I am posting the email I sent out to our close friends and family this past Friday (June 26) night, since it certainly warrants being recorded in Ellison's history, and frankly I'm too lazy to try to write out the whole story again from scratch...
"Wow... what a day... I don't even know where to begin, I think simply out of pure exhaustion. I may be too detailed, but I don't know how else to go over everything. At any rate I'll try to explain what's going on with Ellison as of now...
So Ellison slept in late this morning, which she has been doing this summer, and when she woke up she was clingy and a little out of it. A little while later, she said she didn't feel good, then proceeded to start vomiting, and she was quite pale. No fever, had been fine up until she got up. She wasn't able to keep down any small sips of water, so after about the 5th time she vomited, I decided to make her a doctor's appt, just to have her checked with all of the flu stuff going around. After vomiting up bile and not keeping anything down and just laying on me, suddenly about 45 minutes before her appt, she asked for muffins, proceeded to eat 2 of them along with a banana, and started drinking. After eating, she suddenly perked right up, became playful as could be, and was absolutely fine from there on out. I thought for sure I should just cancel her appt, but since it was so soon after trying to eat, I thought I'd keep it anyway just for the heck of it. She's also mentioned a couple of times this morning, and once tonight that she was dizzy - strange for a 2 yr old, and I wasn't sure if she knows what that means, but come to think of it, I've told her that's how she feels after she spins around a lot and falls over. So maybe she does know that, after all.
Her appt was going fine, and the practitioner decided to see if we could get a urine sample before we left, just to make sure she didn't have a UTI causing her to vomit - and if we couldn't get one, then we wouldn't worry about it. So we easily got one, and they proceeded to tell me with worried expressions that she had large amounts of glucose (sugar) and ketones in her urine. Not a good sign. I knew what that meant and became quickly concerned. They said they were going to draw blood work, and then changed and said they would just do a fingerstick blood glucose test, and if that was abnormal, then they would draw blood. The tech poked her finger, then quickly walked out of the room before I could even ask her what the result was. Then it took them a long time to come back in, and again, I knew. The NP (practitioner) came back in with a worried look on her face, and told me her glucose was 362. (!) Normal is usually 70-110 (give or take depending on which facility or reference is used). I started crying right then, knowing that meant diabetes. She told me to take Ellison immediately to Brenner's Children's Hospital in Winston-Salem to the ER, and that she would call ahead letting them know we were coming. She told me not to wait for Jonathan to meet me first, but to meet him there.
In triage, we talked to the nurse, and she told us what I already knew would be the standard - she would be admitted, more for me and Jonathan to learn everything we'd need to take care of our newly-diabetic child, but also to get her insulin, and because she'd have consults with multiple doctors/dieticians/etc.
We had a great ER nurse and doctor - and they came into our room and pretty much went through the spiel with us, too. The diagnosis of diabetes is used anytime the blood sugar is 200-250 or higher. They checked her glucose again, and it was 180. Jon and I thought it was a pretty big jump already, but the doctor just said the fluctuations are normal. They started her IV (and she was so brave - cried for just a little bit, but was so cooperative with everything they did), drew labs, and then we waited. All the while she would intermittently whimper that she was hungry and wanted to go home. After waiting on the tests, the doctor came back in and said her labs came back showing her glucose to be 150. After consulting with the diabetes specialist, they scratched their heads a little since it had gone down by over half without any intervention yet, and said that the high glucose was perhaps due to a stress response from her vomiting this morning, and that all of her other labs looked normal. At this point, they said we could go home, and that we'd have to have her glucose checked once a week at the doctor's for a few weeks to see how they do.
Our immediate response was, what a miracle! No one was expecting that outcome - the doctor, the nurse, the nurse practioner, etc. It was such a huge relief! However, after talking with our pediatrician's office on the way home (they called to check on her, assuming we'd be admitted in the hospital), and they're having us take her in tomorrow again to check her urine and such, which makes us feel better. Reality has set in with us some, and we know we need to be cautiously optimistic. It was pointed out that this often happens just before full-blown diabetes (if you will) happens - the levels fluctuate since the body is still producing some insulin. Also, the fact is that there were ketones in her urine - and so far no other reason goes with that (no evidence of infection, no dehydration). So we're not in the clear yet, and may not be for a long time. We'll just have to wait and see.
Ellison handled everything so well - we are so proud of her. She was without a nap, without lunch or dinner, was being poked and prodded, and she was such a little trooper, only giving into whimpering or crying the tiniest bit. Thankfully, she loves going to the doctor. Jonathan and I were a mess until we we got to the hospital, but then we had to make Ellison not be scared, so we pulled it together as best we could. We trust God and know that He loves Ellison even more than we do. When I think of all the ways today could've been different - that the fact we even checked her urine was a little bit of a fluke, the fact that I was SO close to canceling her appt last-minute - it made us thank God that those tiny things fell into place. As much as we don't want her to go through this stuff, we'd much rather know and treat her appropriately to keep her body healthy.
We fully believe that it was all of your prayers that got us through today, and gave us such a hopeful and optimistic outlook at this point. We still feel like it was God's miracle that we didn't have to initiate any insulin thus far, when it was such a for-sure thing from the pediatricians' all the way to the nurses and ER doctor. We truly cannot thank you all enough for being our Prayer Warriors! That's why we immediately let a few of you know this right away, so you could spread the word and get those prayers going to God. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!! It means the world to us to know what loving friends and family we have in our lives!
We're going in to the pediatrician's tomorrow morning at 10:30, so please keep praying that her test result will continue to be better; and if they're not, that we'll stay strong for Ellison, feel peace in the matter, that she'll be in good care, and that God will help comfort her and us. We know there are many things out there that are far worse than this, so we're thankful that we are dealing with this and not something even worse, though it all seems so daunting."
Whew. Words cannot describe the devastation and helplessness Jonathan and I felt Friday. We were in complete shock, we were completely exhausted, and our eyes hurt from crying. We just kept thinking how much life can be turned upside down in the blink of an eye. You wake up with your "normal" life, and it can all change just like that. It was so hard to look at our sweet baby girl and think, "She has no idea...". Yes, we know life could most certainly be worse than diabetes - we couldn't help but think of the parents who are thrown into the medical world not knowing if their child is going to live through what they're going through. But it doesn't mean diabetes is a picnic, either.
The upside, is that life for right now continues to be "normal". We will be the owners of a glucometer this afternoon - we have to check it at least once a week, or if she's showing any symptoms. We're in the process of getting an appointment with a pediatric endocrinologist. Her urine on Saturday morning at the doctor's office was completely clear - no glucose, no ketones, and she's been her playful self going about her days. We'll take this as long as we can get it! We don't know if God has spared us the life-changing disease, we don't know if God's just giving us time to get used to the idea before it fully kicks in, we don't know what tomorrow brings. But we are so thankful for today. We could've been spending today getting ready to be discharged from the hospital with our baby and a new way of life. We don't forget that for one moment. And whatever is in our path in the days, weeks, months, and years ahead, at least we've got our loving Father holding all of us in the palm of His hand. You can't get better than that...
