Jacob is home

Jacob got to come home on Monday, Aug 30th. He got released around 7pm. Funny story. I left the hospital around 5:20pm to head home to pick up Tyler and Aaron from our Home Teachers house, where they had gone after school. I had dinner coming in at 6 from my Visiting Teacher and needed to be there. It all worked fine. I got the boys, a little late, but still before 6 and got home to meet my VT. Joe called me at about 6:20. Did I know where his car keys were? See on Saturday in the PICU he couldn't find the car keys. So to keep them safe, I put them in my purse. It hadn't mattered since then because we were traveling back and forth to the hospital in Joe's truck. So we would just hand off those keys and we left the expedition parked at the hospital. Well, now it mattered. I was home, Joe was at the hospital almost ready to bring Jacob home when he realized I had his keys to the expedition in my purse. So after a quick call to a good friend to come over and watch the boys, who had no desire to get back into the car for a ride to the hospital (especially Jared), I got back in the truck to deliver the car keys so we could bring Jacob home.

So I've finally got a few pictures from our hospital experience. I didn't take many, but there are a few. Jacob even took some pictures so I included them just for fun.

This is in the PICU on the 2nd floor at Cardon's Childrens Medical Center. I took this on Sunday about lunch time. That is his lunch in front of him. I had to give Jacob his insulin injection for this meal. My first time. It was scary, but I didn't it and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Aaron on Sunday visiting Jacob.

We had the Wii to play. Tyler and Jared playing during lunch.

Sunday afternoon we were moved off the PICU floor to a regular diabetic floor. He moved to room 522. Jacob took this picture of the view from his room. On Sunday we had many visitors. This was great for Jacob's moral. Home Teachers, Grandparents 2 sets of different cousins and ward friends were among the visitors. We decorated his room with posters from primary and friends. Of course I forgot to take a picture of it before we took it down and brought it all home. I need to get better at taking pictures.

Before we left the hospital on Monday, Jacob was able to give Mom and Dad a saline shot so we would know how it feels. Let me tell you, don't feel sorry for this boy! It was nothing. I didn't even feel it. The anticipation of the shot was way worse! And donating blood is 100 times worse that his injections. He will be so used to them soon that it will be nothing.

Thank you to friends that brought Jacob fun lego sets. They made his day and made time in the hospital more bearable.

When we got home this was on our garage. It really made Jacob smile. Thank you Asay Family! You made the night.

Home Sweet Home!

This is all the stuff the hospital sent home with us. This isn't even half the supplies he will need, but it gets us through for now. We will forever be in debt to our great diabetic nurses, especially Jaime who hooked us up with all these supplies.

This is Jacob's Blood Glucose meter. He tests his blood many times throughout the day. This helps us know how his blood sugar is doing. And tells us when he need insulin. We use it all the time. Jacob does it all by himself. It gets easier every time he uses it.

These are the emergency shots for if he is unconscious. I hope we never have to use them. We had to get 1 for school. 1 for the house and 1 that goes with him everywhere.

These are his insulin. He takes 2 different kinds. Long lasting called Lantus and short lasting for meals called Humalog. We have to do math with every meal. Great practice for everyone!

This is my new bible for Jacob's meals. I have to know how many carbs are in everything he puts in his mouth. We total the carbs then divide it by a certain number and get the ratio of how much insulin he needs to process that meal. It sounds hard, but is getting easier with practice. He does have carb free options to eat for snacks and stuff, like protein, pickles etc. Take a look the next time you are eating something and you'd be surprised how many carbs are in each food. The hard part is I have to break down all my recipes as I make food to know how many carbs are in my homemade dinners, etc. I plan to write the numbers right on my recipes until I have them memorized.

This is why I am not accepting any meals from outside sources right now. No meals are being brought in until I know how to manage Jacob's food I can't take any chances.

So thank you to those that have offered. We appreciate you thinking of us, but want you to understand why we are declining.This is Jacob's life. All tied up in 1 small pack. Needles, meters, lancets, snacks, emergency sugar all in 1 small pack.

It is quite a change at the Macdonald home, but we are adjusting well. Jacob is doing the best. He gives his own injections and is good about checking his sugar when we tell him too. We are going to try to fatten him up a bit in the next few months.

Thank you again to everyone for your kind words and prayers. Know that we are doing great.

Day 3

Just a quick note....I keep saying that and then it goes on and on and on.....

Well not tonight. I'm exhausted. Great day for Jacob. He got moved to a regular room out of the picu (pediatric intensive care unit). He no longer has any iv's or ports. He is wearing regular clothes and eating regular food. We are in the process of him getting used to taking his insulin injections on different areas of his body. I had to administer the dinner one tonight on his belly. Let's just say it didn't go as easily as other times. I am getting better, for a 2nd time, my first was at lunch on his thigh...but he was freaked out and stressed and upset just talking about it. I would be too. He doesn't have hardly any fat on him so he feels a lot more that if he had a fatty place to put the needle in.

Needless to say, he is doing he best. He had lots of visitors today that kept him occupied. Cousins, Aunts and Uncles, grandparents, home teachers and good friends. Thank you to everyone. He walked me and boys out to the truck tonight just to get out an move around.

A good day. Progress. One day at a time.

See, I did keep it short!

