This past Saturday my husband had to work so every now and then he would call home to see how Olivia's blood sugar readings were. I was giving him a hard time and joking around with him because Olivia's numbers were so good all day. I was saying, "Maybe I should take over all diabetes care, etc." She did not have a number that didn't fall between 80-100. A perfect day. Then eight o'clock pm came around. Olivia was telling me how thirsty she was so I decided to check her. This was about an hour before bedtime snack. I checked her and she was 58 - low. Not a problem, I gave her 1/2 of a glucose Tab and about 1 oz. orange juice. Usually when she is low, 4 grams of carbs will jump her up 80 points or more in about 10 minutes. I then checked her at snack time and she was 55. What???? I then gave her 4 oz. of apple juice and a dum-dum sucker! That should bring her up. That was at 9:00pm. At 9:30 she was still only 61! How could this be? Is our meter broken? She then threw up all over the living room floor. Thank you papa and beeka for the carpet cleaner sweeper you got me for Christmas!!! We then gave her two glucose tablets. At 10:00pm she was 58!! Something is wrong!! Again, we gave her some apple juice - then throwing up again. 10:20 she was 70 - gave one glucose tab. She then threw up again (poor thing). At 10:45 she was 47!! Okay, my husband and I are now scared! We gave her just a couple of sips of sugar 7-up pop. At 11:00 she was still only 48. We then gave our first Glucagon shot and called Pittsburgh Children's Hospital. They adviced us that we have tried everything and to call 911, which we did. Now we are only 1 and 1/2 miles away from the nearest ambulance service. We waited and waited and waited. It was snowing pretty good and the 1 and 1/2 miles is strictly up hill so we were thinking, "Are they in the ditch? Are they stuck?" At 11:30 she is now 82 - okay, we can breath now, but then 10 minutes later - Olivia started to throw up again. At 11:50 - 65. Where the hell is the ambulance??? We called 911 again. We were told that the ambulance is now coming from the town where the hospital is located because they didn't have enough volunteers (a driver) for our town's ambulance service. We continued to give some form of sugar to Olivia and then at 12:00 (midnight) she was 53. Should I give another glucagon shot?? I was watching out the window and my husband is outside waiting for the ambulance. I could tell that she was getting worried! I was too,but I had to stay strong as to not scare Olivia and her big sister, Gwen. I could see some lights coming up the hill - it's here. The ambulance then drove right by our house - my husband was running and waving them down. They stopped at our neighbors house and then started to back up. We got Olivia into the ambulance and she wasn't afraid, but at this time of night, she is very tired anyway. They checked her with their meter and it read 61. My husband took big sister, Gwen, to papa and beeka's house and then meet us at the hospital. It took a little while to get there because of the snow, but when we arrived at the hospital I was relieved. The ER staff checked her and she was 98. GOOD. They gave her some orange juice and then my husband arrived at the hospital. It was now 2:00 in the morning (Sunday) and we already gave a urine sample, they checked her blood pressure/pulse, temperture, ears, throat - the normal stuff. The results came back and we were told that she had a urinary tract infection. She also had +3 ketones. They had to weigh her to figure out the dose and then she started to throw up again. All over the scale and the ER nurse. We checked her blood sugar again and she was 89 - going down again! Needless to say, they admitted her into the hospital. She had an IV placed in her arm. I was so proud of her - she was so brave and I was praying that the IV would go in with no problems! One try and it was in! They hooked her up to some fluid that contained dextrose to keep her from going low. We also lowered her insulin doses. At one point she was 66 low and she drank 6 oz. of sugar pop and very slowly climbed to 91. Olivia stayed in the hospital until Monday night. We are not giving her insulin until after she eats now for the next few days until after she gets her appetite back. We also are cutting her long acting insulin back a little, but also keeping a close eye on her blood sugar.
This was our first time with Olivia being this sick since she was diagnosed. It was scary, it was worrisome, it was definitely frustrating. It also probably will not be the only time that she will ever get sick so even though this was a very scary time for the whole family, it was a learning experience too. Olivia is now feeling so much better. Who would have thought that a day that started out so well with excellant numbers all day would then turn into a crisis. Could we have caught this sooner?? One thing that I will change for the better is checking for ketones every single day whether Olivia's blood sugar is within range or not!! Is there anyone else out there that has experience an illness/virus/flu that made their blood sugar stay low? We are happy that she is now home - and safe!

Olivia being wheeled out of the hospital by one of the nurses which was also the nurse who was working when Olivia was first diagnosed (June of 2007).