Meet Alicia

My daughter Alicia was born five years ago in upstate New York at 36 weeks. They checked her blood sugar only because she was born early. We are thankful that they checked it because her blood sugar was 32.

 

She spent two weeks at the local NICU and then was transfered to a bigger hospital in NY. First, they tried to maintain her blood sugars with two different medications, octreotide and diazoxide. Neither was effective.

 

Next, they did a 95% pancreatectomy and tried to wean her off the dextrose drip, but were still unsuccessful in maintaining her blood sugars. So, Alicia went back into surgery and they did a 98% pancreatectomy. Fortunately this time was successful.

 

Although this was a very trying and stressful experience, we consider ourselves very lucky that our daughter's HI was caught so early and that she does not have any development issues due to low blood sugars.

 

After a short post-surgery stint on insulin, Alicia has not needed any since. Now her blood sugars remain in the 80s to150s. She did have a g-tube for over a year that we used to feed her when she wouldn't eat, such as when she was sick and through the night. She also takes pancreatic enzymes with her meals. Although we are concerned that she may need insulin in the future, we continue to check blood sugars.

 

She is doing so well and she just started kindergarten this year!

 

My son Adam was born this year. We had the hospital implement the newborn protocol and when they checked his blood sugar it was in the 40s! They checked it again and it was still in the 40s. So, he was transfered to the NICU and was put on a dextrose drip. They were able to successfully wean him off the drip after he passed his fasting study with flying colors. He was able to come home in a week. He is now almost 7 weeks old and is doing great.

We live in Idaho and I am a Registered Nurse and my Husband also works at the hospital. We enjoy spending time together as a family and enjoying the outdoors!