Dear Amber,
I used to describe you as “Taz” the little Tasmanian devil cartoon who was calm and mild mannered one moment then wild, uncontrollable and irrational in the very next second. It was the strangest thing and NO parenting book, class, or article had prepared me for this phenomenon in your behavior.
I noticed early on that feeding you approximately every 2 hours would keep you from morphing into “Taz”. And yes, the pediatricians called it “hypoglycemia” or low blood sugar. That diagnosis and treatment plan of eating high protein with carbohydrates every two hours worked generally well for a few years. Except that sometimes when it didn’t work the episodes were becoming increasingly worse.
And it failed miserably at band camp the summer before your first year of high school.
When I FINALLY found an endocrinologist who was willing to partner with me on the journey to properly diagnose and treat you I was relieved. He wanted to scientifically eliminate the diagnosis of hypoglycemia if the treatment plan was no longer working.
After that hard week, we sat in his office and he informed us that you did not have hypoglycemia. I had such mixed emotions. I had to remain calm because your anger and reaction of frustration was clearly evident and I did not want to escalate it, but calm you. I couldn’t lose control, not now, not in front of my daughter. All I could manage to utter was “…now what? Where do we go from here?”
I am thankful he had a plan, and that he remained very calm and reassuring. I am thankful he had another test in mind. He only gave us the information that we could digest at that time, no false hopes yet at the same time, reassurance that he was going to keep digging until we found an answer.
He was committed to finding an answer that we could live with, and one that would allow you to live better, and stronger, and healthier.
I’m still thankful.
Love,
Mom
Labels: Letters from Mom