Superstar

Cameron had a terrific night stay in the PICU unit. When I called at midnight, his blood sugar was 156. I couldn't have been happier. When I called at 5 am, his nurse told me that his acid levels were evening out, however, his blood sugar dropped to around 50, so they had to give him something to bring it up. He already had the orders to transition Cameron to food for breakfast. This was VERY good news. When Hubby & I got there, his color was great, his acid levels were fine and his CO2 were a half a point below normal. Cameron had dried hot chocolate around his mouth, playing the Playstation 2 and ALL smiles. I couldn't have been more pleased. Somebody is constantly stopping by his room and he chats up everybody. He doesn't know everybody, but they all know him. One doctor even said, as he was passing Cameron's door, "Get your pen ready, soon you'll be signing autographs!" There is a light at the end of the tunnel. The hospital is working very hard to get our insurance to approve Cameron as an outpatient at their Pediatric Diabetic Clinic where we will take classes and have check-ups every 3 months. We also discussed a clinical trial where they would monitor Dylan and Peyton to check their markers over a period of time. Today we attended about 5 1/2 hours of classwork. We learned how to check his blood sugar, Cameron even poked himself in the finger to draw his own blood. We also learned how to use a syringe, pull insulin out and give him a shot. Hubby & I practiced on each other (yes, you heard me right, I let my husband give me a practice shot) with water. Cool side note: the nurse teaching us this was all decked out in Mickey & Friends, where I couldn't help but ask how his diabetes affects our visits to the Happiest Place on Earth. She informed us that the Nurses Station has a refrigerator and we check our goodies in there! Disneyland really does think of everything! After we learned the basics on insulin and shots (Cameron will receive 4 shots a day), we learned our basic food groups. I realize we already know this, but we needed to know it in such a way where the food breaks up into sugar and what that means to Cameron's pancreas and body. Everything was so positive until we found out how much Cameron's supplies would cost us a month. I was ... there are no words, I was sick to my stomach. His supplies will run us $200 a month. A MONTH! We are already on such a tight budget. Now I go into research mode. I pray we can find some kind of help. I am FRIED!