Jaren had his feeding tube placed on September 25th, it was doing really, really well he started gaining weight and then the Tuesday after it was placed he became dehydrated and throwing up so I left work after his aid text me that he was throwing up so I got to a point at work that I could leave and went home to check on him, he looked horrible, I checked his blood sugar and it was 495, I gave him some insulin and sat there with him for a while and talked to him and 30 mins later I checked his sugars again and they were higher they were up over 500 I asked him what he wanted me to do. I told him I could take him in to the ER or I could go back to work and see if the insulin is working, he said he didn't care he just kept getting worse and worse so I didn't dare go back to work and I asked him again if he wanted to go to the ER and he said "yes, please take me in" I took him in and they got him to a room pretty quick, they started and IV and some insulin and did some blood work and the numbers were not good, he was in Diabetic Ketoacidosis so they told me that they had to admit him but not to a regular room he had to go to the ICU, It was stressful. I was already overwhelmed trying to learn the new feeding tube and how it worked and now this? they took really good care of us though. When he got settled in his room in the ICU I decided to go eat some dinner I hadn't eaten all day because I was at work and I usually come home and eat after I am done working. I went down to the cafeteria and ordered a salad they are usually pretty good there, I went to pay for it and my card declined I was so embarrassed luckily I had a little bit of cash in my purse. I started bawling and I couldn't stop, I had so many emotions I was feeling, I was feeling guilty because I had started another job as a crossing guard to help with finances and I was hardly home that few days after the tube was placed and that day he was sick I didn't have time to really help him that morning because I was going crazy. I should have been home that day and maybe he wouldn't have been sick or I could have caught it in time before it got to the point where he had to be hospitalized. I know, I know it couldn't have been helped, BUT I still can't help the way I was feeling. He started to get better once they got his sugars under control and they decided he could go to a regular floor, they put us on the 8th floor which was really good because my sister is a RN on that floor and she was working that day and I got to go up to her floor and eat lunch with her which was really fun!! so we got up to the 8th floor and the nurses were really nice, and helpful. My sister came in to sit with me after her shift and they changed nurses and my sister was able to hand pick his nurse so I knew he would get the best care. It was getting late by that time and so I asked my sister to stay with me so I didn't have to walk out to my car by myself, so they came in to do his vitals and to feed him through the feeding tube and he had to go to the bathroom, both my sister and I told the CNA Tech that he had dementia and she just laughed and said "don't we all" nobody believes me because he is young and he LOOKS normal. After the restroom break he didn't want to get back in bed so the good nurse didn't want to set the bed alarm until he was in it but I needed to get home to be with the kids and to get SOME sleep, so I went back the next morning and they tell me that he was ready to go home that night and tried to follow me out and security brought him back upstairs. I asked Jaren how far he made it out and he said they found him in the parking lot. I couldn't be mad because they did find him and he was not harmed and I couldn't help but laugh. I had told the nurse that he usually doesn't wander, ooops I guess I am wrong, but now when he is in the hospital I don't feel like I will be able to leave him. I was upset though that the CNA didn't believe me or my sister and he wandered, that was a little irritating. But not worth being that upset I have other things to worry about.
He finally got home and he was doing really well. The home health nurse was coming in still 3 times a week and admitted to me that even he didn't really see the REAL situation until he started coming more when I wasn't home and the questions that Jaren couldn't answer or answer wrong, he said that he visualized the situation from the first to know very different and he can see now that Jaren really needs help, FINALLY someone gets it!! Anyway, I took him for a follow-up visit with the family Dr on October 16th and he said looking at his blood work from the different times in the last year he seems to be anemic, really! one more thing to keep track of. He suggested waiting another month and redo his blood work and see what the numbers say and they will decide what to do. That would make sense why he is so worn down and so pale and always exhausted, then the next day came and he just wasn't acting himself, his aid came over to help shower him and I asked him to look at his tube placement incision and see what he thought, he said it looks infected so after the shower we decided to go back to the ER to get it checked just to be safe, I didn't want to take him to Instacare because I don't think they have the equipment to handle that kind of stuff. So off to the ER we went, glad we did it was infected with a fever and all they did do a CAT scan to make sure there was not infection inside the stomach, thank goodness it came back ok, they did a round of IV antibiotics and gave him some through his tube before we left and sent us home with 2 antibiotic prescriptions so I have been breaking up pills and putting them through his tube 4 times a day. We had an appointment with the Nutrition Support team that placed the tube and that was on Tuesday last week, they numbed it and pulled some granual tissue out of the incision and did some other things to it and told me to come over to the table so that I could see what was happening, so I walked over and she started poking around in it with some sort of a stick thing and I started feeling so weird and I could hear people but I had no clue what they were saying and my eyes were closing in and everything felt like my head was spinning and I about passed out I luckily had the feeling to go sit down so I walked over to the chair and sat down, what a horrible feeling. I have never felt like that before. I am sure I was as white as a ghost because when I finally came out of it I could feel the color come back to my face. He is doing good now and still gaining weight so hopefully he can stay healthy through the next couple of months. The time between fall and winter seasons are the worst it seems for him, he gets really ill and then he seems to level off again when it gets warmer. I guess we will see what will happen.
