Pyper update

Monday morning Pyper woke up chipper and feeling like herself again. She threw up pretty consistently until about 2 pm on Sunday, then she stopped but kept acting like she felt crummy. Her activities consisted of the usual rough-housing/playing/fighting with Hakan, so I was hopeful that her sickness was gone. Well, around 7 pm (Monday) she started complaining about feeling yucky again, and sure enough she threw up her dinner. Later after she'd gone to bed she threw up again, then once more early this morning. Aaron and I decided it was time to find out what's going on. For the record, I've always been determined to NOT be one of those mothers who runs to the doctor every time my child has a sniffle. But I hate thinking that maybe they have something I should be worried about and I'm making them suffer by not taking them in. Since she hasn't had any other symptoms (no fever or anything) I haven't been too concerned about having her seen by a doctor. We've been trying to keep her hydrated and rested, but that's about it.

Anyway, we took her in to one of those walk-in clinics and after waiting foreeeeever, Aaron went into a room with Pyper while I stayed with Hakan out front. We waited some more, 'til I finally couldn't take it anymore and we went back as well. They had her give a urine sample and not long after, the Physician's Assistant came in to talk to us about the results. He said there was blood in her urine which could indicate a urinary tract infection, and "Now, don't be alarmed," he says, there were a lot of ketones in it as well. Since I didn't know at the time that ketones=proteins, I didn't know why I would be alarmed. Not until he said the word "diabetes" anyway. Yeah. I listened, trying to stay calm and not just start crying right then and there, looking at my tiny, pale little girl sitting on that bed looking so pathetic and tired. He gave us a prescription for some antibiotics in case she does have a urinary tract infection, and stressed that we need to get her in to see a Pediatrician right away to find out why she's passing proteins.

Here's something I found online that was helpful:
Ketones are a by-product/or waste product when your body burns stored fat for energy.

The foods you eat break down into glucose (sugar). Glucose travels in the blood and into your cells. Insulin is a hormone (or "key") that "unlocks the doors of your cells" to allow glucose to enter your cells where it can be turned into energy. So without insulin, glucose wouldn't be able to get into the cells.

Your brain (and the rest of your body) requires glucose to function. When you haven't eaten for a while, or during the night when you're asleep, your liver releases stored glucose to keep you supplied with energy.

If you don't eat for several days, the stored glucose in the liver is depleted, and your body is in a starvation state. In this situation, the body will break down stored fat to get energy, (and ketones can show in the urine, indicating that fat was burned) and also the body will create sugar out of other substances in the body in order to supply the brain with glucose.

Obviously, diabetes isn't the only reason for her test results. It's probably not even the most likely reason considering she hasn't eaten much over the past 3 days. The P.A. kept trying to reassure us by saying not to be alarmed BUT this is something that we need to pursue right away. We didn't have a pediatrician to take her to (we haven't needed one until now!) but that was his suggestion. So I called up a doctor that The Baby Place had recommended to me for after we have the baby and asked if Pyper could be seen- soon. She's got an appointment for tomorrow. The clinic is going to culture her urine sample and give us a call with the results tomorrow as well. So until then, "don't worry too much". Geesh.