I wanted to just write a post to let you know what has been going on, and to thank you for all of the support, prayers, concern, messages, and phone calls. First, some background…
For those of you who may not know, I have four children, ages 5,6,8,&10. Yep, my life is crazy!! My 10 yr old was diagnosed with asthma when she was two.. not a big deal, lots of kids have that. However, when she was 4, she became very ill and lost 7 pounds in two weeks.. that is a ton of weight when you are four! We ended up in Scottish Rite Children’s Hospital in Atlanta, where she checked into the ER with a blood sugar of 1120. That is NOT a typo! A healthy person’s blood sugar should be below 110. The docs there were amazed she was not in a full-blown diabetic coma. The Lord so protected her. She was immediately diagnosed with Type 1 (Juvenile) Diabetes, and we were informed that she would be insulin-dependant for life. Pretty rough news to hear. My husband and I were immediately thrown into all kinds of education classes about Diabetes, counting carbohydrates, insulin doses, injections, even giving shots to each other of saline. I remember being angry that they were making us take all of these classes when we had not even adapted to the fact that our daughter had this disease. However, after several days in the hospital, I realized that knowledge is power, and instead of being broken over the fact that she was insulin dependant for life, we now had the knowledge to keep her healthy and knew that this disease was something she would live with, not die from. Cassidy was on four shots a day, and life was very stressful. 6 weeks later, I found out I was pregnant with an unexpected baby #4!! We named her Harmony, because we needed her to go along with our routine, not march to her own drum!! She has been such a blessing, and her name is perfect for her. Amazing how The Lord gives us what we didn’t even know we wanted! Shortly after Harmony was born, we were blessed to have a doctor at Johns Hopkins put Cassidy on an insulin pump. This incredible device has changed the way Cassidy lives (and had made our job so much easier). The pump is the size of a cell phone, and Cassidy wears it 24 hours a day. She still checks her blood sugar by poking her finger 8 times a day. The insulin pumpgives her a basal dose of insulin, which is basically a constant drip of insulin to try and keep her blood sugar steady. She then boluses more insulin to cover any high blood sugars as well as any carbohydrates she eats. It is wonderful. So wonderful, in fact, that we feel most of the time, at least for the last 3 years, that we have this diabetes thing handled. Cassidy has been very healthy, in spite of her disease. The problem comes when, like last week, her asthma is triggered, and thus affects the diabetes.
Monday morning when I picked her up from my sister’s house in Tennessee (after flying the red-eye from Vegas), she said she wasn’t feeling well. We drove the 4 hours home,. and she used her inhaler a couple of times. We all went to bed early that night (I had 6 hours of sleep the whole time in Vegas!!). She was up most of the night having trouble breathing and generally not feeling well. Tuesday morning, I made her a doctor appt for 10:30, and got my other kids to school. She began complaining that her chest felt like someone was stabbing her and I realized we needed to be in the ER, not waiting for our appt. Long story short (shorter… sorry this is so long), they admitted her into the hospital because they had to give her such a huge dose of steroids to help her breathe, which caused her blood sugars to go through the roof (600s). Her body was then fighting two battles, against each other, and winning neither. It is such a catch-22… she needs the steroids to breathe better, but the steroids are like poison to the diabetes. She was finally released Friday afternoon, and we thought she was doing better. She had a relapse Saturday night, and then another Sunday afternoon. We saw the doc again yesterday, and we believe she is finally turning the corner to being better. We had to double the at-home steroid dose, so we once again are fighting the blood sugars. She is still on breathing treatments every 2-3 hours. We are praying that we will be able to control it enough at home that she will continue to get better without having to be back in the hospital. She is not allowed to go back to school this week, and is not allowed to return until having three totally healthy days. She is an amazing kid, believe me. Through this whole ordeal, she has not complained that life isn’t fair. She has braved all of the IVs, treatments, ketone checks, and endless finger-pricks, without fear or complaint. I tell you, the challenges this 10 yr old faces on a daily basis is enough to make any of us feel capable of doing anything.
I guess my point is, in relating this to our journey, is that we all have challenges, some are harder than others. Some have the challenge of health, some of finding time to exercise, some are challenged to make consistent good eating choices. All have challenges in some shape or form. I want to encourage you to take a lesson from the bravest kid I know, my sweet Cassidy, and rise up to the challenge that is before you. Choose to face each day with an attitude of “I CAN DO THIS!!” Because you know what??? You CAN do it!! We all can! Like I have said before, there are so many excuses to not eat right, not exercise, not become healthy. However, there is NEVER a reason!!
