Keeping up with Four Joneses!

  Hey everyone!  June has just flown by and it's been an exciting month!  We have three updates for you: 1 - Austin (of course), 2 - Max (he's having a blast) and 3 - New house! 1.  Mr. Austin has had a good few weeks!  He has definitely required additional time to fully get over this virus and we are happy to have been able to do that at home.  We are still dealing with a little bit of dehydration that occurs overnight, but with his high level of fluid intake first thing in the morning, he's able to bounce back pretty quickly!  We will continue to trouble shoot his overnight intake.  He's now on a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) called Dexcom G6.  This device is used by MANY diabetics and when we are able to figure out all the little quirks of it, it will be great!  Just to clarify, Austin is NOT diabetic, he is currently having episodes of hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) and for his safety, the Dexcom alerts us when he is low.  Sp...

 Yikes!  Yesterday was our 2 week mark at Children's.  In most ways it feels like forever ago we were in the ED having no idea we would still be here as I write this!  All week it's been "maybe tomorrow" and then tomorrow comes and goes!  Austin had a couple rough days on Thursday and Friday.  In the transition from his IV fluid support to his normal at home routine of free water, he didn't have enough fluid intake.  He became very dehydrated again on Wednesday into Thursday.  He received 1 fluid bolus on Thursday and 2 yesterday.  His labs this morning were much improved and he's back to his playful, chatty self! We are getting hopeful that "maybe tomorrow" will actually happen.  Austin's glucose levels have been pretty stable and we know we have a plan that would work if we needed it.  Trial #2 with the glucose gel worked.  It did cause a disruption in his bowels and stools so we are hoping we don't have to use it very often....

Low blood sugars and BEARS!  Ha!  I'm sure many of you saw yesterday's posts about the bear in our neighborhood!  Super cool and scary at the same time.  I'm sure the big guy doesn't really want to be roaming the neighborhoods of Chaska! The latest, Mr. Austin is doing well!  We've had his feeding rate at 70mL/hr and full strength formula since Monday night!  His labs continue to improve and are almost his baseline.  Here's the tricky part.  Nobody wants to discharge him (including us) until we have a plan and we know the plan works to treat his hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) from home.  Being readmitted is the worst! Trial #1 - Austin's blood sugar dipped to 55 last night around bedtime.  We tried putting glucose tabs crushed in 30mL of water in his gtube.  He threw up about 10mL about 10 minutes later and then had some back to back stools.  He was clearly uncomfortable and went from sleeping nicely to rolling around and frust...