Chapter 9- Let the Classes Begin
"Who is ready for a fun filled day of classes?" Eric asked walking into my room; I opened one of my eyes to look at him groggily. "I want to just go home and sleep in my own bed." I told him, he grinned, "Yea these beds arent the most comfortable things in the world."
"No joke so can I go home?" I asked as I let my head fall back onto the pillow.
"Not before you learn a hundred different things!" he said, I closed my eyes once again before I felt Troy's hand brush mine. "Since I have to share a bed with this dingle berry," I teased Troy as he shook his head, "You are the one that wants me to stay."
"I know but they should make bigger beds so I can share with my amazing boyfriend." He gave me a smile before he leaned over giving me a kiss on the lips. "Alright you two knock it off, none of that in the meeting. There are two other kids in there with there parents, I don't need you two making out."
"No need to worry, my parents are in there." I explained to him, "True but hurry up so we can get these classes started. It's going to be a long day." I closed my eyes as he said this; I was already tired I did not want a long day.
"Come on baby, lets head on down there." He told me as he slipped back a piece of my hair, I did not respond was I laid on the bed. "Briee," Troy whined, "I am tired," I grumbled
"I know baby girl," he said sweeping back some of my hair, "But you need to come to these classes." I sat up, I had changed earlier that morning into a pair of cozy sweatpants and Troy's soft jacket he had let me borrow. I looked around the room, which was full of teddy bears, balloons, flowers, and so much more.
"Come on," he said scooping me onto my feet; he let his arm fall around my waist as my mom walked into the room. "Come on honey they are waiting on you." My mom said I slipped on the pair of flip-flops sitting by the bed. Troy buried his nose into my hair, "I am so proud of you," he whispered
"What have I done?" I asked him, "You are being so brave," his blue eyes looked a brown ones, "I cry every time a needle comes close to me."
He grinned a little, "Babe, I promise you, you will get used to it one of these times." He said guiding me down the hallway. "I know but it's so hard. I hate them so much." He rubbed my lower back with his thumb.
"There's my baby girl!" my dad cried as he walked through the elevator, I gave him a weak smile as he came to my other side. "How did you sleep?" I shrugged my shoulders, "Okay, nothing to be proud of."
Troy and my dad laughed, "She is still cute even when she just does not feel right." Troy teased kissing my temple. I rolled my eyes as we stepped into the room to see two other families sitting in there already. One family looked like they just had sat down and bags under there eyes, while the other pair look comfortable.
I walked over to the four empty chairs on the other side. I sat down in one of the chairs and Troy on the other side. I yawned, leaning over to let my headrest against his shoulder.
"You are so cute," Troy commented tapping at my nose, I giggled softly and I let my eyes flutter close. "Gabriella! No sleeping!" Eric yelled making me jump, Troy busted out into laughter. I hit his shoulder lightly as there were other kids in the room. "That was why too funny." Troy said still laughing
"Ha-ha." I poked my tongue out at the two of them; my dad chuckled from my other side. "I can see this class being entertaining." Carter said sitting down in a chair at the head of the table. I looked at the other two groups they were both boys. One had to be maybe thirteen while the other was only ten or so. Neither of them looked amused.
"Well now that we got started on a funnier note than usually, I am Eric and this is Carter. We will be with you this morning to help with each other. We are going to go around and say your name, introduce your family," Eric stopped to look at Troy, "And erm friends." I giggled quietly as Troy reached for my hand. "You will also kind of repeat your experience before coming into the hospital."
I nodded my head as my tongue swiped my lips, "Let's start with Drew down there," he said pointing to the younger one. Drew turned shly to his mom and she nodded her head. "Uhm, this is Drew, he is eight years old. I am his mom Kelly and my husband is Richard." She said pointing to a tall guy who was holding Drew. "Drew did a lot of complaining about his stomach and drinking a lot of water, going to the bathroom. So we took him into the doctor with a quick diagnose yesterday."
My mom's eyes popped out a little before picking up a pencil across from her. "So that is basically our story." Eric leaned across the table, "Drew do you have a favorite hobby?" he asked, his smiled with his wicked green eyes. "Uh, I like, Uh playing football and baseball." He said turning to look at the ground.
