have even mentioned giving up, so I'm trying to stay positive!

On the homefront, Gee-off and Grandmom have been holding down the fort at the house and I'm missing everyone pretty badly. Luckily the hospital had an extra cell phone charger for me to borrow since I left mine at home! I just talked to Drew, Carter, and Brenna, and it was nice to hear them; even though Carter was crying, Drew was whining about bedtime, and Brenna was doing something she wasn't supposed to on the couch! :) Daddy had it under control though.

Thanks for all the comments, positive thoughts, and prayers for us!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Here's hoping the blood sugar thing is just a minor speed bump and that all turns out well. You know Em, she never does things the easy way...
The kids have been good as gold. It's been great fun to spend the week with them. Every day is a new adventure. They have been good a gold. No worries. Talk to you soon.
We miss you both.
Love, Grandmom G.

~RAGS~ said...

Stay strong Aimee, you are always in my prayers!!

Anonymous said...

Aimee and Emily hang in there! it sounds like the blood sugars are doing better now. Thank God!!

Lots of love and prayers are being sent your way!

Love, Mom and Dad xoxo