Samantha slept pretty well last night even with the semi-frequent interruptions for blood tests. This morning, they removed the IV and Samantha is eating a couple of graham crackers and drinking milk for breakfast. She also got her first shot of insulin in the thigh and she didn’t like that much. She will probably move from the pediatric ICU today also now that she is no longer in DKA.
Cynthia is awake and getting Matthew ready for school. She will join me here after that.
Samantha’s blood sugar is still varying quite a bit. She was down in a normal range but she has gotten back up to the 200’s and higher. But they are focusing on bringing her CO2 levels back to normal which is the priority right now. When she was admitted, she was around 4 or so (not sure what the units are for this blood test) and apparently 18-20 is normal. She is up to 15 so is well on her way to being normal again on that test. They expect normal results by tomorrow morning and then she will be off the IV and eating and drinking and getting insulin shots. She is likely here until Friday and much of that time is dependent on Cynthia and I getting familiar with caring for Samantha’s diabetes.
I am spending the night at the hospital while Cynthia stays home with Matthew. She will get him to school tomorrow and then join me here. I will post again then.
I am at the hospital now, updating the site from my phone. This morning they started giving her some sugar by IV. Her blood sugar had come down to 85 and they were concerned that it would continue to drop. The next tests came back at 110 and now 190. So they are still having some problems getting her blood sugar normalized. But she is improving.
Cynthia and I have a stack of DVD’s to watch about living with diabetes. Matthew is at his friend’s house this afternoon and thanks to Craig and Tami for helping us out. I will keep everyone informed as things evolve.
Samantha’s blood sugar is down to 200 mg/dL which is much improved but the target is 80-120 so still have a ways to go. Cynthia and I will start being trained today by the staff on managing her diabetes. I must leave for the hospital now. I will update again soon.
We took Samantha to the doctor today because she has been acting very lethargic for a couple of days. Also, she has been drinking lots of milk and water but her appetite seemed to be down. We scheduled a doctor’s appointment and they weighed her first. Our last visit to the doctor was only three weeks ago and we learned that she had lost three pounds, dropping from 19 and a bit to 16 and a bit (I don’t have the specific measurements handy). Given that she has always been fairly small, that was very worrisome. Cynthia and I have remarked recently that she seemed heavier this past week but now we realize that this was likely because she wasn’t helping to support her own weight while we held her so she seemed heavier to us.
They scheduled a blood test, urine test and an xray of her chest and stomach. The xray was to look for issues because her breathing seemed laboured also. After the tests were done and we were awaiting results, we took the opportunity to get home and prepare for a visit to the hospital. The doctor said it was very likely she would be admitted.
Shortly thereafter, we got the results from the doctor. The diagnosis was that she had type 1 juvenile diabetes. The blood sugar level I heard was 500 and now that I have a chance to do some research, I guess that was 500 mg/dL and according to www.MayoClinic.com, anything over 200 suggests either type 1 or type 2 diabetes.
Our family doctor then contacted a doctor at the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center to arrange for her to be admitted. Unfortunately, they didn’t think they had a bed immediately so that doctor called us at home and told us to call 911 and tell them that our daughter was in “DKA” due to type 1 diabetes. They would take us to El Camino Hospital for immediate attention. So, after doing that, our living room was very shortly filled with paramedics and fire fighters and shortly thereafter, Samantha was in the ambulance, an IV in her arm providing fluids and on her way to the hospital with Cynthia while Matthew and I followed.
When Matthew and I arrived, they were working on getting a second IV setup to start treating with insulin. A more recent blood sugar test came back 350 mg/dL so her condition was starting to improve. But she was still very dehydrated and tired. A medical transport was on its way from the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center and Samantha would be moved there as soon as they started administering insulin. A bed was available and they were better able to treat infants like Samantha. But, Matthew needed to get to bed, so we said our good byes and returned home.
Now that I am home, I can also do some research about DKA which is apparently Diabetic Ketoacidosis and the symptoms exactly match what we were seeing.
So, Matthew and I will be staying at home tonight and Cynthia will be with Samantha. I will take Matthew to school tomorrow morning and then probably relieve Cynthia for a bit. Everyone says that once they can bring her blood sugar down to normal levels, Samantha will recover but then Cynthia and I will have to learn about the ongoing treatment and dietary requirements for Samantha. I will keep everyone up to date as we learn more.
Since we moved, we had been a one car family. At first, we had a rental car. After a few weeks, we bought the Toyota Matrix which would end up being Cynthia’s car. But, we hadn’t gotten a vehicle for me yet. Santa had come and gone and still I didn’t have a car. So, on Boxing Day, we decided to go out and see if I could buy a car.
We went to Frontier Infiniti and I asked to see some of their used G35 sedans. They had several models, but they had a great deal on a 2005. It was the car they listed in their ads to bring in customers and its sticker price was a couple of thousand below the other vehicles they had. I asked the saleswoman if I could take it for a test drive and she seemed a bit uncomfortable. Turns out she had just finished a test drive with another customer who was looking for his wife to show her the car because he thought it was perfect for them. She decided to let me go for a drive with her. As I put the car in drive, she looks over and sees the other customer come out of the building with his wife. He didn’t look too happy. Cynthia was standing there as he apparently said “he is going to buy that car”.
I had already test drove a G35 before when we were looking at the Matrix and I have friends who have had them for a few years who are very happy so I was pretty sure this is what I wanted. The car handled great. It seemed to be in excellent shape and well maintained. It had reasonable mileage (I had to keep converting from miles to kilometers though because 40,000 miles is very different from 40,000 kilometers). There was just one mark on the paint on the passenger side.
