This week has stunk like no other
Okay, it started fine, it wasn't bad, it was just... just a week. Busy, because the two still in school had rehearsals for the concerts at the end of the week, and my oldest (M) was not feeling well. she couldn't catch her breath, called in sick on Tuesday from work.
Wednesday, she got up and was feeling bad enough - hard to breathe combined with pains in her left side (I panicked thinking crap, she's got appendicitis, and dh was like crap, she's got kidney stones or something) - that we got her an appointment at the doctor.
We didn't get to the doctor. Her appointment was in an hour when we were like whelp, not waiting, and took her into the emergency room.
Yay for St. Anthony's, so much closer than the hospital we usually take her to, and they took her back, figured out what was wrong, and got her into ICU. M is type 1 diabetic, and she had slept through the alarm that let her know her pump was out of insulin. She was without it for 10-12 hours - WAY too long. So, welcome to the 2021 version of M is in the hospital for DKA (diabetic Keto-acidosis). Which... well, we figured out she's been in the hospital for that on average once a year since she was diagnosed. But never has she been like this, unable to catch her breath (Her respiratory rate was like... 40 breaths a minutes, heartbeat up to like 140 beats), and in pain.
So, they explained, she had too much CO2, and that's why she's breathing so hard - like she'd just come from sea level and run a race at a mile high. So, ICU on Wednesday night. And Thursday night, when they got her blood sugar down - and her potassium dropped. I actually got to go to my other children's concert (they did so good!), and then back to the hospital. Friday became some sort of balancing act (or an attempt to find balance!), trying to keep the potassium up and the blood sugar down. She got her pump started. EARLY Saturday morning, we finally got her CGM sensor to work (that's another thing all together, I was ready to break something if I had to put in a fourth one. So she's off the insulin drip, her CGM is working. And they keep putting her on the potassium drip, and then taking her off.
Friday, I went to the concert again - not quite the same one, but with many similar elements - and sobbed all over dh as soon as I saw him. In the high school cafeteria. Just totally lost it.
Yesterday, still fighting to get the potassium thing down. I went home and took a shower, went to a friend's house for dinner and some light conversation (and more ugly sobbing), and came back to find they stopped trying to do the IV drips and had started giving her horse pills (their description, not mine; They're still smaller than my multi-vitamin) for the potassium thing.
Yes. It's Sunday morning. We are STILL in the ICU. She's SO much better than she was, like she doesn't need help just sitting up or getting off the bed. But this whole body ph is such a MESS, and it's so delicate they have to get the numbers right. So, at the moment, there is no light at the end of the tunnel.
I know i don't post much on here, but I wanted to let you know what is going on in my life, and try to work out the sheer... screwed up-ness of this whole thing. Maybe, if we're lucky, we'll be able to get out of ICU, and if we're really lucky, they'll just send us home.
ETA: Not 1.5 hours after I posted this. they came in to tell us she could go home - and after THE fastest ever discharge, I picked her up in front of the hospital almost exactly 2 hours after. So we're home, and she's showering (feels gross, as I suspect you can guess). What a relief.
Wednesday, she got up and was feeling bad enough - hard to breathe combined with pains in her left side (I panicked thinking crap, she's got appendicitis, and dh was like crap, she's got kidney stones or something) - that we got her an appointment at the doctor.
We didn't get to the doctor. Her appointment was in an hour when we were like whelp, not waiting, and took her into the emergency room.
Yay for St. Anthony's, so much closer than the hospital we usually take her to, and they took her back, figured out what was wrong, and got her into ICU. M is type 1 diabetic, and she had slept through the alarm that let her know her pump was out of insulin. She was without it for 10-12 hours - WAY too long. So, welcome to the 2021 version of M is in the hospital for DKA (diabetic Keto-acidosis). Which... well, we figured out she's been in the hospital for that on average once a year since she was diagnosed. But never has she been like this, unable to catch her breath (Her respiratory rate was like... 40 breaths a minutes, heartbeat up to like 140 beats), and in pain.
So, they explained, she had too much CO2, and that's why she's breathing so hard - like she'd just come from sea level and run a race at a mile high. So, ICU on Wednesday night. And Thursday night, when they got her blood sugar down - and her potassium dropped. I actually got to go to my other children's concert (they did so good!), and then back to the hospital. Friday became some sort of balancing act (or an attempt to find balance!), trying to keep the potassium up and the blood sugar down. She got her pump started. EARLY Saturday morning, we finally got her CGM sensor to work (that's another thing all together, I was ready to break something if I had to put in a fourth one. So she's off the insulin drip, her CGM is working. And they keep putting her on the potassium drip, and then taking her off.
Friday, I went to the concert again - not quite the same one, but with many similar elements - and sobbed all over dh as soon as I saw him. In the high school cafeteria. Just totally lost it.
Yesterday, still fighting to get the potassium thing down. I went home and took a shower, went to a friend's house for dinner and some light conversation (and more ugly sobbing), and came back to find they stopped trying to do the IV drips and had started giving her horse pills (their description, not mine; They're still smaller than my multi-vitamin) for the potassium thing.
Yes. It's Sunday morning. We are STILL in the ICU. She's SO much better than she was, like she doesn't need help just sitting up or getting off the bed. But this whole body ph is such a MESS, and it's so delicate they have to get the numbers right. So, at the moment, there is no light at the end of the tunnel.
I know i don't post much on here, but I wanted to let you know what is going on in my life, and try to work out the sheer... screwed up-ness of this whole thing. Maybe, if we're lucky, we'll be able to get out of ICU, and if we're really lucky, they'll just send us home.
ETA: Not 1.5 hours after I posted this. they came in to tell us she could go home - and after THE fastest ever discharge, I picked her up in front of the hospital almost exactly 2 hours after. So we're home, and she's showering (feels gross, as I suspect you can guess). What a relief.