Day 2 at the Hospital

We made it through day 2. Jacob is looking very normal and is doing great. His blood sugar levels got back into the normal range by around lunch. Before this I couldn't have told you anything about blood sugar, carbohydrates, the pancreas and how it all works together. But we are becoming experts as fast as we can. To begin, when I brought Jacob into the hospital on Friday afternoon his blood sugar level was 650. Normal range for him should be 90-180 tops. He was in the danger zone. It was scary. So to have him back into normal ranges by lunchtime today was exciting. This meant he could prepare to start injecting insulin and get off the IV.

He was offered a sugar free clear lunch, which consisted of jello, popsicles, diet soda and more jello. He ate 1/2 a popsicle and turned away from everything else. His numbers continued to stay in the healthy range so at 5pm tonight he got his first injection. It was scary, he was worried and stressed. But he did it. And it wasn't as bad as he thought it would be. Because he did that, he was able to eat food for dinner. Sadly the dinner was unappetizing to him so he picked at it. I was able to get him a chocolate milk from the kitchen they keep stocked for families at the hospital. They also had cheddar cheese which he perked up for and gobbled down. It was good to see him reacting to choices and food. He was told that tomorrow he gets to choose his breakfast from off the menu. He was looking forward to that.

They brought in the Wii for him to play. He has Internet access from his bed and a full range of movies. The hospital staff are wonderful. They have been patient and kind.

The best part, he called me tonight and asked if he was feeling really good tomorrow night could we take a special trip to Dairy Queen for ice cream. I just laughed and told him the truth. Although I think it is a great idea, I don't know that the doctors want him leaving the hospital just yet. But that I know for a fact that they have ice cream at the hospital and we can make arrangements to have some tomorrow. (I know they have ice cream because I ate some today while he was sleeping. They keep the kitchen well stocked with tons of snacks and treats for the families.) It lifted my spirits to hear him asking for ice cream. Jacob loves ice cream. In fact almost every day before this happened he had been asking me for ice cream, but I had told him no because it was too late at night or whatever. Well, tomorrow he can have ice cream. We will figure out how and he is having ice cream.

The hardest day

Today has been the hardest day. I don't exactly know where to start and I definitely don't know where it will end. Nutshell version, I ended up in the Cardon Children's Medical Emergency room with Jacob with what I thought was dehydration from a nasty stomach flu, turned in 5 seconds to blood sugars and insulin talk. Jacob has Type 1 diabetes. I learned that today. The first of many things I'll be learning for the next little while. I've been crying for about 8 hours now, off and on. Not because I don't think we can do it. It's just really scary to watch your 10 year old lying there and not be able to do anything for him. Knowing he is hurting. Wondering if I missed the signs. Knowing I've done all I can. Praying. Lots of praying.

I'm scared.

My parents came down once we were settled and helped Joe give him a blessing. He'll be okay. We'll be okay.

I'll post more as I know more. Joe is staying at the hospital tonight, and probably every night. I'm home with the other boys. They are worried, but handling it. I told them Jacob is sick and tried to explain what is going on with his body. The hospital has a great program to help the siblings learn and understand what is happening. When I left, Jacob was sleeping as he probably will for a quite a while as his body takes in the fluids and medicine. We are in the waiting game right now.

I keep reminding myself to count my blessings. I have to say things like this really refocus you on what's important. I can't remember the last time I felt so close to my Heavenly Father. I can feel His presence with Jacob and around us. I know He is watching over my boy. I am grateful for that knowledge. We will get through because of that knowledge. It will make us stronger.

Starting fresh

I've decided I need to get back off my rearend and get back to working out. So I'm starting fresh. I have set goals and made commitments. It's time for "me time" again. My promise is to do the best I can every day and make each day better than the last. Along the way I plan to lose a little weight and feel better about myself. I'll record some of my ups and downs here as I restart this process. Here's to starting fresh.

Art projects

I decided that I'm going to take pictures of all the wonderful art projects my boys make this year and record them here. I will display the project on the freezer for a good amount of time, but by taking a picture and recording it here, I no longer will have the need or desire to keep the paper copy of the project. Of course, I do still keep a few things for their special books, but seeing that I'm not a scrapbooker and keeping tons of these art projects just isn't possible this is my solution. This way I can always remember the cute things the boys bring home from school for me, without going bonkers with the amounts of clutter that 4 boys worth of art projects can create.

This first project is from Aaron. This was his first Kindergarten project.

I love the hand print.


This project is from Jared's first day at the Preschool at Boulder Creek. He was so proud of it and every time he sees it on the freezer he points to it and talks about it. I don't know what he is saying, but he is very excited about it and I play along with his excitement. Hopefully his speech will improve enough throughout the year that I will know what he is telling me about these precious projects.

1st Day of School

Aug. 11th, 2010

1st Day of school for the Macdonald boys. All the boys are going to school this year. Jacob is in 5th, Tyler in 3rd, Aaron in Kindergarten and Jared is attending the preschool for speech services. This is the only great picture I got, thanks to Jacob. He has been using my camera all summer long to take Lego stop animation pictures and drained all my batteries. I got a total of 3 pictures before the battery died.

Jared and I walked the 3 older boys to the bus stop. Aaron was very excited to ride the bus with his brothers. Jared's bus came about 30 mins later to our house. He didn't want to get on, so I had to help him get on and in his seat. But he didn't cry, a plus. When they brought him home, he climbed down all by himself and seemed happy to be home.

In all it was a great first day of school.