Diagnosis Part 4

POISON IVY UPDATE: Matthew's eye is better, but his neck, arm and back are worse. It's now spread to his legs. I'm going to call and take him to his regular doctor to make sure this is the right medicine. We gave him more insulin than usual this morning and his lunchtime number will tell a lot.


Now, on to the end of the diagnosis story.

First a little info for those of you who don't know much about diabetes. When your sugar goes really high or you get sick, your body produces ketones. They are found by checking your urine. They are like a poison to your body and can make you really sick.

When Matthew was admitted to the hospital, his sugar was at 400 and his ketones were large. The fix? Insulin and fluids.

Well, thanks to Justin, Matthew didn't mind getting the IV into his hand, but that doesn't mean he liked it. He really didn't want to go to sleep with the tubing still in his hand.

Our first night in the hopital, the nurse, Jennifer, was constantly checking Matthew's ketone level. A little before 10pm that night, she checked his urine once again and said his ketones had dropped into the moderate range. She told Matthew that was great, but he would still have to keep the IV in until the ketones registered negative. She said that would probably happen the next day. Matthew was pretty disappointed.

As soon as Jennifer left, I thought.....wait a minute. We are not going to accept that. We're are going to pray about this. Matthew and I have been learning in BSF about the importance of being specific in your prayers. That way you know when God has answered them.

So I told Matthew we were going to pray. We did just that and specifically asked God to remove the ketones before midnight.

So Jennifer comes in a little after 11pm and checks his urine. "Hmm....she says. "That couldn't be right. Let me check again." She checks again and.....NEGATIVE ketones. She could not believe it, but it was true. Negative! The IV was removed before midnight. How cool is that?!

I cannot tell you how much this meant to Matthew and to me. Seeing God work in such a powerful, specific way was completely amazing. I will never forget it.

Now, I have to confess, in hindsight, I don't know what in the world came over me....putting God on the spot like that with something the nurse said wouldn't happen. What was I thinking? What would I have told Matthew if God's answer had been no? Clearly, I didn't take the time to think it through, I just acted in faith.

It makes me wonder what my life would be like if I did that more often.