Well, this wasn't the blog update I originally had intended. My plan was to put in some pics of my brother's wedding and Annika and Lauren as bell-ringing girl and flower girl. Maybe some other tidbits on Emily and Meg.
Well, that got changed about 15 minutes ago when I thought about the blog.
Yesterday I took 16-month-old Megan to the ER at Swedish Covenant Hospital because of a fever she had and seeming pain I couldn't treat at home. After several hours there, some chest x-rays and urine tests, the diagnosis was Type 1 diabetes.
Type 1 is insulin-dependent so Megan will have to have shots for the rest of her life. It wasn't brought on by anything we did or didn't do or feed her. This kind of thing can be hereditary (although we don't really have any type 1 running in either of our families) or an affect of the auto-immune fighting itself. If there was a weakness in the pancreas, diabetes can be brought on by a viral infection which might be our case. The infection didn't cause the diabetes--just kind of pushed the pancreas over the edge.
We seem to have caught it early. Megan didn't have diabetic ketoacidosis which is really bad. It's when the body can't use sugar for energy so it starts destroying the fat. One problem with that is destroying the fat in this way creates ketones, a harmful toxin. If you get DKA, it takes awhile for the toxin to get out of your system. So we didn't have go to through that.
Megan is at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago. We're hoping she'll go home tomorrow after they figure out a good amount of insulin to give her each day to regulate her blood sugar levels.
We're praising God that this was caught early, that Megan has been such a trooper, and that it isn't something worse. Please pray for us as we regulate her sugars at home. This is new to us, obviously! But we're willing to tackle it!
By the way, our oh-so-amazing pediatrician, who I thought was supposed to be on vacation this week, showed up at the ER last night when the ER doc contacted him regarding Megan's history. Dr. Morse even talked to the endocrinology fellow here at Children's to find out next steps and see if there were any other med options for sky-high blood sugar other than diabetes (in someone Meg's age--not really). We're going to miss him in August when we move somewhere else!
Sorry--no pics. I'm writing this from the hospital and just don't have the camera handy! You'll just have to imagine cute saying like Lauren drawing a picture of a sad umbrella: "But he likes being sad." or Megan stripping to the buff and saying, "shake, shake, shake; shake, shake, shake; shake your booty" in two-year-old-ese. Or Megan walking, finally! or Annika informing us that she's past Cinderella. Jasmine is the princess for six-year-olds!
Friday, May 22, 2009
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Trying to get a blog update in before it becomes May!
We had Easter at our Aunt Rosalie and Uncle Brian's house. Rather unexpected as they're reformed Jews. They also had an Easter egg hunt with 64 plastic eggs. That's a lot of hiding! But our girls and Rosalie's great-niece and nephew (Lily and Colin) and Cousin Judy helped. Lily, Colin and Judy left a little earlier than we did--they had more Easter parties to get to!
Emily's English is becoming more recognizable. She's also doing full sentences. No, we cannot translate everything she is saying. She still has her own bizarre fashion sense and shoe fettish, even if the shoes don't match or fit.
Megan finally got all four molars in completely. That was a trial for weeks. She still isn't walking on her own despite her 15 1/2 month status. Her hair is also getting in her eyes, but she pulls barrettes (and chunks of hair) out if we try to pull her hair back, although she left pony tails in her hair at Easter. She is ticklish and has a good laugh.
Annika is becoming more grown-up. She is starting to understand plays-on-words if you explain them slowly like the joke "April showers bring May flowers. What do May flowers bring? Pilgrims!" She, too, has her own fashion sense. Plaids go with plaids. 'Nuf said.
Lauren is getting better at picking up although none of the kids is all that fast at it. And, she has no sense of organization--it all just gets dumped in the toy corner. Why would she think puzzle pieces should go back in the box? She's also great at making up stories, definitions, words and songs on the spot. She is fascinated with sharks, too. I'm not sure how all these fill fit into her future careers.
We're trying to see more of the sights here before we leave Chicago, so we have a few pics of me, Annika and Lauren at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Lincoln Park.
Dan has been contacted by a few churches. The process is a slow one, but we still have months left before we can move, so we are sort of patient. He's getting one of his sermons transferred now from VHS to DVD. We're not sure where we stored his copies of sermons from First Cov. One of the downsides of storage.
I just finished editing two books and laying out a newsletter and am tired after a gruelling two weeks. Looking forward to a slower-paced week, Lord willing.
Enjoy the pics!
Kid quotes (keep in mind, you can't tease the girls about these--they get self-conscious fast and will stop talking--then no more kid quotes!):
March 24 2009
Much is done dramatically by Lauren. We don’t walk somewhere—we saunter. Tonight, she was getting ready to sign her name in Annika’s journal. She did it as though she was putting on a show (so think announcer’s voice) as Lauren said about herself: “And now she pulls out the chair…And watch as she sits down. See her as she reads the book…”
Annika made up a song and put on a show for me. Here are some of the lyrics:
It doesn’t matter if you’re lovely as long as you care about people
Know that’s not true. Please bring hope to all the people for their words you can fly away. if you faint, don’t faint when you’re not supposed to faint. for the world I would take care of it for the rest of the city and I wouldn’t miss anything for the whole piece of advice. you never do anything when somebody loves you, you shall love them back even if you don’t like them but they like you…for you can see little things. You are seeing this when I was I will always love you too.
