6/10/05 1:00
1:00 PM (Susan posting): We're still in the hospital. Sophie's glucose levels were low at the blood draw they did at 4:00 a.m. They decided they were going to discontinue the glucose fluids this morning and have her fast to watch her blood levels. When they took the baseline finger prick at 10:45 (oh, how Sophie loves that--not!), her blood sugar was already close to low (52), so they had me give her some food and drink (she had milk and a bite of graham cracker). An hour later, it was even lower (44), so she ate some macaroni and cheese and plenty of juice, and after a half hour, it was up to 86.
The endocrinologist came to talk to me a little while ago, and they think she has ketotic hypoglycemia, which is not related to the leukemia and is fairly normal for a kid her age. They drew some blood and are running a bunch of tests to see if that's the problem. If her body is making ketones, and the rest of her levels look good, we'll go home in the morning and start managing this by diet (eating regular meals and frequent snacks, focusing on complex carbohydrates). If her body isn't producing ketones, then there may be a problem with her pituitary gland (which could be related to the chemo), and we'll proceed on a different course (we're not really focusing on that yet, because it's not likely).