He's Sick Again

Riley's teacher called at lunch on Tuesday to say that Riley had a headache and he didn't eat all of his lunch. She was concerned because Riley always eats everything on his plate. Also, his sugar (which had been near perfect for about 2 days) was 256.

My mom went to school to pick get him. His temp was 99.8. He didn't really feel all that bad. I decided to wait and see.

He did OK. His temp got up to 100.1 at bedtime on Tuesday night. I gave him some Motrin. But, at 1:15 AM his temp was up to 102.2 and his sugar was 349.

I felt sick in my stomach. One of my greatest fears since Riley was diagnosed is that he would get the flu. I had heard horror stories of how diabetes and the flu don't mix.

I took him to the doctor first thing yesterday morning. His temp had come down but I couldn't get it below 100.o even though I was alternating giving him Tylenol and Motrin about every two hours.

Before we went to the doctor I sat down and talked to him. I told him that sometimes when people with diabetes gets sick they can get something in their bodies that can make them sicker. I explained ketones and told him how important it was that he drink plenty of fluids even if he didn't feel like it.

He did wonderful with that. During the day he would often ask for something to drink and say, "Because I don't want to get ketones in my body."

When we got to the doctor's office he examined him and couldn't find anything obviously wrong with him. He decided to test him for the flu.

Riley was not happy. He remembered what it was like the last time they tested him. As soon as the doctor said he was testing for the flu Riley started to cry.

He had stopped by the time the nurse had come in. She explained what she was going to do and that it would "tickle" a little bit. I was looking at her and thinking "liar". But, she didn't cram the swab way up his nose like the last nurse did. She swabbed just inside his nose. After she walked out Riley turned to me and said, "She was very gentle."

10 minutes later the doctor walked in and said, "He has the flu."

My heart dropped and tears started forming in my eyes. I blinked them back. I didn't want to scare Riley.

He gave me the whole spiel about ketones and sugars. He started Riley on Tamiflu to help control his symptoms. He also gave me a prescription for Holden to hopefully keep him from getting it too.

I also called my doctor and got Tamiflu for me and Michael and my mom and my dad are on it too. Hopefully none of us will get it.

As scared as I was it hasn't been that bad. Riley's had a couple of sugars in the 200s, but for the most part his sugars have been fine. He had trace ketones last night. But none before or since then. He hasn't run any temperature since late yesterday afternoon.

My mom looked at me yesterday and said "You'd never know he has the flu. He's running around like he's fine. I thought he would be worse than most because of his diabetes."

I just gave her the only explanation I could. Prayer. Plain and simple. God is looking out for my little man.

If his temp stays down he'll be able to go back to school tomorrow.

I feel so blessed that he is OK and that the worst (which wasn't all that bad) seems to be behind us.

Now if I could get him to take his Tamiflu without coughing and gagging we'd be OK.