They Won't Starve

What day is it today?

I honestly have no clue.  A three day weekend involving an ER visit and subsequent 24 hour stay at the hospital has me all discombobulated (spelled that right on the first try!).

 After keeping Gabe for 24 hours to monitor his blood sugars we were sent home with no answers.

We do know that by the time we got him to the hospital he was, in fact, in a full diabetic coma.

While nurses struggled to get an IV in his nonexistent veins, he went from freezing cold to dripping sweat.  They poked him at least 30 times trying to get a line in while he laid there, not flinching or crying at all, before a NICU nurse suggested getting a glucose reading from his toe.

The sample didn't even register. 

His little body literally was out of sugars to function.  This explains the unblinking stares, hallucinations, and limp body.  They rushed to get him orange juice and a Popsicle while my stepdad ran to get him his favorite, McDonalds.

It was amazing to watch his little body come back to life almost instantly.

Not fully, but he blinked then started to move his little hands and the more he drank and ate the more he was able to sit up.  They gave him glucose water (a lot) which then sent his numbers up to 350, way to high.  The doctors wanted to observe him to be sure he could regulate them back to normal and run more tests to try to find out what caused the sudden drop.

He spent the rest of the day and night seeing things that weren't there and not making much sense verbally.  He had a hard time with hand eye coordination and walking was difficult.  All so hard to watch, but they said was normal for sugars that low then that high.

He woke up Monday morning fully himself. 

Just as fast as he had faded out in his sleep the night before, he came back.  Hungry, busy, talking all the words.

All tests came back normal.  His white blood count was elevated, but again that is a normal response to that stressful of a situation.  He never got a fever or got sick in any other way.

We spent the day playing and watching movies until they discharged us that afternoon.

The only explanation they gave was that he just didn't eat enough food the days leading up to the episode.

Which is true, he hadn't been eating more than a couple bites at a meal for days.  I had chalked it up to preschooler picky eating.  I've always been in the camp of "it's fine to not eat, but you won't eat again until the next meal."

They won't starve themselves, right?

True, but their bodies may run out of sugars and send them into a diabetic coma while they sleep.

The doctor said this isn't unheard of.  It happens in kids under 5. 

I still think it's strange that he was so normal (ei: ultra active) right up to bedtime the night before and crashed overnight.  Andrew and I kept checking on him Monday night and laughing because, guess what, sleeping looks a whole lot like coma!  Not sure what exactly we were looking to see.

Either way, Gabe is back to his happy, active self.

He even got another one of my famous haircuts where I basically butcher the boys luscious curls.  Sorry buddy.

Life goes on.  Preschool starts Monday.

Thanks for the prayers.