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.

Dead battery fun...

I took the boys to see Toy Story 3 today at the movie theatre on Stapley. I had a gift card and that was all I needed as an excuse to take my boys out for some afternoon fun. We went to the 12:55 showing. There was no one in the theatre when we got there at 12:50! It was great. Maybe another 6 people came in, total. It made for an excellent movie experience. Anyways, the movie was great. We love the Toy Story movies. They are all very entertaining and good clean fun.

After the movie, I noticed that Joe had been calling me. I called him back and told him where we were and asked if we could come visit him at work. He said it wasn't a good time, which is fine because he is very busy getting ready for the back to school rush. He told me he was planning on staying late to work on a few projects so not to plan on him home for dinner. I told him okay and that we'd see him later.

Then the fun began! As we exited the theatres we noticed a major monsoon storm headed right for us. The wind was blowing dust and the air was very cool. That meant rain was coming. So we hurried to our car and got set to head over to visit grandma & papa since they just live over the freeway from the movie theatre. But the car wouldn't start. Not a sound. Dead battery.

My first instinct was to call Joe, and that's exactly what I did. Joe of course said he would be right there. I got everyone out of the hot car and we headed to the strip mall to take some cover from the dust and wind while we waited for Dad to come save us. I then thought to call my parents and tell them we weren't coming. Which my mother said, why didn't I just call them? They are so close and could come help, maybe even before the rain hits. I told my mom that Joe was already on his way and not to worry. The boys were having a great time playing in the wind and looking for rain drops.

It took Joe about 15 mins to get to us from his school. In that 15 mins the rain started to come down. It was falling in sheets of water. The boys were having a great time dodging drops and pretending they were being shot by the large drops of water. They were screaming and running, it was fun to watch. No one else was outside so I didn't worry about the noise.

By the time Joe drove up it was pouring! We raced back to our car. I loaded all the boys into my car and got out the jumper cables. Just walking around my car to the back had me soaked. Needless to say, we got the car jumped and running. Joe and I were completely soaked. My hair was dripping, I could ring out the water. I got in the car and Jacob was just laughing at us. Aaron said, "Mom doesn't get this wet when we go to the swimming pool!" And that is the truth. I never get fully wet at the swimming pool because I have a reaction to the chlorine in the water. But I was wet today.

The best part...Joe was heading home with us to make sure we got home safe and take care of the battery. He had to bring a ton of work home and will probably lock us all out of the office for the night, but he's home. In all it was an exciting day. Not exactly what I had planned, but a great day to make a memory. Got to love these monsoon afternoons in Arizona.

Is the summer over yet?

I think Aaron's getting a bit bored this summer. Good thing school starts soon.