June 14, 2015
I hadn’t mentioned it in any of my previous, but Luke wasn’t allowed to eat once he was diagnosed as T1. He basically hadn’t eaten anything since June 10th. It didn’t bother him until he was hydrated & insulated (ha ha… see what I did there?). Most of Saturday he was STARVING.
So this morning when he woke up & the nurses came in for vitals, they also brought the best news in the world.
Luke could eat breakfast!
He ordered bacon (of course), pancakes with butter and sugar-free syrup, milk, and eggs. He could not wait to eat.
Luke doesn’t like eggs. I encouraged him to get eggs. Because protein. Guess what was left on his plate? All about about two bites of his eggs. I tried. Sometime after breakfast, Luke got more great news! He could get unhooked from everything but insulin. He didn’t need saline anymore. He really didn’t need the heart rate monitor or the blood pressure cuff either.
The rest of our day was full of diabetic education and very welcomed visitors. We met the in-house diabetic educator, Kathy, that afternoon. She taught us how to give injections with an insulin pen. We all practiced on the pin cushion.
Once we learned how to calculate insulin doses and how the pens worked, Luke was detached from the insulin drip and free from tubing and wires.
Then came a visitor! His good buddy, Landon, stopped by with his mom. Luke was so happy to see him. They, of course, played games on their iPads most of the time.
After Landon left, we walked down the hallway to our first diabetes class. It was nice to get out of the room and walk around a little, even if we were still going to talk medical jargon.
In our first class, we were given a “Welcome to Diabetes” kit from JDRF– a backpack full of information, a blood sugar meter, the Calorie King mini book, and Rufus, the bear with Type 1 Diabetes.
That afternoon, Grandma and Grandpa Kratzer came back to the hospital to visit. Grandma and Grandpa Rohrer were also there. Uncle Joe and the boys stopped by, too! I took advantage of having the company visiting and the Ronald McDonald Room and went and took a shower. That felt SO nice! I wish I would have thought to go down there earlier in our hospital stay!
Later that night, we had more visitors. One of my former students, who also has T1D, came with her family to visit. Her older sister is Luke’s age and they have gone to school together since first grade. It was nice to have them come for a visit, to talk to a family who has already been through all of this craziness. They have been extremely helpful and are quick to help anytime we have questions. I almost lost it when Khylin, the older of the girls, asked to pray for Luke before they left.
(A couple of things to notice in the above picture- check out KC’s shirt! The exact verse I read the night before. Thanks, God! And, also, Luke is in regular clothes!!)
It’s nice to see a light at the end of the tunnel. Sure, life will be different. But it will be doable.
Smells Like Insulin 