So, I bought it. The only complication was insurance. I couldn’t arrange insurance that day so I couldn’t leave with it immediately. While at the zoo, I got an email from my insurance company that it was now covered so on the way home from the zoo, I stopped in to pick it up. We were a two car family again. Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures of our new cars yet but hopefully I will have something to put online soon.
Since then, I passed by driving test so I now have my California license also. Cynthia’s test is scheduled for a couple of weeks from now and I am sure she will pass. The examiner said that he has never failed a Canadian driver, so there you go. Apparently we are all good drivers.
Samantha ate her first ice cream cone and Cynthia captured the result. Check out the video to the right to see how messy she is.
Samantha celebrated her first birthday this past week. Last weekend, we had a party for her and lots of friends and family attended. Samantha wore the dress Grandma Heather made for her. It was a great party and Samantha was very happy as the photos show.
We will add some more details later. For now, check out the pictures.
In September of 1986, Apple released the Apple //GS. Of course, in 1986 it wasn’t nearly as easy as today to get tech news. I found out about the new machine weeks later when I went to a local magazine shop and saw it on the covers of the Apple // magazines. I promptly bought every one of them and went home to learn about the new machine.
It seemed to have everything I wanted in a new computer. The CPU was a 16-bit version of the 6502, a 65816. It was clocked at 2.8 MHz versus the 1 MHz of the Apple ][+ I had (note that as I write this, 2.8 GHz machines and faster are common). It came with 256Kb of memory versus the 64Kb I had. And, it had a mouse, detached keyboard, 3.5″ floppy drives (external) and an RGB monitor. But best of all, it had much better graphics and sound. The graphics modes were 320×200 with 16 colours or 640×200 with 4 colours so it wasn’t necessarily competitive with the Atari ST or the Amiga but it was a huge step forward from my Apple ][+. The sound though was probably better than anything on the market at the time with a real music synthesizer chip capable of 16 stereo voices. Add in a Mac-like interface and it seemed like the perfect machine.
That winter I started reading everything I could about it. I bought lots of magazines and as usual, Nibble seemed to have the best technical coverage. I also bought a book from Apple called “Technical Introduction to the Apple //GS” and read it multiple times. I had to have this machine.
At the time, the cost of an Apple computer in Canada was far more than buying it in the US and bringing it across the border, paying all the duties even with the exchange rate. As we did every summer, we vacationed on our sailboat in western Lake Erie so we made a quick stop in Sandusky, OH and visited a local Apple dealer. They had a few Apple //GS’s on display and I went right to one. We tried a few applications but the ones we liked best were Bard’s Tale and Instant Music. So, along with those two software packages, we bought an Apple //GS, an external 3.5″ floppy drive, an RGB monitor and a 256K RAM card to bring the total memory to 512K. Our existing pair of 5.25″ floppy drives would work with it so we would re-use those from the old Apple ][+.
Then, I waited until we got home to actually set it up and try out my new computer. It was a long wait but eventually, I got my chance to try it out. I unpacked the boxes and started setting everything up. I opened the computer to add the RAM card and to plug in the interface card for the 5.25″ floppies but found the inside empty. Well, it did have a power supply but there was nothing else. There was no motherboard in the case. I grabbed the receipt and we called the store in Sandusky and told them what happened.
Apparently they had swapped the motherboard to fix someone else’s system who was having a problem and sold us the empty case! Thankfully, they agreed to send us a motherboard by courier. When the courier got to the border, he was having problems bringing it across because they insisted on duties being applied to the value of the part. After getting copies of receipts and documents showing we already paid the duties, and he was allowed to proceed. But it began to seem like someone didn’t want me to have a new computer.
When the motherboard arrived, I installed it in the case, plugged in the power supply and finished setting up the system. Shortly thereafter I had the familiar, reassuring beep to tell me everything was fine and my new computer was working. Many hours playing Bard’s Tale and making strange music with Instant Music ensued.
In the glow of this new computer, the old Apple ][+ clone which my dad and I built started to gather dust. We could still use Visicalc and all our old Apple // software on the new system so it very quickly replaced it. A friend of ours was looking for another Apple and without thinking too long, we sold it to him. A few years later, my dad and I realized we had let go something which was actually quite valuable to us. Compared to the new system, it just didn’t seem worth keeping at the time. But to this day, I would love to have it on my desk next to my current computer(s). It really was a one of a kind. We did go back to the man who bought it from us but he had scrapped it long before. The “Rand X” was gone.
But, I did have this fancy new computer which did do a whole lot more and I really wanted to write programs for it. But Applesoft Basic didn’t seem to be the way to do it anymore.
Samantha is starting to change more quickly. She is sitting now. You have to put her in a sitting position but once she is there, she balances very well and reaches for things and only rarely falls over. She rolls over onto her stomach all of the time and is definitely close to crawling. Samantha will pick her body up and be in a four point position and then rock a bit. Then, she will go back onto her stomach, lift up her arms and legs and flail for a little while. Then, back up on all fours. She will figure it out soon I am sure.
But still, she is pushing herself backwards with her arms. Of course, she is looking at something in front of her and trying to go in that direction so she ends up pretty frustrated when it ends up farther away. But, if you look away for a moment, she will have moved some distance when you look back.
The latest thing she is doing is clearly saying “ba” over and over. Just a couple of days ago, Samantha and Matthew were saying “ba ba” to each other back and forth. Cynthia and I looked at each other knowing that before we know it, we will have another voice in the house and the volume will be that much louder.