Annus Horribilis, Chapter 6: Diabetes

For the last week or so, Nicci had been thirstier than she had ever been before. She would be drinking about 7 litres of fluid a day and still be thirsty. She had also lost about 20 lbs in weight in 2/3 weeks. We had put this down to breastfeeding, and fatigue, and the hot weather... but as Nicci was discussing it with some friends on Wednesday evening, Taylor Buzzard (soon-to-be-mother-of-three) said perhaps a visit to the doctor would be wise: some weight loss might be expected when breastfeeding, but not 20 lbs!

While the doctor agreed the symptoms were concerning, she didn't think it was anything overly serious but did order a precautionary 'fasting' blood test to check blood sugar levels. Nicci took the test on Saturday morning as Dad and I waited in the car with Daniel before she dropped us off at the train station for our day trip into San Francisco and Alcatraz!

(Dad arrived on Tuesday evening last week and is with us for about 2 weeks. It is great for him to be able to meet Daniel for the first time, and for three generations of Gilchrist men to hang out together).

While Dad and I were in the city all day, Nicci went off with Daniel to our friends Vic and Briana Ishida's baby shower, (their daughter is due in a couple of months), which was up in San Bruno (about 14 miles north of us up the freeway), and then later to a girls' hang-out (where Daniel showed himself to be a true ladies man in the making) at Caitlin Arnold's house in Mountain View, which is 19 miles south of us down the freeway). There were times during the day when Nicci felt a bit dizzy - but pushed on through, spending quite a bit of time at the wheel alone in the car with Daniel in the back.

We all met up back at home again at about 9.30pm and settled Daniel down and were getting ready for bed ourselves when at 11pm our doctor called, having got the results of Nicci's earlier blood work. Her fasting blood sugar levels were at 320mg (normal being more like 100-120mg). She said we should get her to A&E and that it was a miracle she hadn't passed out behind the wheel during the day.

So I took Nicci back down to Stanford where she had her blood tested again. Her initial reading was off the scale of the litle pin-prick machine they used (it just said > 500mg), so they drew some more blood and found her to be at 920mg!! They hooked her up to an IV drip to re-hydrate her. One doctor said that it was likely she was 6 or 7 litres low on fluids (no wonder she had been so thirsty) and again, everyone couldn't believe that she had WALKED into the emergency room given her astronomically high blood sugar levels. This was all happening between midnight and 2am on Saturday night / Sunday morning.

Brief interlude here to say that, while it's natural to keep score of the catalogue of things that 'gone wrong' in the last 12 months, it is a better discipline to count our blessings. What amazing timing that this should happen while Dad was staying with us so he could stay at home with Daniel! Just like it was amazing timing that Nicci's parents were with us when she had that heavy bleed during pregnancy and was put on strict bed-rest. God is good, not only that we had a keen and able baby-sitter on hand - but also for keeping Nicci from passing out during a busy day when I was not with her, (and also just because he IS!!). Anyway, back to the small hours of Sunday morning....

Nicci had been hooked into the IV line and lying on a bed out in the corridor as it was fairly busy in A&E. Being a Saturday night, added to the those coming in with more 'domestic' complaints were people being treated for wounds sustained during pub brawls etc! One guy walked past us who looked like he had come off worst in his particular punch-up...

By the time Nicci was being hooked up to her third bag of fluids we were wheeled out of the corridor and into a room between an elderly lady who had had a fall and someone else whose complaint I don't recall.

By now, they knew it was Diabetes and they started giving her insulin, and constant fluid replenishment. I left Nicci in their capable hands and got home at about 3.15am to find Daniel sleeping peacefully. He woke up for a feed at 4am and then slept through until about 9-ish. We had been led to expect that Nicci would be discharged on Sunday morning, so I insisted Dad should continue with his plan to go on from his visit to some Russian Orthodox friends in Modesto and head out to see Yosemite. Having seen our photos, Dad was keen to see the awesome landscape for himself...

