More Research Is Needed

Did you know that a potential long-term side effect from Covid is Diabetes?

Yeah, neither did we. 

While I have bounced back and and almost 100% again, Glenn was not so lucky. 

We thought he was making progress and had begun to eat again but his thirst was off the charts, he was still losing weight at an alarming rate and his fatigue was terrible. 

He went to the doctor who sent him for a chest x-ray because she was concerned about covid pneumonia.

Turns out he does have a mild case of pneumonia, so mild in fact, that if that had been his only complaint the doctor would have given him steroids and sent him home. 

It was the additional symptons that had her concerned so she wanted Glenn to head to the ER. 

Before we could leave I had to organize after school care, transportation to gymnastics, pick ups and dinner. It was a crazy amount of phone calls and texts but thanks to my assistant Jace, the parents of their friend and our wonderful friend Cory, everything worked out well. 

We got to the ER at approximately 4:30. I wasn't allowed in and had to wait in the car. Fortunately, this is the same hospital where my surgery was so I am familiar with the layout and was able to find a lounge where I could hang out, plug in my Kindle and cell phone and wait until they took him back. 

Unfortunately, I didn't last that long. Glenn needed a charging cord for the phone and informed me at 8:30pm that it was going to be at least three more hours until they were going to give him a bed so I gave him my cord and headed home so that Cory could head out. 

Glenn wasn't given a bed until 11:30 last night! 

Turns out that the pneumonia was the least of his problems. 

His blood sugar was over 500! 

Blood sugar, or glucose, is the main sugar found in your blood. It comes from the food we eat and is the body's main source of energy. The blood carries the glucose to all the body's cells to use for energy. 

Normal blood sugar ranges from 70-100. 

What is Diabetes? The American Diabetes Association has a great article that explains it. 

So how does Covid cause diabetes? 

No one is 100% sure but it seems that they are getting closer to understanding what is happening. Recent research has discovered that the beta cells in the pancreas are particularly subject to attack by the Covid virus. Beta cells are responsible for the production of insulin and insulin is what is used to deliver glucose to the cells in the body. This article from abcNews does a nice job of explaining what happens, why diabetics are at higher risk and what happens to the pancreas to cause diabetes to develop in a patient. 

I learned today that viruses in general have long been suspected of causing or exacerbating diabetes. More research is needed but to have identified the attack on beta cells is huge and could lead to greater diabetes break throughs over time. 

Statistics are showing that the danger is worse for children under the age of 18 but, as we have learned, it can still happen to adults. Unfortunately, they don't have enough data to truly understand why some will get it and some won't. There is no way of knowing if the patient was predisposed to it or if they were prediabetic prior to contracting Covid. 

Again, more research is needed. 

Much like the symptons of Covid the side effects are numerous. As a result of Glenn's diagnosis we are now aware of the potential for diabetes but are also learning that other serious side effects include blood clots, strokes, heart issues and Guillain-Barre Syndrome which causes paralysis. 

Unfortunately, Covid is here to stay. I firmly believe that eventually everyone will get it. Some will suffer worse than others and some will just sail through. There is no way to predict how each person will be effected...yet. 

Hopefully, as time passes, the medicines will get better and less people will get it. 

In the meantime, keep an eye on your loved ones, especially the children. If they have had Covid and are suddenly thirsty, fatigued and losing weight they need to be tested for diabetes. 

I did my best to explain to the kids today what was going on. I think they understood. Lucky for us they have a friend who is a Type 1 diabetic so they understand that dad will need insulin and shots. They seemed relieved that he is feeling better already. 

He'll be in the hospital for a few days but his prognosis is good. 

If you are inclined, we'd appreciate if you could send a few prayers up.

Bee Hives, Pneumonia And Lobsters, Oh My!

Over the winter my hubby assembled two new bee hives and we are now awaiting the call to go pick up the colonies and their queens any day now.

Once the hives were assembled hubby took the boys to the hardware store to let them pick out their own colors so that they could help him paint the "bee houses."

In preparation of the arrival of the bees the boys (all three) have been learning about the colony, the workers and the queen.

It's been a very fun process that involves books and videos and even some TV shows. I now know more about bees than I ever thought possible...especially because I am allergic to the little buggers!

The roller coaster of life continues to astound me. One day up, the next down. Last week was a low one.

In fact last week was pretty much a nightmare.

In true three-year-old fashion David stuffed a raisin up his nose Wednesday night.

He was not able to blow it out and the pediatrician was unable to locate it the next day. He assures me that he can still feel it up there.

I truly hope not.

The following morning Daniel woke up with a fever of 102.6. It dropped below 100 after a dose of Tylenol but I still called the doctor to check to see if they wanted to see him. I was advised to keep an eye on him but that if the fever spiked to 105 to go to the ER.

Just after 8pm that night we arrived in the local ER because Daniel's fever had spiked to 105.5!

Within one hour they had him through triage, in a bed, flu tested, given Tylenol and x-rayed to check his lungs for pneumonia.

He tested positive for the flu and for pneumonia. I immediately felt like the worst mom on the face of the earth.

How could I have missed this? What did I do wrong? What should I have done? How did this happen? He was in the pool the day before for over an hour until I physically removed him so we could eat lunch!

How can you be swimming one day and have pneumonia the next?!

Seriously...how does that even happen?!

