Keeping Thomas Alive: Two Week Update

Keeping Thomas alive has been a game I've been playing since he could walk.

I don’t think it's a game that gets any easier. It’s been two weeks since my Toms was in the hospital. It has been hard. But it has also been good.

Aside from a few minor mishaps…..like the time I read the meter upside down and almost had a heart attack.

Or the time when I fed him a cup of soup…but it might have been a bowl of soup (which would require double the insulin) or was it? 🤷‍♀️

We are slowly getting the hang of things. He is amazing. He doesn’t sleep a whole lot, part of that is that he is a natural-born preparer. So he is very prepared for his 3 am check. So much so that he wakes up a lot just so he is prepared to wake up at 3 am.

Last night’s wind storm really threw him off. He woke me up and told me every clock in the house said mid-night, but he knows that’s not true cause it feels like it’s almost 4 am. He was right.

Back to his amazingness. The first night he was home was hard. He walked in and out of the kitchen several times assessing all the things he could eat and all of the things he shouldn't.

Here he is smelling the girl scout cookies someone brought us while he was in the hospital.

Eventually, the realization set in that “free food” can be more than cucumbers.

He was very excited when he discovered he could make microwave scrambled eggs, something Julie invented when she was 2.

He was even more excited when he discovered he could add cheese

My sweet boy never just makes himself food, he always makes some for me too. I’m such a blessed mama, I’ve eaten more scrambled eggs in these past two weeks than I ever had and oddly, they are very delicious.

Since then, we’ve found lots of food he loves to eat. And really, we haven’t stopped eating.

In case you didn’t notice, he has gained almost all his weight back. He was 73 pounds at his last check-up (back in December), 63 pounds when the Covid clinic provider sent him home to drink water 🙄 (she even asked how he lost 10 lbs). He is now back to 70lbs.

He is doing amazing, learning all of this stuff.

So is his dad. (Seen here dividing our dinner carbs into equal parts so they can be measured according to the package)

We’ve had some great friends really care and support us through this. The Case family blessed us with dinner. And Thomas got to hang out with a young man from church who also has type 1 and had a very similar experience in being diagnosed. He sat with us, and talked to us for a very long time, he also has the pump that he showed to Thomas. It was pretty cool.

So all in all, it’s been challenging, but good. Thomas’ numbers are down this week, he is in the honeymoon phase. As long as I stick to the portion sizes on the containers and don’t try to measure with my hands (he hates that), I think he will let me continue to be his mom.