On Easter, Ty was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. It isn't a day that I will be forgetting anytime soon, but I'm sure in years to come, the details will fade. The days leading up to this day were filled with a lot of frustration and worry. I had noticed several changes in Ty, but until he was diagnosed, the changes didn't make sense. A few weeks before, he had started wetting the bed. This just happened to coincide with the spring "time change", so I attributed it to him being off his sleeping schedule. He also started waking up in the night with leg pains. When he started losing weight, I only thought that he was just getting taller. The biggest change though, was in the amount he was drinking. It started so gradual and increased over the period of a couple weeks. I remember talking about how much he was drinking at dinner one Sunday and Debbie mentioning that drinking a lot was a sign of diabetes. I thought about it here and there, but kept coming the conclusion that it couldn't be diabetes.
The two weeks before Easter just happened to be busier than normal. We are usually home and stay on a fairly consistent routine. But I had gone to Salt Lake 4 times to get some procedures done on my legs. We went to my mom's for general conference and we went camping the 3 days before Easter. It was while we were camping that the frustrations I felt started to turn to worry. Ty just wasn't himself. Not only was he drinking and peeing a lot, but he just wanted to stay in the trailer. He was tired. He didn't have a lot energy. I knew he didn't feel well, but didn't know why. I worried a lot about it that weekend. I thought of several things it could be, including diabetes, but I think I was hoping it wasn't that.
We got home from camping on Saturday night. The next day was Easter and we got up and went to church. Ty fell asleep on Debbie's lap during church. Since we knew he didn't feel well, Joel took him home after sacrament meeting. I went to primary. At this point, I knew that I needed to take him to the doctor. I planned on taking him to the clinic on Monday. When I got home from church, I had about an hour before I need to start making rolls for Easter dinner. I sat down on the couch next to Joel, who was holding Ty. The worry that I had been feeling overcame me. I had thought of everything it could be, but I just didn't know. As I sat and looked at Ty, the thought came so clear that we couldn't wait until tomorrow to take him to the doctor. We needed to act now. Joel had mentioned that one way that we could see if it was diabetes, was to use his dad's meter to test his blood. Jared has Type 2 diabetes. So we drove over to Jared and Debbie's. When we tested his blood, it was around 570. That number meant nothing to me at that point, but Jared and Debbie knew that it was very high. I called my friend Lindsay who I knew was on call at the hospital. She met us at the ER. At this point I knew he had diabetes, but I didn't even know what to think about it. I cried, because I knew it wasn't good. They sent us to Beaver because they are better prepared to treat him, but when we arrived the doctor there decided that the best place for him was Primary Children's. They order a life-flight plane to transport us. Ty was in moderate DKA (Diabetic Ketoacidosis) which needs to be treated carefully so that brain swelling and other complications don't occur.
I went on the life-flight plane with Ty and Joel drove up from Milford. We arrived at Primary Children's and eventually got settled in our room about midnight. Micah was at Camp Williams and got permission to come up and see Ty. Becca also came up and stayed with us until Joel got there. Ty just kept asking them for chocolate pancakes and gatorade. It didn't matter who he asked, nobody could grant his request. It broke my heart. He couldn't eat or drink until they had everything under control. After Joel arrived, we tried to get settled for the night. We were exhausted. They had prepared us that it was going to be a long night. Joel slept on the couch and I crawled in next to Ty on the hospital bed. The nurses had to come in EVERY HOUR to draw blood. By this point he had been poked SO MANY times. Each time the nurse came in he would start to cry and we would have to hold him tight to so they could draw the blood. He was exhausted.
I don't think I have ever experienced so many emotions in a 24 hour period. I cried most of the night as the nurses came in and out every hour. It was hard to fall back asleep between each of the blood draws. I felt sad (knowing he was going to live with this for the rest of this life), I felt fear and anxiety (I was scared that I lacked the ability to take care of him well enough), I felt worry (I worried and thought about all the weaknesses I have when it comes to being forgetful and unorganized and how those weaknesses would effect how well I would be able to take care of him.) I felt guilt and anger (I was really mad at myself for not taking him to the doctor sooner. There were so many signs and I just couldn't believe I was so stupid.) I felt grateful (grateful that we were in the hospital surrounded by knowledgeable, caring people who were taking such good care of Ty). Grateful mostly that Ty was going to be okay. I reflected on the fact that it was Easter. I hadn't had a lot of time to think about the meaning and importance of the day. But as I layed there in the hospital bed, the thought occurred to me that the gift of the resurrection from our Savior will mean that one day Ty's body will be whole again. The challenges and frustration his body will give him in this life will be gone.
By the next morning he was doing better. He was finally able to eat and we could finally order those dang pancakes that he had endlessly been asking for. They weren't chocolate pancakes, but they were pancakes. He was thrilled...and I was thrilled to see that smile on his face! By that afternoon he was doing a lot better and they were able to take the IV out.
Then the education began. I can't even express how grateful I was for this part. They sent diabetes educators, dieticians, social workers, a child therapist (not sure if that's the exact name)...but there was a lot of information. I soaked in just about all that my brain could hold.
Ty had a few visitors while he was there. He was so happy to see his Grandma & Grandpa Cook and some of his aunts, uncles and cousins! He was back to his "old" self. I was amazed at how many things had changed with his personality. Over the past few months, he had slowly become a different kid. Joel had mentioned about a week before he was diagnosed that he wasn't the happy, carefree kid that he had always been. At that point, I couldn't really see it, it seemed like he had been whiny, tired and irritable for a long time. He also got so that he wasn't processing things very fast and was slow to respond when you would ask him things. Joel and I had joked a few times that he was sure cute, but he might not be the sharpest. I feel terrible about that now. Needless to say, it made me so happy to see his personality come back to life. I missed him.
When we left the hospital my heart was full of gratitude. The outpouring of love and concern from family and friends calling and texting to find out how we were doing and if there was anything we needed meant so much. We knew that we were loved. Our last stop before leaving the hospital was at the inpatient pharmacy to pick up Ty's medicine and supplies. Ty and Joel had gone to car and I went by myself. As I walked down the long hallway to get to the pharmacy, my emotions were really close to the surface. I was feeling so grateful that I was taking home a happy, healthy kid. I was feeling thankful that we had so much love and support from family and friends. I finally reached the counter to pick up the prescriptions and the lady at the counter grabbed several sacks that would cover Ty's needs for one month and placed them on the counter. She rang up my total. $534 (We have awesome insurance..not). My heart sank. I reached in my purse to get my wallet and as I went to hand her my card, she asked me to wait a minute. She went back and talked to the pharmacist. When she came back, she explained that they were going to do a one-time voucher that would cover the cost of the prescriptions. My heart and throat just burned from trying to hold back the tears. But I was able get out a "thank you". As I walked to long hallway back to the entrance, the tears flowed. I couldn't help it.
It took several days to get used to all the changes. For a few weeks, I would wake up in the morning and my mind would all of the sudden be flooded with this new reality of Ty having diabetes. It would literally make my heart sink. But now, it's just normal. One of the greatest blessings has been how well Ty has adjusted to everything. He really has been amazing. I love him so much!
Spencer & Jack stayed with Grandma & Grandpa Slade while we were at PCMC. We love living close to them! They help us so much and I wasn't worried even for a second about either one of them..they were in good hands. Grandma went right out and bought sugar-free popcicles. Can you tell they love her? They are all trying to sit on her lap:)
No comments:
Post a Comment