The Tube is out!
It has been almost a year since our trip to Graz. A year that we have not had to use Gemma’s tube at all. A long road still lies ahead before Gemma will be eating several small meals a day to keep her blood sugars stable, as we still rely on giving her up to two Frebini’s a day in small dosages for this reason. Her willingness to eat goes through phases, all depending on the situation she is in, i.e if there are children around her willingness definitely increases. Since last writing, there had not been much news up until about three weeks ago. It seems that every four months or so, (maybe it’s related to growth, or seasonal change) her glucose reserves seem to deplete or something of the sorts. About 3 weeks ago, she started having lows that were uncontrollable. After giving her a feed because of a low, her sugars would remain below 3, and not come up at all. We gave her glucagon to try help the situation, and the next few days her sugars would be good. The same pattern started again a few days later, and thus we used glucagon again. At this point we decided to take her to hospital, as we felt we couldn’t just keep on giving her glucagon at home. Murphy’s Law always has it that the day she arrives in hospital her sugars are good. This may be from the stress she goes through when the drip is put in etc. that makes her sugars go higher. Whilst she was in, her sugars did drop again, and her pediatrician administered two doses of highly concentrated glucose running over 30 minutes each. (I’m not too familiar with this, as he usually puts her on a slow dextrose drip). On the second day she was in hospital, I asked her if she was ready to have her tube removed. She said she was!!! We would have preferred to take it out at home and have a big celebration, especially as Michael and Bryce were still back home in Lesotho. After chatting to Michael on the phone, we agreed that it was better to have it done while she was in hospital, just in case there were any complications, i.e infection, leakage. It was a bit of an anti-climax at the time, but we’ll find a good time in the near future to make a big deal of it and celebrate. The day after Gemma was discharged from hospital, the same pattern of low sugars and not rising after feeds happened again. It was a Sunday and I was in a complete panic. Our pediatrician was off duty, so I was put in touch with another pediatrician whom at least is familiar with Gemma. He calmed me down, and between us we both analysed why Gemma had gone into hospital in the first place. He suggested that maybe her body still needed more glucose, and came to the conclusion that we try polycose added to her feeds again. Polycose is something we stopped using about 4 months ago, because it was believed then that it was spiking her sugars and causing them to drop rapidly. Jax, ,my sister came to sit with Gemma while I rushed to the chemist to get some. Luckily they had one tin available. After playing around with her feeds and substituting some with polycose on it’s own, her sugars started stabilizing again. It has been six days that all has been good. Just to share a little miracle that happened during this trip. The day I was going to go home, I needed to do some last minute shopping, so I dropped Gemma at my mom-in-law. I was almost on time, and about to fill up with petrol, pick her up and head back to Lesotho. However, I realized that my bank card was missing, and then figured I had left in the ATM machine. I had to go back to the bank and get a new card. This meant I had to go back to Gemma to feed her, and then still finish what I hadn’t done in that hour. When I came back the second time, my father-in-law was at home and as I drove off with Gemma in the car, he noticed a wet patch where the car had been standing. Anyway, to cut a long story short, there was a big crack in the radiator, which would probably have meant that if I had gone home when I was supposed to, the whole engine of the car may have blown. Keith, seeing how desperate I was to get back home, drove me back that same day, which I was extremely grateful for, leaving our car in Bloem. Gemma and Bryce, being siblings similar in age, usually fight like cat and dog, but seeing the picture of the two of them embracing after a week apart was absolutely priceless. Bryce was swinging with some guests at the lodge, and on hearing Gemma’s voice practically flew off, ran to her and bowled her over in excitement. That night the fighting started all over, but it’s reassuring that things are back to normal!
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