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.

Sleepless No More...I Hope!

The past couple of months have been wracked with difficult nights. Not only has the stuntman not wanted to go to sleep but he's been waking up once or twice a night. We'd go a full week without incident, and then just as the pattern was getting established he'd start all over again.

To say it was frustrating would be an understatement. 

I'm a pretty high energy person and can usually get by on a couple of hours of sleep without a problem. I've been known to do this for days or even weeks on end but usually with a purpose like a trade show or something that would keep me so busy that I wouldn't notice the exhaustion. 

At the end of whatever the event was, I'd crash for a day and get the sleep I needed. If you've known me for any period of time, you'll know that this was my standard means of existence. 

This is no longer the case...

With a child that was only sleeping for 3-4 hours at a time - intermittently, I was unable to ever feel like I was rested. The worst part was that we had no idea when his bad nights would strike. 

The final straw came about a week ago when he had a particularly horrid night and was up at 11:00,       1:00 am, 3:30 am, 6:30 am and finally at 8. He would not lie down in his crib and spent most of the night on my chest in the recliner. By the time that night was over I felt like I'd been dragged through a knothole and didn't look much better either! 

Many of my friends and my mom, insisted that I call the doctor, which I did. 

The nurse called me back to discuss what was going on and said that he really should see a doctor, since he'd had a cold lately, they were concerned about his ears. Ok that makes sense but that wouldn't account for the previous months of turmoil. Anyway...

I threw myself together - even managed a shower - changed the kids into regular clothes and headed out. 

Our regular pediatrician wasn't in that day so he was seen by another doctor who after checking his ears, eyes, nose and throat declared him to be in perfect health. While this is a great and wonderful thing for which I am eternally grateful, this declaration will not garner sleep for any of us. 

She did say that if he is teething that I should use ibuprofen instead of Tylenol because it will help with the swelling that accompanies teething. She then went on to say that when he has his episodes, we could give him a teaspoon of Maalox and see if he settles down. If that works then they could prescribe Zantac for him. 

I called hubby on the way home and gave him the report and asked that he pick up the Maalox on his ride home from work. He couldn't find it but did arrive with a bottle of liquid Rolaids. We gave him both the liquid Rolaids and ibuprofen that night and every night since.

We have had six consecutive full nights of sleep! 

Our routine now involves putting the bottles of milk in the microwave to warm them and giving the stuntman his bedtime cocktail of ibuprofen and liquid Rolaids. Hubby heads to the sofa with the engineer and I take the stuntman up to the rocking recliner in the bedroom. 

We do this because the stuntman is too easily distracted by any form of stimulation. Doesn't matter if it's the television, the cat walking across the room or his brother breathing, anything will take his attention away from the task of falling asleep. 

For some reason when I try to put the engineer down, he wakes up. I seem to have better luck with the stuntman and hubby has better luck with the engineer. Once their bottles are finished or they are out, whichever comes first, we put them down for the night in their cribs. 

I can always tell when hubby is bringing the engineer up to bed by the sounds of the toys he collides with on his way to the stairs. One particularly distinctive sound is that of the Leap Frog Turtle who has these gears on his shell. Each gear has a different number of bugs on it. If you push on the gear it talks. 

The other night I hear, "Three bees buzzing. Bzzz, Bzzz, Bzzz" as he kicked the turtle. 

Oh good, hubby's on his way upstairs. 

Not realizing that the poor little thing was still in front of him he hit it again this time making it sing, "My friends are traveling on my back..."

Oh. My. Gawd!!! I can't laugh, I can't laugh, I can't laugh! I'm going to wake the stuntman! 

The kid is a champion power-napper! He can be asleep for five minutes and if woken up, will be awake for another three hours. Each night when we climb into the chair I boot up Lullaby World's Lullabies For Babies To Go To Sleep on You Tube. Not only is it visually interesting it is mind numbing and helps the stuntman achieve the perfect level of trance that lets him pass out in obtain a very deep sleep. 

Thank goodness too because the combination of noise from downstairs and my giggling would certainly wake him up. 

Hubby reads my blog so he knows that I pick on him about his clumsiness. He can't deny it and will even make comments about whether or not what he's done will end up on the world wide web. Some of what I post actually seems to impact him albeit not always in a good way.

Back in August, I wrote about his 18-inch disease. (See Shiny) Right after that post I caught him standing in front of the sink, coffee mug in hand trying to decide if he was going to put it in the sink or actually open the dishwasher.

I laughed.

His mug ended up in the sink.

His 18-inch disease improved for a little while but honestly not very long.

Last weekend, after he finished his coffee, headed over to the sink to put his coffee cup in it. I had cooked breakfast, unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher but there was still a bunch of stuff in the sink that needed to be hand-washed.

I heard this loud, aggravated sigh come from the direction of the sink and when I asked what was wrong he said that there was so much stuff in the sink that there was no room for his mug. I replied that he could put it in the dishwasher, which is where it belonged anyway.

"I can't," he replied with a wicked gleam in his eye. "I have that disease." 

Rice Krispies

When my boys reached about four months of age one of them began throwing up very regularly. He wasn't just throwing up, he would barf and then scream. This to me was indicative of one thing: acid reflux.

I dutifully called the doctor's office to find out what to do. I'm not a panicky mommy (I would have been in my 20s) I rarely call the doctor's office but I felt that this needed attention. The nurse called me back later to tell me that the doctor thought he was just getting a little too much fluid and that I could start adding rice cereal to his bottles to thicken things up and help keep it down. She said that if that didn't help then the doctor would like to see him. I thanked her and hung up the phone completely oblivious to the fact that my hubby was sitting there waiting to be filled in. Let's face it, my accidental snub was not intentional. I am the handler of all things baby: nutritional, medical, clothing, etc. It didn't even dawn on me to explain the call.

He got miffed. Finally, he looked at me and asked, "Well are you going to fill me in?" "Oh, yeah, sorry," I replied. I then went on to explain that the doctor wanted us to begin putting rice cereal in the bottles to thicken things up. The longer I talked the more confused my hubby became. Once I finished he looked at me totally bewildered and said, "Like Rice Krispies?" I actually had to think about what he was asking. The synapse in my brain temporarily failed. I went blank.

O.M.G! No! Hahahahaha. I just about had to pick myself up off of the floor because I laughed so hard my son and I almost fell off of the sofa. Hubby did not know that they make a rice cereal for babies. (In the old days it was called Pablum.) He thought the doctor wanted us to put the "Snap, Crackle, Pop" version of rice cereal in the bottles and the confused look I saw on his face was him trying to imagine how our son was going to suck it through the nipple.

All I have to do today is say "Rice Krispies" and we both begin to laugh.