Day -6

Gracie had a long night with drinking and peeing because she didn't have her DDAVP. the nurses come in every hour and each time she had wet through the diaper on the bed. They made layers of pads on the bed so they could just take off the top layer and not have to change all the sheets each time. She drank a ton all night and didn't get much rest. Same thing today. This morning her blood glucose was 294( normal is 60-115) and her sodium was 147( normal is 135-145) They tested a few hours later and her sodium was 157 and glucose was 444! They said it is from the steroid she had yesterday called dexamethasone. It is five times more powerful than prednisone. She is supposed to take it the first three days but they decided to not give it today and see if it helped. The next time they tested her blood was at 5:00 and her blood sugar was down to 206 and sodium was up to 159. They decided that she was still peeing out too much even with all the iv fluids and her drinks. So they just gave her a quarter dose of ddavp to help. We will see how it goes and what the numbers do. They will also check her blood sugar through the night and if it is still over 200, she needs some insulin. They said this isn't uncommon with this steroid and the high glucose will go away soon. Only some people have lasting diabetes from it. I'm hoping it will go away but I was getting nervous this morning when they first told me, since my little brother has had diabetes since age 6.
She has had a lot of vomiting today as well. She is in pretty good spirits today though and we made a little craft hand puppet. She is pretty tired and hopefully she will get better sleep tonight now that she has had the ddavp.
I have been impressed. With the nurses we have had so far so I am happy about that!! :)
26 hours down and 70 to go!