"That sounds awesome," Carter said picking up a piece of paper from the desk, "Alright lets have Seth go next, Seth kind of glanced at his mom and dad before turning to the group. "Your mom can do it too if you want her to Seth." Carter told him
Seth nodded his head quickly, his mom laughed as she looked at the group. "This is my son Seth who is thirteen years old," I was right on the money, I am too good.
"I am Sherry and this is my husband Brad." She said pointing at the guy with red hair. I gave a small smile as Troy stroked my hand. "Seth did not have really any symptoms but when we went in for a physical they found his blood sugar to high. That's that only way we found out." She said, "We got into the hospital two days ago and now we are ready to battle this." I swallowed hard knowing my turn was coming.
"So Seth do you have any hobbies?" Eric asked him as he pulled out a chair to get comfortable. "I love playing basketball and lots of video games." Troy cracked a smile, "Basketball all the way dude," Troy said leaning over the table giving him a high-five. Seth gave a big ol' smile as he gave Troy a high-five. "Favorite team?" Seth asked him
"Lakers," Troy said nodding his head, "Oh come on!" Seth said, "What about the Knicks?" Troy huffed a breath, "Let's not mention them" I let a giggle slip through my mouth, "Alright moving on…" Carter said giving me a glance.
"Alright," I said looking at him, "Don't get your panties in a wad." I muttered the group around my laughed. "I did not even say anything!"
"Whatever, your face said it all." I smirked as I adjusted myself in the chair. "Anyways…my name is Gabi; my parents are Dave and Maria." I pointed at each of them as they gave smiles. "And this is my wonderful boyfriend Troy who gave up March Madness tickets to be here with me." I explained, the guys mouths fell.
"Are you stupid? You gave up March Madness tickets for this?" Seth asked him as if he was crazy, "I gotta be here with my girl," he said shrugging which made the women all Awh in response.
"Women," Seth scoffed; I rolled my eyes as I looked back up at the group. "Uhm, I have had a lot of stress in my life lately so I kind of put everything back onto that. I slept a crazy bunch, drank a lot, went to the bathroom a lot, and could not stomach anything, dehydrated all the time." I felt tears brush the back of my eyes, "And I just plain hurt, besides the regular stomachache I had."
Eric and Carter both gave me a glance at that I could stop if I wanted to, knowing it hurt. "It took those two times to figure out what was wrong with me." I wiped at my eyes, "I have been here since what felt like forever ago."
The group was then silent, "Gabi has been a real trooper." Eric spoke up, "She has a huge fear of needles and blood. She has been through a lot the past few days; today has been one of her better days. Her smile just glows a room and all the friends she has that have been here." I pursed my lips together as I tried to get closer to Troy.
"I would have to say Gabi is a tough one, if I had a dollar for as many people who came to see her in the past week or whatever I would not have to work any longer." Carter then pointed at Troy, "And he, every day, every night, has not left his side. Yes, I did tell him that he was crazy for leaving those tickets behide but…" the group laughed, I laughed along with them.
"Alright so enough on dotting on Gabi we are going to get going with a lot of diabetes talk." Eric said sliding a paper around to everybody. "It is going to be a lot of information in three days. We are going to assign you doctors, teach you how to do everything, and talk about insulin pumps. How to count carbs and what to do when you have a high or low blood sugar."
Troy in lanced our hands together, "So how about we start with just a little carb talk. This might be one of the easiest things you will do." Carter passed out another paper and I reached for it. I shared it with Troy as we both scanned the paper.
"Carbs are as simple as adding. All you have to do is figure out how much you are going to eat of them." I looked at the food label that was on the paper, then the one right next to it. Carbs was highlighted in a bright yellow.
"So all you have to do to figure out the carbs is count them? Like two plus four equals six?" I asked looking at the two guys, "Exactly, since you seem to have that part down can you tell us how many carbs are in those two items?" Eric asked waving the paper a little.
I licked my lips as I calculated thee two in my head, "It would be an even fifty and if you have a one to fifteen ratio it would have 3.3 units of insulin if I did that right…" I said as I set down the paper, Eric and Carter both raised an eyebrow. "Was Ashley teaching you while we were gone?"
