Joined another club

   Without using a stainless steel cannula it was presumed inevitable.  No time was wasted in getting to it.

   We've been chasing highs for the last 36 hours (high teens - low 20s, 320-414).  Yesterday Jonathan seemed to have a slight fever (warmer than usual forehead) at lunch but was otherwise himself and wanted to stay at school, but when he got home his temperature was normal, as well as this morning.  The working theory yesterday was a bug.  Bobbie is still fighting something off and I just got rid of a sore throat and cough myself.

   This morning I got a call from Latchkey - BG: 28 (504).  He was completely non-symptomatic and very much himself.  I had them bolus and still give him his snack and headed over to get him.

   His next set change was supposed to be tomorrow evening.  Since there was no fever today and his numbers were still high we decided it could be a site issue.... Sure enough...

   A new set is in and he's going to test hourly for the rest of the day.  The remarkable thing is he was almost completely asymptomatic.  I now have another mindset change from MDI and another lesson learned.

A Bump in the Road

   I was originally going to write today about my own personal (albeit brief) experience with the pump, and I still will, but a strange thing happened on the way to the blog.

   First off, Jonathan is loving the pump (aside from set changes).  He loves the fact that he can have a meal and not see a needle.  And although the novelty will surely wear off at some point, he thinks his new pump is the bomb.  He's so far, knock on wood, been really good about not playing with it as well as reminding any of it's users to lock the keypad before putting it away.  Sleeping with it has not seemed to be an issue so far with one previously unforeseen problem.

   When Jonathan's numbers are high, we are pretty much assured a wet pull-up, and sometimes a "breech of containment".  This happened Wednesday night (wee hours of Thursday morning).  It's happened before and was not a shock at the time.  We did have to deal with a wet pump case, but it washed nicely in the sink and was dry by morning*.

   We changed the set yesterday, just before dinner, and with a few tears and a couple yells, it was over rather quickly**.  We all ate, I went to a JDRF meeting, Bobbie stayed home and watched carefully as his numbers dipped as low as 4.2 (76), but come back up on their own to be about 8 (144) in a straight line through the night.  I was ecstatic, what great numbers, thank you pump.  We tested him at 7am for breakfast and got a 4.1, but it was just as he was about to eat and the pump would reduce.  When I lifted hi pajama top to get the pump for the bolus, I saw the previous site we removed last night (it's a little hard to tell from the puctures, but it looks like he's going to give birth to a golf ball).

   Luckily, we already had a doctors appointment for Alexandra this morning so the doctor saw them both at the same time.  Definitely infected - pain, swollen, slight fever - antibiotics.

   Jonathan was quite upset this morning when he had to sit at the table and eat breakfast, in hindsight the night belt was probably putting pressure on it (dumb daddy), but he insisted on going to school and I allowed it since I was already planning on being there every couple hours again today to finish off the first week of pump.

   Hopefully the antibiotics kick in quick and this passes.

   A couple of things that came to mind as I was writing this post:

* - If it wasn't the urine, I have to wonder if it was the belt itself over the old site all night.  The body side of the belt is the soft loop side of "velcro", so now I can't help but wonder of some loose fibers worked their way in as the belt rubbed against him last night.

** - I didn't dress the wound from the site (I did wipe it with an alcohol wipe and put pollysporin on it).  This was his third set that had been inserted and the previous two only left a mosquito-bite like mark that faded after a couple of days.  This was however the first one that had insulin going through it.  I doubt that could he the issue (it better not be).  Regardless, I think I will be having to invest in some button bandages just to be on the safe side.


   I was psyching myself up the whole time for a kinked cannula, set pulled out, even the dreaded A33 (aka "a word I don't ever want to use in this blog" code), but this came straight out of left field.

   Despite the discomfort and the freaky looking bump, Jonathan still says he wants to keep his pump and not go back to shots.  Barring issue, his next set change is Sunday evening and he coincidentally has a follow up appointment for this issue Monday morning at 9am, so, God forbid, the next former site pulls this s#!t, he already has an in with the Doc.

The worst day of my life since the worst day of my life

Update: May 26th, 17:45ish: Well, I guess it's been quite obvious what my mind has been on the last 4 days.  I intend for this to be my last update to this post; close out the file as it were.  We finally got pictures of the car today.  There is no doubt about it, that truck was pointed directly in Jonathan's path.  I am thankful beyond words for how minor his injuries were compared to "what could have been".  When I started this blog and said that there is surely more to come, I had no idea what was coming, but I thank God for watching over Jonathan and his mother and sister and I thank all of you for your kindness and support!