You must care for the people for you can see your family and you must love them the most. And you can see the world, you can see different places if you go on a plane. If you go to Disney, you do need a plane. So little lord jesus, he brings you there safely. And if it’s your birthday he will not make it rain. For the world to see your weirdness, but don’t do weirdness around people who are naked and you don’t know them and you can’t see naked people if your shades are open and their shades are open and the lights are on and you have windows there and you have shades there. So you must care for the world.
We will love to see your songs for your carols. You are beautiful.
March sometime:
Lauren was looking at a picture of her and Annika in their Easter dresses: “There’s us in our church costumes.”
Annika praying: “Even though I’m the beautifullest, I need to care about other people.”
4/1/09
Lauren to Dan: “I know why you have a headache. You watch too much TV, and you’re a vegetable!” (Hm. I wonder where she heard that…)
4/2/09
Annika: "I’m so smart. I always know everything now."
We had Easter at our Aunt Rosalie and Uncle Brian's house. Rather unexpected as they're reformed Jews. They also had an Easter egg hunt with 64 plastic eggs. That's a lot of hiding! But our girls and Rosalie's great-niece and nephew (Lily and Colin) and Cousin Judy helped. Lily, Colin and Judy left a little earlier than we did--they had more Easter parties to get to!
Emily's English is becoming more recognizable. She's also doing full sentences. No, we cannot translate everything she is saying. She still has her own bizarre fashion sense and shoe fettish, even if the shoes don't match or fit.
Megan finally got all four molars in completely. That was a trial for weeks. She still isn't walking on her own despite her 15 1/2 month status. Her hair is also getting in her eyes, but she pulls barrettes (and chunks of hair) out if we try to pull her hair back, although she left pony tails in her hair at Easter. She is ticklish and has a good laugh.
Annika is becoming more grown-up. She is starting to understand plays-on-words if you explain them slowly like the joke "April showers bring May flowers. What do May flowers bring? Pilgrims!" She, too, has her own fashion sense. Plaids go with plaids. 'Nuf said.
Lauren is getting better at picking up although none of the kids is all that fast at it. And, she has no sense of organization--it all just gets dumped in the toy corner. Why would she think puzzle pieces should go back in the box? She's also great at making up stories, definitions, words and songs on the spot. She is fascinated with sharks, too. I'm not sure how all these fill fit into her future careers.
We're trying to see more of the sights here before we leave Chicago, so we have a few pics of me, Annika and Lauren at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Lincoln Park.Dan has been contacted by a few churches. The process is a slow one, but we still have months left before we can move, so we are sort of patient. He's getting one of his sermons transferred now from VHS to DVD. We're not sure where we stored his copies of sermons from First Cov. One of the downsides of storage.
I just finished editing two books and laying out a newsletter and am tired after a gruelling two weeks. Looking forward to a slower-paced week, Lord willing.
Enjoy the pics!
Kid quotes (keep in mind, you can't tease the girls about these--they get self-conscious fast and will stop talking--then no more kid quotes!):
March 24 2009
Much is done dramatically by Lauren. We don’t walk somewhere—we saunter. Tonight, she was getting ready to sign her name in Annika’s journal. She did it as though she was putting on a show (so think announcer’s voice) as Lauren said about herself: “And now she pulls out the chair…And watch as she sits down. See her as she reads the book…”
Annika made up a song and put on a show for me. Here are some of the lyrics:
It doesn’t matter if you’re lovely as long as you care about people
Know that’s not true. Please bring hope to all the people for their words you can fly away. if you faint, don’t faint when you’re not supposed to faint. for the world I would take care of it for the rest of the city and I wouldn’t miss anything for the whole piece of advice. you never do anything when somebody loves you, you shall love them back even if you don’t like them but they like you…for you can see little things. You are seeing this when I was I will always love you too.
You must care for the people for you can see your family and you must love them the most. And you can see the world, you can see different places if you go on a plane. If you go to Disney, you do need a plane. So little lord jesus, he brings you there safely. And if it’s your birthday he will not make it rain. For the world to see your weirdness, but don’t do weirdness around people who are naked and you don’t know them and you can’t see naked people if your shades are open and their shades are open and the lights are on and you have windows there and you have shades there. So you must care for the world.
We will love to see your songs for your carols. You are beautiful.
March sometime:
Lauren was looking at a picture of her and Annika in their Easter dresses: “There’s us in our church costumes.”
Annika praying: “Even though I’m the beautifullest, I need to care about other people.”
4/1/09
Lauren to Dan: “I know why you have a headache. You watch too much TV, and you’re a vegetable!” (Hm. I wonder where she heard that…)
4/2/09
Annika: "I’m so smart. I always know everything now."
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