"It's not hard to figure out why I am getting so much insulin. I was in College Algebra last year, I am pretty advanced with my math," I said to them
"Well congrats with that," Eric said rolling his eyes, "That was my worst subject," laughing I shook my head, "Okay Seth since Gabi is being a bit of a smarty over there would you mind telling us how to use a ratio?"
"Well I have a one to fifteen ratio like Gabi over there," he paused as to group his thinking, "So all you have to do is take your carbs and divide them by that number."
"Wow two geniuses in this class, wait I mean three because Drew over there is just fantastic at coloring those little people! I mean have you seen them Carter?" he asked
"Oh heck yea! They should show them in the arts and crafts show," I gave a smile to Drew as he giggled into his moms shoulder. He had to be one of the cutest kids I have ever seen. Eric and Carter both gave each other a smile before they nodded there head. "We gave you all instructions to the whole carb insulin thing in your handbook you have." He said pointing at the three on the table my parents got when I came in.
"Alright let's talk about target blood sugars," Carter stood up and Eric backed up as his pager went off. "I will be right back," he said reading it with a nervous glance. Carter gave him a quick look before he passed out yet another paper. "And let's turn to page fifty in the handbook we passed out."
Eric quickly escaped the room as the door shut behide him. Troy squeezed my hand, "Hey are you okay?" Troy whispered into my ear, "Mhm, I am just really tired." I said giving him a small smile. "Are you sure that's it?" he asked me, I nodded my head, "Yea, I am positive Troy."
He used his thumb to push back a piece of hair that was hanging on my forehead. Giving him another smile, I looked at the paper. "A good blood sugar is anywhere between 80-140." Carter said looking at the door then back to the group. "Now you will find out its hard to be there. It is so hard to be in that range that people and kids get frustrated. You are going to be low, you are going to be high and not like a drug." Troy and I laughed a little before we got strange looks.
"You are never going to be perfect with this no matter how hard you try. This is the hardest game you will ever play with yourself. This is the game that could hurt you, break you down into pieces, and crumble you." He wrote a few things on the white board that was placed behide him.
"So we give a bigger target." He wrote the numbers 70-180, onto the board.
"If you are below 70 you need to eat something, fast. You do not want to wait or say I am just going to get this later. You can not put this on hold." He wrote everything he basically said under the 70.
"If you are over 180 there is no reason to panic on us. You are not high until you are over 240, which could happen if, you there. Once you are 180 just keep a longer eye on it. Check your blood sugar every so often to see what it is going to do." Carter reached over for the extra book sitting on the desk.
"I kind of skipped around on you guys, sorry." He opened the book to the front of the binder. "Let's just talk about diabetes at the moment."
I looked at the book, which was lying, in front of my dad. "Diabetes seems scary; I understand that this is a totally different world you are living in now." I swallowed hard as I read the few few things on the list.
"You have to know you did nothing wrong to get here. Diabetes is just when your body cannot make insulin anymore. You do not have the ability to produce it anymore. There is no cure at the moment but I believe that one day there will be for everybody."
I rolled my lips together as he kept going, my leg bouncing up and down. "Diabetes was not caused by eating too much of one thing. Do not ever blame yourself, your parents, and your friends. Diabetes is not contagious; it's something that happens to the best of people out there."
"So we can live the most normal life after this?" Seth asked as he scratched behide his ear, "Yes and no, your life will never go back to normal but it will get close, you will still have to check your blood sugar. You will still have to take insulin. You will still have to take of your body better than anybody else." Eric kept talking about how life was not going to be normal. How life was going to be harder. I rocked back in my chair, I wanted out of here. I could not do this anymore.
"Hey Brie what's wrong?" Troy asked placing his hand on my shoulder, "I can't do this Troy," I backed my chair up and it bumped into the wall catching Eric's attention. Tears fell down my cheeks as I stood up, my feet wobbled but I caught my balance. "Gabi are you okay?" he asked me, I shook my head as I went for the door.
"Gabi baby what's wrong?" my dad called after me, I quickly escaped from the door, from the room that I felt like was choking me. Tears washed down my cheeks as the door slammed with a shut. I slid down the wall, the IV in my arm brushed against my stomach. I heard the door open once more and Troy's foot stepped out.
"Brie," he called, he turned to look towards my room and I let out a sob. His head quickly turned to me as he took two steps to be next to me. He sat down beside me and pulled me into his lap.
