Cole's Story

Let’s start by sharing little man’s story…

Cole had been getting several ear infections along with congestion that caused breathing issues. A care plan for Cole included breathing treatments on a nebulizer when needed. On Friday March 15, 2013 we took Cole to his doctor thinking that he might have yet again another ear infection (we were one ear infection away from tubes). On Friday his doctor said his ears were fine but to give him some breathing treatments to help his airways, thinking it was just some sort of congestion issue.

Monday, March 18 rolled around… the dreaded day. Cole was given his lunch and he barely touched it. The night before he barely ate his meal as well. For those that know Cole, we knew something was terribly wrong. The big guy eats A LOT for a 13 month old. A bit later his breathing became heavier and it appeared he was struggling some. I had given him his breathing treatment 2 hours prior. My husband was home b/c we were setting up our cable. He told me to give him another breathing treatment and we decided to call the doctor and bring him in again.

Round 2 of breathing treatments and no relief for the little guy. My husband had to go to work so I called my dad to stay with the cable guys and my mom and I went off to the doctor.

On the way to the doctor Cole was sucking down the water. Looking back we realized he had been doing that for a few days along with excessive urination (we figured due to all the water).

We arrived at the doctor and she checked him and thought he had croup. She gave him a steriod to open up his airways. She kept saying she smelled ketones on his breath and asking if we could smell the fruity scent. I had no idea what in the heck she was talking about or what ketones were.

Well the steriod did not work of course. Then Cole threw up….all over the place. And by place I mean mostly me and the wall. Lucky for my mom, I had just taken Cole from her. Poor little guy, threw up all the pink steriod.

We moved rooms and the doctor tried a different breathing treatment. Another 15 minutes or so goes by (by now it has been like 2 hours). Still no change. She says again that she smells the ketones. Her nurse comes in to check is blood sugar. Now the poor guy gets his little heel pricked. 482…”that can’t be right” says the nurse and walks out the door. Next in walks the nurse with the doctor and they prick his heel again. 482… guess it’s right. The doctor says he needs to go to the hospital now, do you want an ambulance. My mom ask what she thinks we should do and the doctor replies “get an ambulance, I will call you one.”

I call my husband and let him know and my dad. My husband comes to the doctor’s office right before the ambulance arrives. As we are telling the paramedic what the deal is, Cole throws up again.
I am pretty sure at this point I am running on auto pilot. I have no idea what is going on as we load my barely 1 year old into the ambulance. On the way to the hospital, the paramedic ask me if I know what is going on. I say, sure there’s ketones and his blood sugar is 482. The paramedic tells me Cole is DKA (Diabetic Ketoacidosis) and is going to be type 1 diabetic. “oh ok” I say. Inside I am saying “I have no idea what all that means”.

We arrive at the hospital in the ER. They say they need to start 2 IVs on him. They poke and poke and poke him over and over. They bring an IV ultrasound teams in to try to find a vein they can use. Cole is so dehydrated that they can’t find a good vein. After a while they finally get one IV in.  They then want him to be moved to ICU.

We rush up to ICU and they start the whole process of trying to get in another IV. They say they need to have 2 going. Cole was so out of it that he was not fighting anyone, he just lay there lifeless as they poked on him for pretty much the next 12 hours.

We had long night of nurses and doctors coming in and out of the room. They were checking his blood for his glucose level and checking his urine for ketones.

Day 2 in the ICU:

Cole started to seem a little better. He was still not able to eat anything or drink anything. He was being provided fluids through his IV. They were still trying to flush out the toxins in his blood.  His sugar levels had gone down (they were up to 525 when he was admitted to the hospital) they were still trying to flush the ketones out. This is a slow process to bring the sugar down to normal level and to flush the ketones out. They said if they did it too fast then we would be having other issues.

Cole was moved from ICU on day 3. We had to stay one more night in the hospital but at least Cole was feeling more like normal and could eat and drink again. We were kind of worried because he still wasn't eating very well but then again it’s hospital food… who wants to eat that.

Day 4… finally got to go home. Now to start our life with our diabetic toddler. I can’t say the past 2 months have been easy but I am thankful that of all the things that could be wrong with Cole, at least he has something that can be managed.