We were in the ER just under three hours. In that time they ran a flu test, blood tests, took x-rays, hooked up an IV and administered both fluids and antibiotics.

The following day David and I headed to the grocery store to stock up on fruit and a few other staples to get through the weekend/Holiday.

This was the first time that I'd had only one child with me in the grocery store and we had a pretty good time picking things out together.

David is a really smart kid. His verbal skills are above average and his memory is astounding. He picks up on things that most adults don't and even conjugates verbs properly!

The level of his intelligence became very obvious while looking at the lobster tank in our local grocery store. I pointed out that most of the lobsters were pretty small with the exception of one that was considerably larger than all the rest.

"Maybe that's the queen," David replied.

Um...maybe.

Flat Surface Disease

I am referring to last week as the Week of Death.

No, really...In addition to being the anniversary of my father's passing we had a friend lose his father, another friend lose her husband and a client of mine lost his wife.

The week was bookended with funerals and had a wake in the middle. It was terrible. Not as bad for me as it was for the families but just such an unhappy week all the way around.

As if the "week of death" wasn't enough to contend with, our little stuntman botched a backward dismount off the sofa and split his head open on the foot of the coffee table!

We're making him practice that dismount until he can stick it!

Ugh!

And as if taking your one year old son to the ER for stitches isn't stressful enough, I called my mom and ended up hearing, "It's not to late to put those bumper things on the coffee table."

Yeah, um...thanks!

Here's the kicker...He hit the foot of the coffee table, not the top. No one, not a single well-meaning, over-protective friend or family member has been concerned about the feet on anything...until now.

Even so, we couldn't put those bumpers on them, the kids would peel them off in about five minutes or we'd be yelling "Aah, aah, aah!" at them to leave them alone.

C'mon!

I already say "NO" enough. I just don't need to add a temptation for them or anymore stress for me!

As soon as the kids began crawling we bought a used center armoire entertainment unit so the kids couldn't play with the electronics. It works great until we open the doors to watch TV!

They are like moths to a flame!

They can be across the house and the moment the doors are open they come as fast as they can. We now have the doors open all the time and an indoor fence around the entertainment center to keep them away from it. This is the fence I was going to use to put around the Christmas tree.

Thank God for friends with slightly older children!

We borrowed another indoor fence and now have the tree enclosed in it.

The stuntman hasn't been interested in the tree since the day it went up - wait until he figures out that trees can be climbed! The engineer likes to pet the branches. We purposely hung the unbreakable stuff where they could reach it in case they tried. They haven't gone for the ornaments just like to touch the actual branches.

We cut down our own tree this year. It was a pretty Norman Rockwell-esque experience with the boys in the double-wide stroller walking thru the tree farm until we found just the right one! Hubby hit his knees and cut it down while I ran around snapping pictures from every direction. I had hubby stand next to the stroller with the tree while I took pictures and the children looked at him like, "Why the heck is dad holding that big green thing?!" (They don't really know what trees are yet.)

It was all fun and games until it was time to head back and pay for the tree...hubby had to drag the thing all the way back. It was quite a distance. Of course, the tree we found was about as far from the car as we could get...hubby is very picky when it comes to the Christmas tree.

We really do have a beautiful tree - minus the fence of course.

Neither one of us is a "ball" person.

What I mean by this is that we don't use ball ornaments to decorate the tree. We have themes for our ornaments: fishing and sailing (hubby), cows and angels (me) and baby's first Christmas - from last year. At roughly six weeks old they had no idea that there was anything more than feeding and sleep  but we have the ornaments to prove it!

Hubby usually leaves decorating the tree up to me - he's picky about the tree, I'm picky about the lights and ornaments. This year that was not the case. As with many tasks these days, we knocked it out in two hours because the boys were napping. There just wasn't time to be picky!

What one can accomplish in that two-hour timeframe is nothing short of amazing.

This was the case on Thanksgiving.

While I cooked hubby cleaned the entire house, including bathrooms, in two hours!

Although we have our usual chores hubby does trash, car washing, lawn mowing, guys things etc. and I do most household things like laundry and cooking, the cleaning usually falls into the "whoever has the time" category.

I am not OCD about the way things are cleaned. I just care that they are clean. I don't keep a spotless household - my kids have great immune systems - but it's neat and somewhat tidy.

I used to get all freaked out by the idea of my parents coming to visit and would spend days and days cleaning. I don't know why. Growing up we had a magnet on the refrigerator that said, "Dust: The protective covering of fine furniture!"

Needless to say, my mom is not a neat freak. Things are clean but she suffers from "Flat Surface Disease" and an unfortunate affinity for catalogs.

If there is a flat surface in her house, you will find a pile of catalogs, some of which are years old.

It seems I inherited the FSD gene and have to stay ever vigilant to keep things from piling up. The worst part is that the hubby has FSD too. Right now treatment comes in the form of the "office." We try to keep the piles contained and once a quarter I go in and file everything that needs to be and discard the rest.

In the meantime, we keep the door closed.

We call it the "office" because it has office furniture and the printers in it but it's really become the catch-all for things we're not sure what to do with but know that they don't go in the basement - a name that is really too long so "office" it is.

Sometimes, I wish that my parents had been a little more strict when it came to keeping a tidier house but then I think that in the end it really doesn't matter. No one really cares unless it's really disgusting to the point of being life-threatening and I know that having my parents at sporting events and concerts was much more important than whether or not the dining room had been dusted!