Nicci had suggested that I call the pediatrician to inform them of Nicci's diabetes and to ask whether it was of any relevance, or hand any knock-on implications for Daniel.... Daniel looked fine, but the nurse on the other end of the phone said I should bring him in as I'd said he'd been pretty sleepy. I needn't have bothered. In the doctor's surgery he was Mr. Perky-perky, all smiles and flatulence and the doctor said he looked and sounded great. They weighed him, and he's now 13 lb 8 oz - just half a pound away from the 1 stone threshold! What a Belter!

From there I went and picked up Heather Lux, a friend of ours who had very kindly offered to help me fix some things together for Nicci, whose stay in hospital we now realised was going to be longer than we had first anticipated, and to look after Daniel while I went in and delivered them. Nicci was able to leave her room and come down to an outdoor patio area in the hospital and meet us all there. It was a lovely tearful reunion of mother and child. Nicci was able to relieve some breast-pressure and give Daniel a good ol' fresh-from-the-source feed. (While Nicci has been in hospital I've been using some of the frozen stuff we'd collected over the last couple of months, which he's been taking without too much fuss - but he does prefer the fresh-stuff.)

The doctors had been having a hard time stabilising Nicci's blood sugar - she had responded well to the insulin, but her levels went the other way such that she became 'hypoglycemic' with low blood sugar levels. So they needed to give her some sugar, which then sent her high again... I trust we are zero'ing in on the right doses etc as we come to land on the right balance with the accuracy of a lazy mosquito.

With these wildly fluctuating levels (but mostly still high at around 400mg), the walk to the patio area and the breastfeed kind of took it out of Nicci, so Heather took Daniel back to the car and I took Nicci back to her room and bed. As I was walking back I got a text from Dad, who had just got himself a mobile phone-on-the-go so he could be in contact. When he heard that Nicci was to be staying longer in hospital he immediately ditched his plans, turned the car around and away from the direction of Yosemite and came straight back. What a great man! It has been amazing having him here.

When I got home, having dropped Heather back to her place, I put Daniel down and tied up a bit before he woke up for another feed. The doorbell rang and it was Caitlin who, unexpectedly, had been to a Thai take-out place and had got us dinner. What a great friend! Once again, the arms of God's love are being extended to us through those of his people. God is good. And we are hugely grateful to those dear friends back home in Arborfield and Barkham who have been praying since they heard the news via Colonel Bruce.

When Dad arrived home we went in convoy to the car rental office to return his car, and then came home to eat the delicious Thai food that the Arnolds had generously provided. And then to bed....

Daniel is awesome. He fed before we all turned in at about 10.30pm, and slept through until 4am when gladly took a good amount from the bottle and didn't make a fuss in being put down again, whereby he slept through again until 7.15am. Having had a lot of close-up time feeding him in the last couple of days I am seeing that he really has Nicci's eyes - which makes me love him even more, if that were possible!

Having fed him, I left him with Dad and went to check in on Nicci at the hospital. I arrived as the Doctor was explaining various bits and pieces about what's next etc, and how they hope to discharge her later this afternoon :-) Then the Diabetes specialist arrived and presented Nicci with her new toy: a blood sugar measurer. Nicci immediately warmed to this woman when she saw that she had picked her out a pink one. So finger-pricking is to be a feature of at least the next few weeks, if not the rest of her life!

Nicci remains in amazingly high spirits, although is still feeling the dizzy-ing effects of her continuingly fluctuating blood levels. We were both encouraged by what had been reading in the Bible this morning: Nicci was in Psalm 73: "25 Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. 26 My flesh and my heart may fail,but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." I was in 2 Corinthians 1: "For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. 9 Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. 10 He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. 11 You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many." In God we trust! And we are so grateful for the help of your prayers!

It remains to be seen whether Nicci will indeed be released this evening, but it's great to have Dad to look after Daniel while I do all the stuff that's going on at work - it's our big financial reporting day, following our most recent internal financial re-forecast. From what I hear, all is well at home. I'm heading back there now to check in on things, and hope to have some good news from the hospital soon....