Robby Report

Wow...here is a Robby Report that I never saw coming. It doesn't fall in the category of "first words, new skills, or cute little things he does," but it is definitely worth a report of it's own.

On Friday, April 23, Robby was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes (that means he will be insulin dependent for life). Since then, our world has been turned upside down in an almost manageable way, but I'll share more about that later. I first want to tell the series of events that lead us up to this point.

This has indeed been a trial for our family (and will continue to be), but as with most difficult times, there can be found mighty miracles. Our first miracle came in the form of a visit. Several months ago, my parents told us they wanted to come visit. We proposed a few dates, but my parents told us none of them would work. They then told us the exact week they could come (which dates also allowed my younger brother to join them for the trip). We rearranged our schedule to accommodate...thank heavens for inspired grandparents. Their one visit for the entire year coincided with our one moment of deepest need. Coincidence? Not a chance.

They arrived on Wednesday, April 21. For a few weeks prior to this time, I had been concerned about Robby. He had been wetting through his diaper most every night, but not wet through by morning, I mean wet through by like midnight. And when I say wet, I mean soaked...bedding, jammies, everything. At first I thought we were just giving him too much to drink before bed. When we started to try to cut back his fluids, that's when I really started to notice how thirsty he was for much of the day. By the time Wednesday morning rolled around, I had decided I should look into it. He was also acting so fussy that I thought something might be wrong. I called the nurse, made an appointment for Wednesday evening (a few hours before my parents would arrive). Wouldn't you know it, Robby started to perk up, drink less, eat more, and act more normally. I canceled the appointment...something I regret at first, but now looking back, I'm a little relieved.

On the one hand, I feel so badly that my baby had to spend two more miserable days being so terribly sick. But on the other hand, we had two more days of freedom before the bomb was dropped on us...and they were two really good days.

We had made arrangements to once again go to the Great Wolf Lodge for Thursday night. It was a blast. Tyler was tall enough to ride everything, and ride everything he did! We are so glad we had a few carefree and fun days with Grandma, Grandpa and uncle Spencer before we put them to work with helping our family during our crisis. Robby was okay, but just not himself. He enjoyed splashing in the kiddie pool a bit, but mostly he was irritable, tired, and cranky...and he drank as much pool water as he could get away with. That night at the hotel, he barely slept. In fact, John headed back home at three in the morning with him to see if he would get some better sleep. We figured he slept a total of 4 hours for the night. At this point, I realized something was up. I knew the symptoms of Diabetes, but I made an appointment with his pediatrician, praying that she would prove me wrong.

I got in to the pediatrician by 4:00 on Friday. He tested with high blood sugar, sugar in his urine, and ketones in his urine as well. I was devastated and had a good cry right then and there with the pediatrician. She gave me some paperwork and told me to go directly to the children's hospital. John met me at home, my parents and brother stayed with Tyler, and we headed off to the hospital.

Robby was dehydrated (yes, even with all the pool water, but I'll spare you the science), had high blood sugar, and moderate amounts of ketones (a bad thing for diabetics). He fought every doctor and nurse and screamed the entire time they worked on getting his IV put in, but then dropped, and I do mean dropped, off to sleep. He was exhausted. I'll never forget his chocolate brown eyes focused on me while he was screaming during the IV insertion. It was as if he was begging me to stop it all...and I couldn't do a thing. Worst moment of my life.

Lucky for us, we actually caught his illness quite early, and he was fairly quick to stabilize. We stayed at the hospital for three days and two nights. Most of that was not just to stabilize Robby, but to begin our education. I was beyond grateful that my parents and brother were in town to stay with Tyler and to provide lots of moral support. They were a tremendous help!

We've been home and on our own now for almost 5 days. I'll have another post soon about how life is for us these days, but suffice it to say, we are learning lots and making some major adjustments. Robby is healthy and doing well. We are so grateful for all of the prayers that have sustained us during this time and that have helped bring healing to his little body. Thank you all.

Here's where Robby spent much of his hospital stay. He really did quite well, given the circumstances...and even won over the hearts of a few of the nurses.

His favorite was cruising the halls in his new set of wheels...I wish I had a few pictures of him with the wagon, though. He spent an hour and a half pushing that thing around.

On Saturday afternoon we broke him out of his cell and headed outside for some much needed fresh air. His face lit up the minute we hit the doors.

...and then we had to recover from all the excitement.

Man is this boy ever cute! Sure am glad he's feeling much better.