"Hey, do not cry." He whispered into my ear, "I can not do this Troy, I thought I could. I thought I could handle it in there but those little boys are doing better than I am." I let my head fall onto his shoulder as he rubbed my back.
"Those boys do not realize how much there life is changing on them. You on the other hand know that it is never going to be the same. You have basically gone through your whole life doing the same thing and now it's changed within days. You are going to break down Gabi," his soft voice landed in my ears.
"I just want everything to go back to that one day. I do not care if we were on the verge of breaking up, or my parents getting a divorce. I just want everything to be okay with me."
Troy did not respond to that but sat there with me for a moment. We heard the door creak open and for Eric's scrub to peak through. "Come on Gabs we got more to learn before you can go to lunch." I took a deep breath Troy kissed my temple.
"Alright," I said quietly, Troy and Eric both helped me up. I walked back into the room to get worried glances from my parents. I wiped at my swollen eyes as Troy kept his hand on my lower back. "We are going to take a quick five minute break," Eric announced.
"Use this opportunity to use the bathroom or whatever else you need to do." Both families quickly got up leaving the room. "I will be right back. I want to check your blood sugar." He said pointing at me. Once the door clicked, I was left with Troy and my parents.
"Sweetheart what was that about?" my dad asked as I sat down in the chair, "It was overwhelming. I felt like I couldn't even breathe." I said quietly, I felt a chill run down my spine.
"Are you feeling okay?" he asked me, I nodded my head, "Perfectly fine," Troy let his hand fall onto my arm and all I wanted to do was climb on his lap and curl underneath a blanket with him.
"Mija, I hope you are feeling okay. Those parents are concerned for you."
"They do not get how I feel! Nobody does mom!" I turned my chair so it could not face her but to Troy. He knew what I needed once he saw my face. He patted his lap and I quickly got up to sit down on him. He wrapped his arms around me kissing me.
"It will all soon be okay." He told me sounding like a fourteen cookie. "Alright fourteen cookies," I teased him as I buried my head into his shoulder. He chuckled, "I love you Brie,"
"I love you too Troy,"
Everybody rejoined in the room, my parents wanted me to move from Troy but I just sat on his lap more friendly, my legs hung over the side of the chair while my head rested on his chest. "Alright so back to where we were," he placed a meter in front of me as he went up to the board.
"You want me to do it?" I questioned him, "Sure go ahead, and show how it should look." Eric said to me, my mouth dropped a little and he gave me a stern look.
I reached for the black bold meter as I dug out a strip, I stuck in the meter. I pulled out a wipe as I cleaned my finger. He watched me closely as I pulled out the long blue poker. "Now when you guys get your bag of stuff yours will not look like that. Yours will be smaller."
I waved my finger in the air and I set the poker on my finger. I took a deep breath as I pushed the button. The snap was quick and the pinch went even faster. I pulled the thing back and I felt it drop onto the table. I saw the blood drop on my finger but not enough to fill the strip. I pushed the blood up my finger and I let the strip suck the blood away. I could feel the room vibrant around me. Troy kissed the back of my neck and I smiled up at Eric.
"Congrats you finally got part one down." He said winking at me, the meter beeped and I looked down. "154" I read to the group, "Perfect,"
"But I thought the target range was from 80-140," I said looking up at him, "It is but you are what fourteen points off?" he asked me, knowing me I felt like I should argue my point but I let it drop. "Exactly, that's kind of going to lead me to my next little thing. You can all still do everything that any normal person would do. You just have to watch and do things extra careful."
"You can still have birthday cake; you can still have cookies or ice cream. We are not going to band you from all of that but we want you have them in moderation." The door opened and Carter slipped back into the room, looking a little more tired than the last time I saw him.
"Well welcome back Carter, we were just talking about moderation." Carter gave a small smile as he collapsed in a chair, "About how you can eat whatever you want but just a little smaller." My mom had her pen and paper out taking notes on everything they said.
"Fun, have you got to the words you should know?" Eric shook his head, "I thought I spare them the boredom since we have already had one breakdown." He flashed me a look with Carters eyes following, "Really?" he asked
I shrugged, "Really," I commented
"Moving on, the honeymoon phase." Eric started, "It is where your pancreas is producing insulin still but very little. This is going to give you a little challenge because one day you could be running low and the next you are sky high because you need more insulin. Some may last in that stage for two weeks, a month, or a year. All kids are different when it comes to it."
