If you’ve already read Brooklyn’s story then you’ll realize that since we’d already done this once we were better prepared for the 2nd time.
July 23, 2009. We headed down to Austin, Texas. It’s was about an hour’s drive. We were meeting long time friends who had come from North Carolina for a short visit. Pizza at Cici’s! It was going to be a good few days! I was excited to get the chance to visit friends, and also Paul and I had big plans for the weekend. We were scheduled to head to the Gulf of Mexico for 2 days of deep sea fishing. I personally could have done without the fishing part I was looking forward to us time. However, I know Paul was super siked about the fishing.
We got to Cici’s and had a really great time! That is until Kaylee excused herself to go to the bathroom and got sick. But she came back and seemed to be fine, so we sat there for a short while longer. The kids begged to hang out all afternoon, but we really needed to head home to pack – and well, I was concerned about Kaylee. This was not the first time this had happened. A week earlier after a quick run through a fast food drive-through she had gotten sick after that meal also. Additionally about week prior to that she was coming home from a youth temple trip. They ate out that day; and she had gotten sick then. At no other time had she been sick during that time period. Only after eating out, different places, different food, same result.
Since we had an hour long drive home, I had plenty of time to think. And not really sure about what was happening, I had an impression I could not ignore. I turn to Brooklyn and asked her to do a finger poke to check her blood sugar and then asked her to pass her meter around and we were all going to check our blood sugar. I had done this before but not for some time. So it wasn’t a totally unusual thing for me to do. My suspicion was confirmed when Kaylees number came up ‘Hi’. The meter only reads up to 500 so a ‘Hi’ reading is anything above 500. On a person without diabetes a number would never be that high even if they had just eaten an entire cake and washed it down with soda. There was no other explanation; Kaylee had diabetes.
I wasn’t sure how to break it to her, but she saw the result on the meter and she silently covered her head to hide and cry. She already knew. I wasn’t ready to say it out loud and I definitely didn’t want to say it where she could hear me just in case I was wrong. So I pulled out my phone and for the first time ever I sent a text message to my mom. I didn’t even know if she knew how to text. My first text to her went something like this: Do you know how to Text? I have something to tell you but I can’t talk out loud. Of course I got the reply that yes she knew how to text. So I told her my concerns and told her that as soon as we got home, we’d be taking her into the ER and I’d call her later.
We were foster parents and drove around in a 15 passenger van so it was easy to move back to sit close to Kaylee, put my arm around her and hold her all the way home. I think we all knew what was up, but we didn’t talk about it. I only said that I thought we should take her to the ER, and so we’d be dropping the girls off at home and we’d take her in.
I also sent a text off to Jules my friend who was going to take the girls for the weekend. I told her what was up and cancelled our plans with her. To this day she teases Kaylee about it. You see Kaylee is kind of a homebody and had turned down several ‘sleepovers’ at Jules house. In our family we really don’t do the whole sleepover thing, but on rare occasions there are times that we do, however Kaylee always preferred to come home and sleep in her own bed. So Jules teases her that she would do ANYTHING to not have to stay the night at her house – even go so far as to give herself diabetes that very weekend.
When we arrived home we gathered a few things and headed for the ER on base. When we walked in I told the receptionist why we where there. Again we were put ahead of other people there. In fact we sat in the waiting room all of about a minute. I could picture the things going on in other peoples heads. Here was 2 parents and a child, no signs of pain, no one even looked sick and yet we were immediately attended to. I felt bad, we took a bed that someone else had been sitting there waiting hours for.
Blood sugar was checked, labs drawn. All quiet and orderly. Although it did begin to get irritating that every new person that walked in to care for Kaylee asked, ‘When was she diagnosed?’ And everytime we’d explain that she hadn’t been, and that was why we were there now. Eventually they got smart and called the only near-by pediatric endocrinologist Dr. Bryant in Temple, TX (45 minutes away). I was glad for that, we already knew him, he was Brooklyn’s doctor.
Dr. Bryant wanted her transferred to Scott and White in Temple, where he could watch her for a day or two and get the insulin ratio adjusted that she would need. This meant an ambulance ride. We joked a little about that. Kaylee by this time was feeling fine, walked out to the ambulance and crawled inside herself, but they did make her lay down on the bed. All she could think about was this is cool, and she really wanted to take a picture of herself in it, but she was too shy to ask if it was okay.
I rode with her, but up in the front passenger seat, and for me it was different. Again as with Brooklyn, this was the first time I had let myself think about all that was happening and all the things that would now be different for her. However, the driver wanted to chit chat and make small talk – I had a hard time concentrating as he rambled on. Although annoying, it did prevent me from thinking too much and of course that would have led to crying. Since it wasn’t life threatening he was in no hurry and the drive seemed to last forever.
I think Paul went home to get some clothes and dinner; and then made the drive over. I was grateful when he finally arrived. I didn’t like facing this without him, in fact I kept him there for a long time to just hang out. There was too much déjà vu in the whole situation, although very different, it was all very much the same.
We got to see Dr. Bryant way too early in the morning. But it was comforting to see him. I knew he’d get her started off on the right foot. The first thing he told kaylee was that she could go home as soon as she was giving herself her shots. So she got a one day crash course in counting carbs, and insulin doses. And at her first opportunity she started testing her blood sugar herself along with giving herself shots. I was pretty proud of her. She just wanted to go home. And as promised the next morning he said we could go home.
In our house we share a lot of the work load and the diabetes was the same. Kaylee knew exactly what was going on because when Brooklyn was diagnosed we made it a family affair. Alyssa, Kaylee and Emma were and are all well versed in diabetes and what to do in almost any situation. So now for Kaylee it just meant learning to deal with it herself.
Although Kaylee was not happy with the diagnoses she took on a ‘it is what it is’ attitude. She just did what she had too and tried to not let it interfere with her life. And even though Dr. Bryant told her she’d have to wait 6 months for a pump, she convinced him at 3 months that she was ready for one!
I think for Brooklyn it’s was somewhat of a comfort to her to now have a buddy to bond with; that understands what she goes through.
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