a nasty bug

Ever since Bekah was dx in March of 2010, I have been afraid of the stomach flu.  I knew it could land her back in the hospital and I am not sure why that scares me, maybe because when she was at the hospital for dx we were close to losing her or the fact that illness brings on ketones and ketoacidosis is the number one cause of death in T1Ds.  What ever the reason, the flu and T1D are scary (I'm pretty sure I am not alone in feeling this way).

We made it through "flu season" and she just happened to be absent on the two days when kids in her class threw up at school.  I breathed a sigh of relief when school was out thinking I had until "flu season" again to worry about  nasty tummy bugs. 

Last weekend we had made a quick, last minute, trip to Tacoma to visit my sister and her family.  After we got home, Megan began feeling icky.  She is 13 and a bit dramatic so I just figured it was cramps becuase her period was coming.  A few hours later she began puking.  I still thought it was her period maybe mixed in with some car sickness until at 1:00 AM when David began puking. Being only 2 he had no idea what was going on so I just held him and let him spew all over me (sorry if you have a weak stomach).  I knew I was probably a goner but I did take extra D and C along with probiotics to help boost my immune system (couldn't hurt). 

I spent the day Monday and Tuesday disinfecting the house and washing all of the "sick" laundry.  I was still hoping not to get sick and more than that hoping Bekah wouldn't get sick.  Tuesday night I woke up in the middle of the night with my gut aching.  Crap!  I got sick (I'll spare you the details).  I spent the entire day in bed on Wed.  I did come down stairs to watch AGT (America's Got Talent) with the family.

In the middle of AGT, Bekah began to complain of a tummy ache.  I knew we had some zofran that her pediatrician had prescribed before she had oral surgery last summer so I gave her one hoping it would do the trick.  I was still feeling under the weather so I was amazingly calm as I decided to take her to my bed where we'd hang for the night.  I got her up stairs and checked her BG 92 with 1.90 units IOB (0.0 ketones).  Crap on a stick!  I got the regular 7-up out and had her sip on that to keep her BG up and began to pray that some of the carbs she had eaten for dinner would begin to absorb or her liver would kick in some sugar. 

I went down and grabbed the gluc and some pediatric syringes just in case.  I decided that if she began puking and went low I wasn't going to mess with trying to get honey or frosting to absorb through her cheeks and gums I was just going to do the mini gluc and then call the endo on call. (I probably should have called as soon as she began getting sick so we were on the same page and had a plan in place but I didn't)

An hour or so later, the puking began.  After each session I would check her BG and ketones.  BG 96, 0.0 ketones;  BG 98, 0.1 ketones; BG 115 0.1 ketones; BG 123 0.2 ketones.  Then 2 hrs went by with no puking BG 223 0.8 ketones correction given. It seemed as if the worst was over (it was but I wasn't letting my guard down). A check every hour to two hours after that showed her BG stable and ketones going down.  All day we just kept checking and correcting her BG and ketones (it never went above 230  with 0.8 ketones) as she sipped on G2 (low carb Gatorade).

Friday morning I was awoken to a smiling girl saying "good morning mommy I feel better today"!  My heart was happy that we had made it through our first bad bug and my girl was doing well. 

It could have been worse and I know many of my friends in the DOC have had much worse experiences with tummy bugs.  In some way it is a relief to have that under my belt.  I know I can make it through with out losing my marbles. 

Camp starts tomorrow.  Can I leave my baby girl for 5 nights with out losing my marbles?