Monday, March 03, 2008

No More Flu and Yay for the Pump

Thank you all for your kind comments and well-wishes.

Riley has been temperature-free since Friday at about 10:00 AM. Friday actually turned out to be his worst day. He ran high all night long Thursday night/early Friday morning. He didn't come down to an acceptable level until about 3:00 Friday afternoon. He also had small ketones Friday until about 1 PM or so.

I had taken off work Wednesday to stay home with him. Michael took off work on Thursday. It's really hard to take off more than one day of work in a week. My mom went out of town on Friday. So, big brother Holden stepped up to the plate.

Of course I had to twist his arm to get him to stay home from school (not). He did a wonderful job with Riley. I went over my check list with him before I left for work. I told him that it was very important that Riley drink plenty of fluids to flush out the ketones. I also told him how often to check ketones.

He said he wouldn't know when Riley was going to the bathroom so he locked the bathroom door so Riley couldn't get in without asking. That way he never missed an opportunity to check for ketones. I would have never thought of that myself.

When I called to check on them one time I mentioned that Riley really needed to drink a lot since he had ketones. Holden said he had 2 glasses of Crystal Light in Riley's room. He had Riley drinking out of both of them and when they were empty Riley would let Holden know and he would refill them. Riley drank almost 2 quarts of fluid by the time I had gotten home.

I got off work as early as I could (3 PM). When I walked in the door there was a fort set up in the living room and Holden and Riley were playing in it. Holden said Riley was perfect all day and they didn't get in one fight. (That's pretty rare on both accounts.)

So, Riley is at school today. And he took the last of his icky Tamiflu last night.

And today is his 2 year anniversary of pumping. I was so scared 2 years ago. But now, I can't even begin to describe how much I love the pump. Temporary basals have been our best friend as of late.

I am so glad that Riley was able to get the pump so early in his diagnosis. It has been hard but I really think it would have been harder if we didn't have the pump. We used to have to make him eat a certain amount and we couldn't dose sometimes when he was high because we couldn't give him a small enough dose. I remember taking food away from him when he was eating because we were trying to keep him at 25g of carbs. Now he eats what he wants and we bolus for it.

Yay for the pump!!

6 comments:

Scott K. Johnson said...

How neat that Holden took such good care of his little bro! That makes me smile.

Carey said...

What a great big brother. Glad the flu is behind you.

Araby62 (a.k.a. Kathy) said...

Locking the bathroom door...oh, brothers. They're wonderful :)

Glad he's better!

Donna said...

Holden is such a great big brother! And no fighting - that would have been a rarity when my kids were young. So I understand your surprise & happiness on that subject. Glad Riley's doing better. I thank God for the pump all the time.

Lisa said...

I'm so glad that Riley is back at school and is over the flu. I just got an e-mail that the flu is going around Izzy's preschool and it has me worried. Glad Riley is back to normal!

Jen said...

Glad to hear Riley came through the flu OK. Sounds like he is lucky to have such a cool big brother.