Christmas/New Years

The ketone monitor and strips ended up being difficult to find. Once we got it, we started Micah on the one teaspoon, then had to up it to two teaspoons because Micah's ketone levels in the mornings were not improving and were not good. Even on the two teaspoons, his ketones didn't change and didn't seem to show any trend. We were told we needed to check his ketone and glucose levels at 2 am as well as in the morning. So my amazing husband got up at 2 am and checked Micah's ketone and glucose levels. Micah did great, he didn't mind being woken up and he has never seemed to care about the finger pricks.

 I talked to the doctor a couple days before Christmas and he said that we needed more 2 am blood checks to try and see what his nights look like. The doctor mentioned that we might need to do a planned inpatient at the hospital so that they can do regular blood draws through out the night for a couple nights. This terrified me, I do not want to do this. So, he asked us to do three nights however we only had four test strips left and since they are had to get a hold of we could only do two nights. Tim had come down with the flu, so it was mommy's turn to do the 2 am thing. I decided to skip Christmas with the 2 am wake up, so check it the morning before Christmas and the morning after Christmas. 

Unfortunately, I got sick the day before Christmas. So Christmas day Tim and I were super sick, but the boys were feeling fine and Tim's parents came to visit. We still had a lazy fun Christmas with plenty of gifts and Christmas movies. We delayed Christmas dinner until the next day. But as soon as we sat down for our big Christmas dinner, Ben got sick. So we ate in shifts and it was a little less appetizing. Ben recovered quickly, luckily Micah never got sick. Tim's parents stayed for a week, through new years. We did nothing all week. By New Years eve we were feeling better and managed an awesome crab dinner (my absolute favorite)! We were able to facetime with Tim's siblings. We stayed up until 10 and watched the ball drop with the east coast, it was perfect.  

Christmas morning, opening stockings.

After Christmas the doctor called me to talk about how the 2 am levels were. I told him we did two nights and ran out of strips and couldn't get any more. The doctor explained that the corn starch at 2 teaspoons is working but only for 6 hours. Apparently corn starch has a 6 hour digestive life span. So we need to give him 2 more teaspoons at 2 am. I really pushed to see if a higher dose would work because getting up every night at 2 am is the last thing I want. But the doctor said that probably will not work so it is best medicine for him to tell me to do the 2 am feeding. 

Since we were out of test strips he said we can wait to try the 2 am feedings until we have them, otherwise we wont know if it is working. Once we get the strips (which should be today) we will start waking Micah up at 2 am and giving him corn starch and checking his blood levels. After three nights I am to call the dietician who will talk to the doctors and they will get back to me with a new game plan. There is a chance they will try going back to corn starch just before bed but based on what I've seen and heard about corn starch/ketone levels, it sounds like the most likely outcome is that we will be getting up at 2 am every night for the foreseeable future.