Update: May 25th 17:45ish:  I know that re-posting the same post with updates may seem somewhat unorthodox, but I've got two good reasons: 1)  I wanted to keep the whole thing together, and 2) It's my blog, lol.

Jonathan had his bandages removed today (what looks like a 5" stair-case shaped cut is actually 14 individual lacerations from the glass).  As a result of a bit of a scare this morning we were back at the ER.  During breakfast, Jonathan announced that he was "seeing sparklies".  This passed quickly but shortly thereafter he was fidgeting with the bridge of his nose, closing his eyes, and saying "something's happening".  So, back to the ER it was.

Unbelievably, he was in a bed in a little under 10 minutes (they don't screw with kids here) and he had a student doctor check him out, then a nurse, then another nurse, then the ER doctor.  He was back to his usual self by now and a bit hungry from missing morning snack.  All his reflexes were in check, muscle control normal, eyes all good, and so on and so forth.  The ER doctor said she would order another cat scan if I really wanted to, but I also had to consider that this would expose him to more radiation and is very likely going to come out the same as the one the day before.  We agreed however that if he were to "see sparklies" again or have a headache, we should come right back in and they'd do the scan.


So far so good the rest of the day.  He's still happy and playful.  The sight of his cuts really upset him so we're trying to keep him away from mirrors.  We will be keeping a close eye on him and he will be staying home from school tomorrow with mom.


I don't have any pictures of the car yet, but we've been told it's a write-off... I guess that mini-van is coming sooner than planned.  Honestly, I really don't care about the car, or having a second car payment.  Even though the picture looks nasty (the one without the gauze is a little more dried blood and stuff I thought I'd spare the world), it was very minor compared to what could have been without a car seat or seat belt.  I have no doubt in my mind that infant-toddler-booster seat saved him a lot of pain and anguish; great investment.  It's toast now, but I'm going to drop the bucks on a full back, bolstered booster seat and I'm not even going to bat an eyelash.


Thank you to all for your kind words and prayers.  This really is a great group there!!!

Update: May 24th 12:30: He was discharged from the hospital about an hour and a half ago.  He is to be fully supervised for the next 48 hours and is to see out family doctor ASAP after today (holiday here).  He will likely be back at school on Thursday.  Mom and sister are fine; they sustained no injuries except a couple faint scratches from flying glass.  Jonathan is not happy that we're not taking him outside to play on this beautiful day, but maybe tomorrow we'll go for a walk around the block.  The stitches that aren't dissolving will likely be pulled out next Monday.  I am very very thankful that it wasn't worse... it could have been a lot worse! 


Update: May 24th 05:40: He ate at about 8pm and we watched some TV. He's slept through the night. We "woke him up" once to check him, but he was his usual self and did not want to wake up (he showed normal responses though). His BG went up a bit while on the IV but came back down on their own (8.8 @ 4am). He's still sleeping but hopefully it will be business as usual in a few hours.

Original post, May 23rd, evening:
This is one of the ones that I wish I never had occasion to post. The phone call no parent ever wants to get. The one to tell you that your family is surrounded by EMTs, Firefighters, and Police.

A mere four blocks from home, my wife's car (02 Chevy Malibu) was struck during a left hand turn by a full-size pickup truck. The rear passenger door was pushed in a good foot to a foot and a half and the windows shattered. The car was thrown back about 20 feet.

The good news is, he's ok. He took some glass in the side of the head and there was a fair amount of blood, but the glass has been removed and there seems to be no other trauma and nothing detectable near the eye. The cat scan showed nothing wrong and he's had chest and neck x-rays (yet to be developed).

He's a little groggy still from the sedative they gave him but he's in good spirits. The ER staff is absolutely floored at how good he's been about the whole thing. I wasn't with him when it happened, but I saw him on the gurney next to the car (lost it for the first time) and he was just laying there looking at me, said hi and smiled. I saw him in the ER (lost it for the fourth time) and he was just chillin. When he went for the cat scan they said he was remarkably well behaved.

Amazingly this seemed to have no impact what so ever on his blood sugar. I thought for sure he'd be stressed out to no end and his BG through the roof, but he was at 3.6 at about 4pm and after being on an IV for an hour that had doubled. He's dipped less than 1 an hour since is Lantus injection, but I'll be keeping an eye on him all night - both his BG and waking him up from time to time.

He wants to play, but I think we'll just sit back and watch some TV and hang out. This has been the worst day since D-day, I don't want any more of these.