The power or prayer is amazing. We have kept Gemma on a slow feed of glucose water since yesterday afternoon, with 3 glucagon injections to help boost her sugars when they dropped below 3. Her blood sugars improved greatly over night, and now they are above 10, but rather higher than lower.
I phoned Prof. Dunitz Scheer (from Graz) in an absolute tizz yesterday and she calmly told me that we would be able to keep Gemma's sugars stable for the flight. She said we could admit Gemma as soon as we arrive on Saturday morning, instead of on Sunday. I felt so much more relaxed and positive about our trip. We have decided to still take Bryce with us. We do realise that it will be hard work having him there, but we know it will be harder for us if he's not there with us, and the team at Graz has said it is better for Gemma if she has as many of her family around her. There are often times in this blog that I say "I" instead of "we". That is just out of habit, Michael is constantly by my side during any decisions that need to be made.
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Today has been an emotional roller coaster. Excitement about the trip this morning, then rethinking the whole trip as Gemma's blood sugars have once again been low all day. We have been in touch with Gemma's endocrinologist and are using advice given to us to help stabilise her sugars. We really just have to hold thumbs that she improves overnight. I don't think I have ever been this stressed in my whole life. We have managed to keep Gemma's blood sugars stable for 3 years and now for the first time we both feel totally out of control.
With Gemma in this state, and if all goes well tonight, the remaining question is: should we still take Bryce along?. I will be devastated if we decide not to. Tonight is going to be a long night with crucial decisions t Gemma came out of hospital (in Bloemfontein) last night, having been treated for low blood sugars. Last night she vomited her entire feed out, and her blood sugars dropped low again. We administered Glucagon during the night so were able to keep her blood sugars stable. We have given her her morning feed, and her blood sugars are going up very slowly. She is not as energetic, but I just hope that she keeps her feeds down today.
This has been a very busy week. We were expecting to have a few days to pack and get everything organised for our trip to Graz on Friday. Well.....last week Tuesday we rushed Gemma to hospital as she started vomiting and we were finding it very difficult to keep her blood sugars stable. By the time we got to Bloemfontein (roughtly a 3 hour drive), she was cheerful, had gained colour and had stopped vomiting.
Michael had to go back to work. He took Bryce with him, but when he reached the border post, Bryce had very bad diarrhea. Jax (my sister) drove to the border to fetch him. I stayed in Bloem with the children for a few days, just in case Gemma had a relapse, or Bryce's diarrhea got worse. After 3 days, we went back home. The night we arrived home, (the short of a long story) Bryce got bitten in the face by a dog. After a stressful evening, I managed to pack the children's suitcase as well as dumping a few of my own clothes in a bag, expecting to have to rush Bryce through to the doctor. While I was packing, Gemma started moaning that she wasn't well. She was pale in the face. I checked her blood sugar, it was low. The same story. Her blood sugar didn't improve after the feed. She went extremely pale and fell asleep. We administered glucagon and once again rushed her back to Bloem. She was admitted to ICU for 3 nights. All her blood tests came back clear. She was discharged today, and now we have to focus on her trip and get everything organised in two days. We can't believe how quickly time has flown. We are so close to reaching our target goal, and Gemma's trip is all coming together. We have made an appointment at the Austrian embassy for Monday morning to get our visa's. If all goes according to plan, we leave Bloemfontein on the 29th of October. Her program is from the 1st to the 19th of November.
Gemma's blood sugars are misbehaving again. We are struggling to keep her levels above 3.5, so this means we have to feed her more regularly. Just over a month till Graz, so we are just hanging in there, and very excited to get to Graz. We received the invoice from Graz. so Gemma is officially booked in from the 31st of October to the 19th of November. We are very excited and really feel that this will be a life changing experience for her, as well as making life easier for us as parents. There is a lot of organising to do now, getting our visa's etc, etc.
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