- Thursday, May 27, 2010. Jessica painted animals on the walls at Noah's Ark pre-school, took Alyssa out candy-selling, came home, ate lunch, went to Eufaula, OK with Charity Gabucci and sons to visit Joy Britt. Had dinner with Joy at 6:00 p.m. then visited until midnight, then she went to bed. She didn't have any snacks or drinks and she doesn't remember what her blood sugar was. Right now she doesn't remember anything.
- Friday, May 28, 2010. Joy decided to wake her up before she went to work at the church. She was groggy and her blood sugar was 39, so Joy gave her two capri sun drinks and called me to let me know. I thought she would regain enough consciousness to know what to do, but I wasn't there to see her response or check on her like normal. Joy decided to go to the store and get some more drinks, etc... When she got back Jessica had gone to the bathroom to take a shower and had passed out or had a seizure. She couldn't get any response from her so she called me. I told her to be rough with her, force sugar into her mouth, etc...but still no response, so she called 911. The camp nurse came and helped until the paramedics got there. They gave her an injection of glucagon, her blood sugar was 31 then. They took her to the Eufaula hospital. Eufaula is smaller than Gladewater and their hospital is very small. During this time I was keeping Scott updated at work. Because it was a holiday weekend, he had to finish out the day and we didn't know how serious her condition was so he didn't panic like I did. He asked me to take the car to get it serviced for the trip and to start packing just in case. Victoria packed and did some shopping for me, bless her heart. She also called the tire center to let them know about our situation and they put a rush on the car. We then received a call from the Eufaula hospital asking for information, she had become so violent that they could not control her or help her. Joy called and let me know that they were going to transport her to a larger hospital - Muskogee Regional Medical Center. When she arrived at the ICU there her blood sugar was over 2000 or higher and she had gone into keto-acidosis, a condition where the body starts burning muscle tissue, which produces acetone in the bloodstream. The doctor called me from there and apprised me of the situation. We left for Muskogee as soon as Scott came home from work, Victoria went with us. It took about five hours to get there. When we arrived the doctor was concerned about her violent behavior and "brittle" condition (where blood sugar goes high/low/high, etc...) She had to be sedated with Advin? she was restrained on all limbs and her shoulders, she had a tape on her forehead that read "patient bites", she had oxygen, two iv's, and was hooked up to four different monitors and was catheterized. They had just taken her for a catscan because they were concerned about her slow response time and wanted to see if there had been an injury when she fell. The doctor said the only thing she would yell is "I want my mommy!" then she added "I want my honey and my mommy!" Only two visitors were allowed at a time in the ICU. Scott found a hotel for us, one of the last rooms in the nearby hotels. We sat up with her until 1:30 a.m. then went and rested until 6:00 a.m. The doctor told us that the sedative should wear off by the morning.
- Saturday, May 29, 2010 - We arrived at the hospital at 7:00 a.m. She looked the same except her color was a little better. The doctor had a lot of questions about her history, normal complications, etc... Most of all they wanted to know if she was a drinker or drug user. Her behavior had been like that of a mean drunk. She had punched, kicked, and bit several nurses, and her strength during unconsciousness required four nurses (two of them male) to restrain her. She is bruised terribly and has several puncture wounds from pulling away while they tried to prick her fingers for blood sugar testing. With the insulin drip her numbers stayed between 120 and 180. We sat with her throughout the day, taking turns with Victoria and Joy. The doctor told us that the catscan was fine and that her brain was taking time to re-calibrate from the lack of glucose and from the poisons from the keto-acidosis. She opened her eyes and knew that I was Mom and Scott was Dad, but she was not responding otherwise. She would flail and yell "I want to get up!", "I need to go potty!", "I need to go to the bathroom!". I finally was able to coax her up to drink a bottle of water and feed her some Jello. She recognized Victoria and said that her throat was hurting. That wore her out, she said "I'm sleepy" rolled over and went into a deep sleep. We were praising the Lord for that much progress. That was the extent of Saturday. They decided to take her off of the insulin drip and regulate her blood sugar every four hours with an injection. Her numbers started going high even though she wasn't eating much. We stayed with her until 11:00 p.m. on Saturday after we could see that she was resting more peacefully and not fighting. They removed the oxygen and the ankle restraints. We slept better that night.
- Sunday, May 30, 2010 - We had breakfast and got ready to go to church in Eufaula. We stopped by the ICU to see how she was doing and I was able to wake her up and sit her up for breakfast. They removed her catheter and put her on a bedpan, that did not work. So we helped her to the bathroom. She seemed to be more conversational, so I stayed with her while Scott and Victoria went to the service. I had tried to keep her hair combed, her lips lubricated, and her body clean and modest throughout the time and she still looked nice for someone who had been through that much. She wanted a shower and was hungry and wanted to go home. I thought maybe a day or two more of this because she looked so weak. The doctor came in and told us that she would like for her to get up, move around, eat a regular diabetic lunch, and maintain her blood glucose to below 200. At that time it was 480. We decided to hook her back to her insulin pump. She slept most of the morning and woke up for lunch. After I fed her lunch, the nurse was going to give her a sponge bath, so we went to eat. When we got back Joy had come from Eufaula (about 30 miles away) and was visiting with her. Scott and I planned to wait the rest of the day for the doctor to check on her and move her to another room. In a few minutes, Joy and Victoria came out to let us know that they had just released Jessica from the hospital! Her numbers were running below 200, she was coherent enough, and she had eaten and was able to go to the bathroom by herself. All of her vital signs, blood work, etc.. had been perfect throughout the time. Her white cell count was normal and her keto-acidosis was not showing up in any blood screenings. We were so surprised, God really does answer prayers! ha!
- In a few minutes we had her dressed, packed up, signed out, and rolled out to the curb. Joy was such a great help and friend throughout all of this, she didn't even get on to her for punching her... When we got into the car we prayed and thanked the Lord for protecting Jessica. We had to stop and get a souvenir for Alyssa...
Jessica does not remember much of the trip home, only eating chicken tenders. She doesn't remember that Bachi, Alyssa, Aunt Kim, Uncle Mark, Meagan, Karen, and Aly were waiting for her when she got home. She doesn't remember getting flowers from Karen or hugs from anyone. The next day she didn't remember anything that happened the past four days, only that she was sore and had bruises all over her. I told her four times that we were going to the doctor today and she keeps asking what we're doing today. I've told her the same joke three times and she's laughed each time. Last night we had a Memorial Day bbq with the Simmons and Martin Meave (she had invited him for Memorial day last week) and she asked about when she got home, she didn't remember.
Her numbers have been going between 50's and upper 200's the past two days. We're going to check her pump and we have an endocrinologist appt this Friday in Tyler.
Sorry if this sounds choppy, but I'm writing for content and my mind is working in facts only.
Love you much!!!
Thanks for all of the prayers!
