Saturday 24 December 2011

‘twas the night before Christmas…

 TREE

…& all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse!

But if you’d been here last week it would have been quite a different story!  We had the scariest experience we’ve had in many a long time!!

Alex has lived with type 1 Diabetes since age 4, & apart from the initial few weeks of adjusting to injections & food choices, we have always maintained good control, meaning he suffers minimal ‘hypo’s’ or diabetes related issues.

Last week he had a head cold & took two days off school. His blood sugar numbers spiked, as they always do with a cold, & then he felt better & returned to school.  When he came home that third day, he said he felt a bit sick, but had no temperature & as he & Nathan were their usual  sparring selves, I just thought it was the tail end of the cold. At 2am the next morning he woke me to say he’d been sick & then he proceeded to be sick every two hours. He couldn’t even keep water down & despite this his blood sugars were sky high!

It was at this point I sought professional advice & a locum doctor called in to see him. Even this guy felt that all he needed was some fast acting insulin & offered to arrange a prescription. As he was just a locum at our surgery, &  not familiar with Alex’s medical history, he decided to double check with the Diabetes team at the hospital first & they told him that Alex had to go in to them straight away!….Panic!!

Alex was actually suffering with Ketoacidosis, a condition I am aware of, but not something we have had any experience with. I remember being told if Alex had a high temperature or if his breath smelled ‘chemically’ to check his ketone levels. But as neither of these applied, I had not even considered it might be an option!!

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So, within the hour, Alex was in hospital & (his worst nightmare!) had a Cannula inserted & was wired up to multiple drips! he was so dehydrated his veins had collapsed & even trying to get a blood sample was a battle.

I am happy to report that after three days & two sleepless nights (for me anyway!) we were allowed to bring Alex home, as long as we promised to monitor his levels every 4 hours around the clock. His ketones are now back down to 0.1 & his blood sugars are settling, but we still have more insulin adjustments to make. In the main he is his old self & I don’t even care if he’s argumentative & stroppy…seeing him so very poorly was such a scare & quite frankly , his full recovery is all I need for Christmas!

Nats cakes On a lighter note…some very nice things to report! Nathan cam home from school with two of the cutest Christmas cakes he’d made in his Food Tech lesson…& kept secret for the last three weeks!!!


Of course, I got it wrong again when I commented on the lovely yellow flowers, only to be informed “they’re not flowers, they’re stars!”…oops!

SSQ#10 Stash

I took part in the Soul Scrappers SSQ#10 & received the package of goodies pictured right!

The challenge is to use all of the items in a project…this one was obviously to have a Christmas theme.

It looked like such a lot of bits & bobs, but when I actually sat down to work with it all, I actually found that it all fitted quite nicely onto a 12x12 LO…

 

Oh! Christmas Tree
I also took part in another Soul Scrappers challenge ‘texture of Summer’ & chose the ripening wheat crop in a local farmers field, The ears of wheat always feel so silky & I love the way the whole field shimmers when the wind blows…

Field of Gold  
I’m proud to say my LO was the winner of this section!

17 Baseball Birthday Card
I also had another lovely surprise this week when I received an email from American Crafts to tell me I had won their Thickers contest on facebook!

I had entered this card I made for a friends son, back in the summer, after spotting the contest details on the pack I’d used to make the card!

 

AC Prize
My prize arrived yesterday & is a fabulous AC ‘Cut Up’ paper trimmer with three interchangeable blades! I am thrilled!!

There are always lots of opportunities to win fabulous AC prizes, as well as loads of inspirational ideas to be found over at the American Crafts Studio Blog, so I’d highly recommend a visit!

Well, I guess that’s all from me for now!

I’m all prepared for the big day tomorrow…are you? After losing three days last week, some serious prioritisation took place & to be honest, we’re not missing anything!!

 

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I’d like to wish you all a very merry Christmas & I do hope all your Christmas wishes come true!

Not forgetting to mention 2012…may it prove to be the best year yet & full of good health & happiness!

Thanks for stopping by & come back soon! :)

9 comments:

scrappyjacky said...

So glad that Alex is ok. Happy Christmas to you all.

Anonymous said...

Such a scary experience for you and your son. I suffer from type 2 diabetes and have never experienced the situation your son was in. I hope he continues to get well and return to his normal levels. Hope he enjoys Christmas/
Merry Christmas to you and I love your blog!

Anonymous said...

Merry Christmas, lovely Sandi, and congrats! love your layouts and cards. So glad, too, that Alex is ok.

Let me know what you think of the AE cutter! I've been considering giving it a try but would love to hear what you think!

humel said...

Oh my word, scary! I'm glad he was home for Christmas - hope you all had a lovely time xx

PS COngrats on your wins!

Mel Askew said...

My daughter B has type 1 and was diagnosed 2 days after her 13 th birthday she will b 16 on New Years day. B has a pump as her control is not good and she is very insulin resistant when her blood sugars are HI so I know how scary and worrying it is for a mum- we narrowly avoided a hospital stay about 2 1/2 weeks ago. Sending you big hugs because I know you probably need it more than Alex because he was where he needed to be .

cookcreateread said...

Glad to hear Alex is ok now! What a scare though. Your tree looks lovely too :)

Sian said...

I hope Alex is now feeling a lot lot better. Gosh, what a shock that must have been for you all. But I hope your Christmas Day has turned out to be a lovely one and I'm wishing you all a happy, creative 2012

Lizzie said...

Poor Alex - and poor you too! I hope he is much better and the ketone levels are back to normal levels. What a scare...It must be good to know that the local hospital have a well organised team, who can give you the support you need. Good for that locum, for double-checking!
I hope you all had a good Christmas, despite the scary stuff.. and the shoulder pain.
Now it's 2012 - a new year - so I wish you a very Happy New Year and hope it will be a great year for you all!

Lizzie said...

Okay... so busy waffling about Alex etc...
I wanted to mention how much I loved the layout you made, with the cornfield and the gorgeous paper poppies & ears of wheat. No wonder you won a prize with it - it's ace!
And the paper cutter looks great. I just took a peep a the American Crafts blog - they showed a picture of the cutter there. There were 213 comments, so you were amazingly lucky to win!