"Now I have a question," Sherry said, "There are two types of diabetes correct?"
"I got this one," Carter said, "Yea; there are two types of diabetes. All three of you here have Type 1 diabetes which we all call Juvenile diabetes, and then type two diabetes is where its call on-set diabetes. Usually the adult may be overweight or older; it is very uncommon in kids." He said looking around the group.
"Let's start the PowerPoint presentation we have for you all which can be found in your binder you all have if you want to follow along that way. After we do this we are going to take a break for lunch and once everybody is done you will resume classes with Linda who will talk about Nutrition."
Carter flickered off the lights as the screen turned on. A picture of a little kid showed up on the board, the title what is diabetes. Eric pressed a button flickering to the next screen. "This is basically what we just talked about…" Up on the screen was the difference between type one and type two diabetes.
"Are you all ready to move on since we have covered this already?" Eric asked waiting to push the button, "Mhm," the group echoed back to him.
The next screen flashed in front of my eyes, I saw three words that stood out from the rest. Diabetes is an autoimmune disorder. Disorder flashed in my eyes and burned in my head, I had a disorder.
"Now do not let those big words get to you up there. All that it is saying is you have diabetes. It is an autoimmune disorder that is very common in the world with children." Eric talked for a minute before he continued to the next screen.
"There are four facts we would love to point out to all of you," Carter said pointing at the screen to the four facts, "One, your body is attacking itself. It's attacked beta cells which are what makes insulin and its not working since its fighting."
Eric pointed down to the next one, "Two, this started years from now. This started way before the day you were diagnosed with diabetes. There is nothing you could have done to prevent it which is number four."
"And number three is you did nothing to cause it either. Therefore, I bet Eric already somewhat covered it but do not blame anybody. It's nobody's fault." Carter finished, we all looked down at the papers as they spoke. We went over several more screens, over why does my body need insulin, the reason to breakdown sugar. We went over what Type 2 Diabetes is and how that all works.
"Okay, here is something we would all love to know but we do not have the exact answers to these questions." The screen flashed and bold words stood out, what causes Type 1 Diabetes.
"That is something I would love to know," Kelly said flashing a small smile to the group; we all laughed as three words popped up. We do not know exactly sitting up at the top of the screen.
"But we have some pretty good guesses to why, Genetics plays a big part in a lot of people with diabetes."
"That's what Seth's was probably. Both of my parents had diabetes but it seemed to skip me." Sherry said looking over at her son who was doodling on a piece of paper.
"Toxins, now this is very unlikely with this group right here."
"And Triggers which is fifty with genetics." Carter said to the group, "This could have triggered a long time ago which set it off. Again there is nothing you could have done about it to prevent it, its something that happened."
After we talked about this, we flipped through several screens that began to bore all of the kids. The reason we needed insulin, what it did, how it reacted…blah, blah, blah. My eyes began to shut as Troy rubbed my thighs. "Now have you all been asking why you are so thirsty?"
"Yea," Drew said, I opened my eyes to see him sitting up on his dads lap. "Well you have been thirsty because when your blood sugar is high your blood is thicker. When Gabi came in here and we drew blood that was some thick blood, I have ever seen. It was very gross to be perfectly honest with you all; I think he dad over there was thinking the same thing."
"It did not even look like blood," he commented
"Yes but because she was so thirsty she was trying to dilute, make the blood thinner, with water." He explained, "Now when we draw her blood it is nowhere near as thick." I smiled as they talked about me.
"So can anybody tell me what you felt like when you were first diagnosed?" Eric asked the group, "I was always tired," Seth commented
"Good, Gabi do you have one?"
"Water, I was craving all this water."
"Drew?"
"I was going to the bathroom all of the time."
"Very good, those are the top three symptoms of high blood sugars." A screen popped up of people, "Going to the bathroom a lot, numb or tingling feet, always hungry, unexplained weightless, blurred vision, and something else we really do not need to go over." He commented, I giggled reading the last one.
"But these are all signs of a high blood sugar, if you ever feel any of these check your blood sugar ASAP. Do not even think twice about it just do it." He said, "If you run high for to long these are some of the things that could happen."
