Kennedy's New News

Well, as some of you know, the last part of this week our family was hit pretty hard. Kennedy had been using the restroom pretty frequently and wanting a ton to drink, she even wet her bed at night on Thursday. All of this left Ben and I wondering if everything was ok, so we took her to the doctor on Friday evening expecting the diagnosis to be a urinary tract infection...we only wish. Dr. Hertenstein tested her urine and blood and found high levels of sugar in them, so he sent us to Children's Mercy Hospital for more tests. After more testing they confirmed Dr. Hertenstein's prognosis, Kennedy has Type 1 Diabetes. Wow, we didn't even really know what that meant and are still trying to wrap our little brains around this large disease and all that comes with it. Kennedy's sugar levels were at 600 and they are now trying to keep them between 80-180, so you can see how high they were.

We were admitted into Children's Mercy's Endo floor at 3am on Saturday...yes you read that right. We spent a long time in the ER rooms. Kennedy received her first dose of insulin at 4 am and hated every minute of it. We have to test her blood sugar every 2 hours, but the doctors say that should slow down to before she eats and then 2 hours following eating, so that should be better. On Friday we spent much of the day being educated about diabetes and how to help Kennedy live with the disease safely and fully. We learned and started adminstering her shots before meals and snacks...wow, not easy. She doesn't like the idea of shots and is hit and miss with the blood sugar testing. Reagan got to come up to the hospital to play with Kennedy and they both were very excited to be reunited. Kennedy asks about Reagan often. She also keeps saying that she wants to "go back to Kansas City to my house." Ohhhhh. Today we have more education classes and hopefully get to go home.

We keep hearing how lucky we were to catch this so early so Kennedy wasn't sick coming into all of this. We are grateful for this. Kennedy is really in good spirits other than the shots, she runs around and plays just like she did before she was diagnosed, so that helps us cope too. It has been an incredibly hard two days and they keep telling us that it will get easier...I have to believe that, but it's hard at times. Thanks to all of you who have called and sent the wonderful balloons and gifts to the hospital...she loves them and that makes us smile. Please keep us all in your prayers as I know you already are. I will post some pictures of Kennedy soon.