Yes, Blogging is definitely a challenge for me these days. I realized I had a post started so I simply posted it and will try to get some more updates soon. I believe most anyone who reads this knows what has occurred in our lives, but just in case you somehow missed it, here's the story.

November 7, Monday, Baby Kenton had a fever. He was a little stuffy, but since I had the stuffies the two days before, we thought nothing of it. By Wednesday he was throwing up. Ok, so a stomach virus! Ugh!

I called the Dr. on Thursday and answered all the questions. "Yes, throw up! Yes, still wet diapers. No, no more fever. And if you REALLY, REALLY need to see him, I will need to bring in the other kids. Yes, I thought so too. Sounds like something viral so we will just wait and see".

Something just didn't seem right, however, so I made an appointment for Friday, 11/11/11 at 11:00 a.m.

By this time, Baby K was no longer throwing up as much, but he was falling asleep while nursing. (I still thought it was just from his exhaustion of being so sick). He had nursed so often that I had nothing left and he was still hungry (or so I thought when he ravaged a bowl of cereal late Thursday night). So Keljan and I took Baby Kenton to see the Dr. while the daddy took the girls to J's horse lesson. Dr. was a little concerned that Baby was not staying awake while she and I talked. Decided to catheterize him for a urine specimen. She came back and told me his sugar count was high and he had KETONES. (I knew just enough at that time to know that meant Diabetes, but didn't know exactly how sick Kenton was). By this time, he was just laying on the table while they tried to get an IV started. Dr. also told me that he was sick enough that I was not to drive him to hospital. She was calling for an ambulance.

I started the phone calls...."Kelly, come get Keljan now. Going to ER with Baby. He is very sick."
"Friend, can you watch the other kids? Don't know for how long. Will call other friend to be with kids for the night."
"Other friend, will you drive down to our house and spend night with kids?"
"Mom, Dad, start praying. Baby K is very sick."

The daddy arrives with girls. Ambulance arrives, and I kiss other kids and have my first ride in an ambulance. Not a place a mother wants to be! Sitting beside her tiny baby in his car seat while he throws up all over himself. Oh yeah. The nurse at the Dr. office had told me to take off his outfit so they wouldn't have to "cut it off" if they needed to do something. I guess that was my first clue as to the seriousness of it all. Kenton was becoming less and less responsive. I heard the paramedic in the back tell the driver to "step on it". I guess that was the first time I lost it completely. I decided to quickly get control and started praying.

Poor daddy. In the meantime, he is taking kids to our friends house, explaining things, not even really knowing how his son was doing. I saw my 8 month old son going in and out of consciousness and watching the paramedic try to get and IV started. He was sooooo dehydrated that it was impossible to find a vein. Even though continued to have wet dipes, his body was actually starving itself and was using up his fat stores...that is how diabetes works. The body does not get the energy it needs to the cells. Therefore, it begins to break down fats and proteins. This causes too much acid in the stomach (thus the throwing up) and the by-product of all that is ketones which are excreted in the urine (thus the wet dipes). Insulin is what allows the needed energy (blood glucose) to get to the cells. The pancreas produces insulin and for whatever reason, Kenton's pancreas had ceased to do that. He was in a very serious state called DKA - Diabetic ketoacidosis. It means that the blood sugars are WAY too high and all the above stuff I have mentioned. He was so very dehydrated that we watched the doctors work on him for several hours to get blood draws and attempt an IV. Finally, a vein was found in his head. The only good thing at this point about his condition, was that he was too sick to care if they poked him a thousand times or not. It was AWFUL!

After the IV in the ER, we were taken to a room in the PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit). We were told that we would spend the next 3 to 4 days here getting Kenton's blood sugars under control and learning how to care for our dear, sweet, little angel who happens to have Type 1 Diabetes. The first two days were very scary. The nurses checked his blood sugars every hour. The Dr. wanted to start an arterial line which meant the daddy and I had to leave the room since this is a sterile procedure (i.e. a minor surgery in which there will be blood and possible crying, so you, parents, don't want to be here). I think that may have been the longest 45 minutes of my life. The daddy had gone home to put the kids to bed and assure them Kenton was going to be ok. I called people and tried not to think too much. Just recited what we knew at this point.

When they called me back in the room, the arterial line had not worked, but a second IV line had been put in his little tiny ankle. Due to it's location, a splint was on his leg. It was "stitched in" and looked terrible. Now he had tubes coming out of his head, his leg with a huge board attached to him, 3 wires for monitoring him on his chest and another oxygen monitor on his other foot. Add a blood pressure cuff on his calf, and it was difficult to hold him. But hold him I did! I would stand over his amazingly blue eyes and give him eskimo kisses each time a nurse would come in for another blood draw or a blood sugar check or a this or a that. His blood sugar numbers started coming down after they could finally give him insulin. He could not have too much too quickly or worse things could happen, so it was a slow process of checking him hourly.

The nurses were amazing. We could not have had better care. I thank God for Dr. Moher who "found out" his condition, the paramedics who got us safely to the ER, the ER staff who worked tirelessly to find a vein on his tiny, little dehydrated body, the nurses in PICU (Kam, Bec, Jamie, and Evan) and all the techs who assisted and literally brought our little boy back to the living. I do not know how close he was to death, but I do know that had it not been for God sending all those amazing people, our sorrow may not have been turned to joy.

Yes, Kenton will have Diabetes to contend with for the rest of his life. Yes, we still have to prick his little toe or finger 10 to 12 times a day, and yes, it can be very scary at times, but we serve a God bigger than Diabetes and that God is giving us strength and understanding of this disease as well as people who can train us to care for Kenton in a way that will allow him to live a very full and abundant life.

This story is "to be continued" as there is much more to share about the journey we are on and how Kenton is doing one month later. There will be more posts about his progress and our "new" life as well. For now,
"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." Philippians 4:6
"Be strong and of good courage, do not be afraid, nor be dismayed for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. " Joshua 1:9