By the time they were getting ready to take Sam up to ICU, he was so thirsty he was asking anyone to give him a drink. He asked for water from the "water hose" (fountain) in the hall. He was pointing to the IV bag and then to his mouth like we were not understanding what he needed. I tried to explain to him simply a few times that we would get him something as soon as we could. But he was miserable, and it was hard to watch on top of everything else.
That's why the picture in my mind of a tiny boy eating ice chips (really shoveling them in his mouth) will always stay with me. He could not get them in there fast enough. He was sick and thirsty.
It's a good illustration of how we should be with God's love and His Word. We should realize that we are so sick and thirsty and try to get as much as we can as fast as we can. Unfortunately, we tend to rely on other things to try to make us feel better.
In ICU, we got settled. Pete was home by then and spent the night with Sam. My sister and niece had come and taken Will to get something to eat. It had been a long day.
I went home and probably cried. I went back to the hospital in the morning so Pete could go to work. When I got there, Sam seemed subdued. Then he started crying. He cried for about 15 minutes and screamed. For a little boy who never threw tantrums (When he was little, he would lie down in the floor and be very still. The boys and I called those "silent fits" and they were so funny.), it was strange to see him just screaming his little lungs out. But it cleared his lungs, and he settled down into crying. And after the 15 minutes were up, he clung to me; and we watched Dora on TV. The nurses could see into our glass room and kept looking up while he screamed. When they came in a little later, I told them he just had to get that out. And he has never done anything like that again. He turned into a compliant, brave boy. Now, the story of Mr. Moose in an earlier blog does show another little outburst when he flung Mr. Moose across the room. The diabetes educator kept talking to Sam and wanted him to acknowledge Mr. Moose (she was using the stuffed animal to try to teach Sam something). I told Sam we cannot throw things - even Mr. Moose (who now holds a special spot in Sam's closet).
We had visitors and diabetes education. I would finally sit down and close my eyes, and the diabetes educator would pop in. I was so weary, but I knew we had to learn things to take Sam home. So I tried to learn. I had brought folders and paper and tried to be organized and put things and info where we could find it. It was hard. It turned my weariness into exhaustion.
Some of our visitors already were dealing with diabetes, so their words were able to sink into our fog. I remember today things people said to me. And I realize that only God knew what we needed to hear and when.
Sam enjoyed his visitors and gifts. Pete and I were trying to be brave. If ever there were two parents totally unprepared and scared to give shots, we were the ones! But we even had nurses who made our time easier by being practical and as humorous as they could in that type of situation.
Meanwhile, Sam was responding very well to the balance needed to get his body back on track. They were bringing down his blood sugar while bringing up other things. It's dangerous and delicate. But he never wavered in getting better. And that is a huge blessing.
He did so well, they moved him on down to the pediatric wing on Tuesday. Then Tuesday night was one of the worst nights in our lives, but it was not Sam who was so sick.
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