Friday night, we had the whole family over for pizza.   It was fun to be together.  Punky kind of picked at his food again.   Not really interested in much of anything.  He had the most noxious gas.   He cleared the whole first floor of  my mom and dad’s house several times!   The poor kid had diarrea on top of that!   At one point, Lucas (age 2) said, “Punky, don’t do that again!” after one of his “toots.”

On Saturday monring, Punky crawled into my bed at 6:30 AM, and we slept until just before 8.  Then he wanted to crawl into Grandma and Grandpa’s bed, so down the hall he went.    I went in a few minutes later and turned on the Leprechaun Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episode that he had been talking about all week.   He didn’t seem to interested, but he got down from the bed and sat on teh chair to watch it.   Mom came to get me after a few more minutes, as Punky could barely keep his eyes open.   I went to grab a diaper as it smelled like he needed a diaper change again.   When I picked him up, he just went limp.   He could barely keep his eyes open, and his whole body was so slack while I changed him.   I knew something was wrong.

We quickly threw on some clothes, and dad drove us to the emergency room.

Side note, every time that we leave Chicago, Punky goes to breakfast with Grandma and Grandpa at Gus’ Diner for Mickey Mouse pancakes the morning of his departure.   We were to fly home that afternoon, so when we arrived at the emergency room, Punky whispered, “Mama, are we at Gus’ now?”   I just melted right there!

We went into emergency and quickly gave the details of the last few days – hardly eating, drinking, dirty diapers, gas, etc.    They hurried us into a room, and I laid Punky down on a gurney.  The ER doctor came in and gave Punky a “Sternum rub” which to me looked like a rough shaking and was LOUDLY saying “Punky, wake up!”  After what seemed like eternity, Punky’s eyes flickered open, and the doctor quickly ordered some blood tests and an IV.

Turned out, Punky’s blood sugar was 45.   Normal is 100-180 for toddlers or 110-200 overnight.     Punky was given a shot of sucrolose through the IV to get his blood sugar back up.  After 5 minutes or so, he was able to sit up and sip some apple juice.  His blood was retested and his blood sugar was then 235.  The blood tests also showed that because of the dehydration, the electrolytes were gone from his blood, altering the chemical makeup of his blood, causing it to be acidic.  Punky was admitted to the hospital soon after.

We had a rough Saturday afternoon as Punky had tremendous gas pains.   His poor little belly was so bloated and rock hard!  He just writhed and winced and screamed in pain.   It also took him quite some time to start wetting his diaper… all that pressure on his bladder also caused him discomfort.

Hubby drove down to IL from MN that afternoon.   The three of us stayed in the hospital overnight.  Punky enjoyed a multitude of purple popsicles.  His sparkle started to come back….and by Sunday afternoon, he was starting to get antsy to leave.  Sunday evening, after showing his nurses he could eat and drink and keep everything down, he was discharged from the hospital.

Here are a few pictures of our little guy from Sunday afternoon.  My sister and my mom took some other pictures, but I don’t have copies of them yet.

On Monday morning, we went to Gus’ Diner to celebrate Punky’s release and our departure.   Gus gave Punky a hat and a high-five for being such a great patient and a super customer!

All is getting back to normal here.  We’ve been inundated with cards, gifts, emails, thoughts, and prayers.   Thank you for all of them!   We are so glad to have our Punky back!