Chat: Jeanie and hypoglycemia

[Guest guest]

Jeanie,

Do to a lot of stress here at home, I have not been able to reply to

your story as I wish I could have. I see that others have and that

you have found someone else with a child with RSS. That is

wonderful.

I did want to go into more detail about the hypoglycemia issue,

however, because so many are not aware of it and it can pop up at

any time, as H found out with Ian seemingly overnight. And as a

diabetic yourself, you will probably be aware of some of the things

I'm going to tell you.

Whenever you see that Brockton is crankier than usual, if he is not

eating well, or from time to time in the morning after he wakes up

from sleeping all night, check his ketones. Do you know how to do

that with ketosticks? Many of our kids show signs of hypoglycemia

by first spilling ketones in their urine. That will happen before

blood sugar drops in most kids.

You need to be especially aware of this if he is sick, especially

with a stomach virus. If he cannot keep food down, there is a

specific protocol to follow. Just IV rehydration is not enough. Most

doctors will tell you to take him to the ER for a few hours to

rehydrate him, but that is wrong and it usually requires a 4 day

hospital stay - or longer. For my son, it is at least 5 days,

sometimes stretching out to a week or even longer in the past. (I

hope that at 17 he is able to start eating sooner than he has in the

past under these circumstances.)

I am NOT trying to scare you, but to inform you. The more you know

in advance, the better prepared you will be.

Jodi Z