winter bugs

For the first time since diagnosis, a year and a half ago, I encountered a real and frightening problem with my 6 year old daughters blood sugars. After collecting her friday afternoon from school I noticed something was wrong. She was not keen on food and felt extreemly tired, for a child who loves food and never sits down this alone was extremely unusual. Later that night before bed I had a strugle on my hands to encourage her to eat a bowl of ice cream. As she had eated little and taken her lantus as usual I was very worried about hypos during the night, and sure enough on testing her later she was low. She ate a little for me, yet I could not shake the feeling that something was wrong. Around 5am I went to check on her, just as i entered the room she begun vomiting. This continued throughout the night and the next morning, when she could no longer keep down water or any sode drinks, I resorted to a glucose gel to rub in her cheeks, and although I was aware that this was only a temporary solution it worked for a while, keeping her slightly above to 70 mark. Later that evening when her next dose of insulin was due, I knew I could not give it to her as she was too low. Then I tested for ketones and found them to be rising slowly, and this was when I really paniced. I took her to the A&E that evening and she was admitted there and then. Consequently she was on a glucose drip, along with fluids and small amounts of insulin for the next three days. She (or should i say we!) spent 5 days in total in hospital. Thankfully she has now recovered sufficently to be allowed home, although she still is far from back to her old self. Diabetes is such a complex disease and no matter how adept we think we are at handling it, there are times when she needs more help than I can give. This was a reminder to me that no matter how well I think I am managing I will never be in total control, and its frightening to be reminded that this disease can so easily run out of control. Hopefully this is the first and last of the winter bugs she will catch. This little episode really scared the hell out of me. Before she had diabetes a bug was just a bug, that ran its course in a day or two, now a bug is a big deal. To see the color return to her cheeks and her appatite slowly return is such a relief, I never thought I would be glad to see her eat ice cream again!