"Blindness, Nerve Damage, Kidney Failure, Heart Disease, and delayed wound healing." My mouth shifted and I felt it drop slightly, "Now this takes time, its not going to be quickly. It is going to build over the years so if you run high all the time this is going to be you. Running high is very dangerous." He commented
"I can tell," I said reading over the list once more.
We went over when to check our blood sugar, when to take shots, where to take shots, where to take Lantas shots, what to do when your blood sugar is high, and the target range once more.
"Okay so I am betting you have all heard the word ketones more than once this week." All of us nodded our heads together, "Well would you finally like to know what they are." Again another nod of heads.
"Well ketones are when your body begins to burn fat as a fuel source instead of glucose. Therefore, some people and you should never do this try to get ketones because that is how they lose weight. It is not a good idea at all, very bad and dangerous." Carter told the group
"Ketones are the thing that made you feel sick, made your stomach hurt, and if you keep ketones to long you can go into DKA where it could get as bad as having heart failure." My eyes popped out of my head as I looked around the room. "So you never want ketones."
"Low blood sugars which NONE of you have had so far!" Eric exclaimed, "You slackers, if you have a low blood sugar you get a free fifteen carbs to eat!"
"A low blood sugar is anywhere below 80,"
"And if you feel like this you need to test your blood sugar because that means you need food quickly. If you feel shaky, fast heart rate, sweating, anxious, dizziness, hunger, impaired vision, weakness, and headache, irritable. Now you can usually pick up on a low way faster than a high."
I looked over the symptoms one more time before the screen flipped to the next slide. "If you are low, eat 15 grams of carbs, after you are done eating wait 15 minutes for the food to set in. Recheck your blood sugar and if you are still low repeat the process."
"If you play sports make sure you check your blood sugar 15 minutes before any activity to make sure you do not need any food."
We finished through the timeline, "And that is all basics, your supplies list will come around the table. Before you leave you will be give scripts to take to a pharmacy of your choice."
Eric flickered back on the lights and I blinked rapidly, "Now everybody goes get some lunch, count some carbs, and be free from us too." Carter said as he stood up pushing in his chair. I got up from Troy's lap and he gripped onto my waist.
"You ready to go get a shot," he teased
"Mhm," I said letting my body fall back onto his, "I am too tired to care,"
"Come on, you can rest until your lunch gets here." He said kissing my temple. I walked forward as he kept a tight grip on my waist. I giggled as he sucked on the corner of my ear, "Troy," I moaned softly, "Stop doing that," he chuckled as we walked back into my room to see more flowers.
"Wow, I got more." I murmured, "And another visitor!" I turned around to see my Uncle Eric standing behide me. "Icky!" I went over to grab him in a hug. "How you holding up?" he asked, "As good as it gets," I gave him a small smile, "I just wanted to stop in to say hi." He rubbed my shoulder, "But do you know where I can find your mom?"
"Probably down the hall," he nodded, "I'll see you soon okay?" I nodded my head as he left, "Bye and thank you!" He waved a goodbye as I flopped down on the bed. I pulled the warm blanket up over my shoulders.
"Do you want what you had yesterday for lunch?" he asked, I nodded my head, "Alright, why don't you get some sleep while I call them." He picked up the phone.
"Alright," I said as I shut my eyes snuggling with the pillow but something was missing. I heard Troy talking and I opened my eyes to look at him. "Mhm, thank you!" he sat the phone down.
"Come lay with me," I told him patting on the bed, "You can turn a basketball game on if there is one." He smiled, leaned over and kissed my lips. "I would be more than happy to lay with you." I made room for him on the bed and I let my head fall against his chest. He wrapped his arms around my waist pulling me close.
I shut my eyes and listened to his heartbeat as I fell into a gentle sleep.
Heyy! I had to go back and look at my diabetes binder to find all this information! I forgot a lot of this stuff, I am like woah! So everything you read came from the hospital, I do not want to do to much more with the classes but for her to go home. I remember only wanting to go home but I am going to do one more class where its more hands on and then after that she will be going home! Yay! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter!
If you have not read my profile page I suggest you go read it because I wrote a long message about the months to come…soo…
Love you all! PLEASE REVIEW!
Xoxo
Jo