The Little Patient

Primary Children's Hospital
February 2012

This is Aaron and Trevor in the ER triage room just minutes after they took blood samples for labs.
He did NOT like that.
They gave him Iron Man stickers but that doesn't really help.

What I would have given to see inside his brain. The minute we told him at our house that he had diabetes he started crying. He had been somber and quiet the rest of the afternoon. He just sat there and thought. I know that for him this actually meant something. His entire life we have lived with diabetes in our home. He has watched his big brother get shots and sites changed. He has teased him about it. He has seen the times when he got a snack but Andrew didn't because his numbers were high. He KNEW what this meant. At least to some degree he knew. He would not let Dad out of sight and he just sat there, and every now and then a few tears would escape and his little body would shudder. Oh how I wanted to take this away. Oh how I prayed the entire drive up there that we were wrong. I was trying to be brave for him but when the nurse was talking she never gave any indication that it was not diabetes (I knew better but I was trying to hold out and hope) and that was when it finally hit me too. We both cried, we all cried.

Lost in thought. So many things to think about, to digest and absorb.
Life will never be the same for this little angel!!!

They finally put us in an ER room and we just sat, and waited.
A girl came in and offered us games and his face lit up at the mention of Candy Land.
He loves that game.  Mom usually says, "maybe later" :(
We all played.  He won the first game.  Mom won the second.
Then we had to do a shot and he didn't want to play anymore.
We just sat, watching The Brady Bunch because there was nothing else on TV.
It took a long time but finally they had a room ready for us upstairs.

It took them WAY too long to get him some dinner that first night.
He was so hungry. He hadn't eaten all day.
When it finally came they wouldn't let him eat.
They didn't know how much insulin to give him.
I was frustrated. He is 4 years old, and starving for heaven's sake.
By the time they figured it out (which was way too much)
and gave him his shot he was so worked up about the shot
he wouldn't eat.
Then, his food was cold. Then the corn dog was too crunchy.
It was a really rough night.
He ended up eating his mashed potatoes and a whole lot of juice!!!
He did manage a half a smile for me though. He is a good boy!

The next morning when I got there it was SOOO different.
He was happy and smiling.
He had been showered with gifts and prizes for being brave.

They have a play room at Primarys that is full of activities for the kids to do.
We played some cars on a really neat car track.
Then built some stuff with Lego's.
But, what he really wanted to do was play basketball.
That was what made him smile.
He played him against Mom and Dad.
He won.
Look at that confident attitude. Haha. He is a riot!!!
He played fuse ball with dad too.
It was fun to spend time with just him for a change.
He soaked up the attention.

They have a wish wall.  I am too much of a cry baby to read it but I could see some of the wishes that kids had made up on the wall.  I am just so grateful that my baby was only there for a day and then we took him home!  He is healthy.  He is not dying.  He is not terminal or infectious.  He just has a pancreas that doesn't make insulin.  No biggie comparatively.  Sure we feel like we have been punched in the gut, that life is so unfair, that he is too young to have to deal with this.  But, man, I am so grateful it is just this and not something so much worse.
TREVOR WE LOVE YOU!!!!!