While the hospital staff were all nice and helpful, we really just wanted to get out of here. It had been a long 3 days in the hospital, and we really wanted to go home. It was a bit overwhelming though. For the last few days they had been piling us with one thing on top of another. Tons of information, tons of things we had to remember.
If we didn't think we could handle anything more, we were wrong, because the last day brought doctors, pharmacists, and the social worker. The doctors told us that our son would need to be seen every 3 months and later 6 months by an endocrinologist. And they didn't just mean for a while, the meant FOREVER. So yeah, basically the rest of his life, our son would need to be monitored by an endocrinologist. This is what I couldn't quite get into my head. This was not just a temporary thing. This was FOREVER. FOREVER. This wasn't going to go away. This was just that. FOREVER.
Another visit we had was from a pharmacist. It was really intimidating having a pharmacist start telling you tons of information and listing off what seemed like dozens of new prescriptions you would have to get and keep filled. It was even more scary when being in the hospital for days only using syringes and viles of insulin, when all of the sudden they are showing you this new insulin pen that you will use instead although you have never used one and you won't use it until you get home, so "I hope you don't mess up!"
I couldn't believe all the things I needed to remember. I was still trying to remember all the information they gave me and now I had to think about follow up appointments and knowing how often I'm supposed to call in blood sugar numbers to some hotline, and what prescriptions to pick up and then there is even more.
They show me this thing called glucagon, which is an emergency treatment for low blood sugar which involves a big needle and some vile of powder that you mix up. (I'm sure there's a little more to this, but I wasn't retaining all the information so well at this point.)
So, here we were. We were stacked up with like 10 different books, and then long acting insulin, a glucagon thing, new insulin pens, syringes for the long acting insulin, needle tops for the new pens, alcohol wipes for the long acting insulin, blood sugar monitor strips, blood sugar monitors, lancits for the meters, ketone strips, and probably a whole lot more that I can't remember or I hope I didn't forget!
Luckily the strep and flu tests finally came back negative and he was allowed to go to the playroom for a short half hour. And, he could get rid of that mask!
By 5 pm, we were all packed up and ready to venture out into the real world. It was a relief, but actually it was quite frightening knowing we would now be on our own. Luckily, our son is one of the smartest people we know. If we didn't get it, we know for sure that he quietly took in every single detail of Diabetes. Between the 3 of us, we could get through this.
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