Finally...The Answers We Have Been Looking For

Well, it seems after over two weeks of Wyatt's roller coaster blood sugars that we might finally know what's causing the problems. I apologize we haven't posted more. Things have been crazy with Parks at home and Wyatt in the hospital, and I was hesitating to post about Wyatt's condition because I was having trouble understanding it myself. It seems that he is having some adrenal insufficiency in that his adrenal glands are not producing adequate amounts of cortisol, one of the stress hormones. The simplest explanation I could find is as follows..."Cortisol is a potent hormone known as a glucocorticoid that affects the metabolism of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, but especially glucose. Cortisol increases blood sugar levels by stimulating the release of glucose from glucose stores in cells. It also acts to inhibit insulin, thus affecting glucose transport into cells." The important thing here is the role cortisol plays in regulating blood glucose. This is where Wyatt is having trouble. Now that we finally understand that this is the problem the endocrinologist has decided to administer a maintenance dose of steroids (cortisone) to replace what Wyatt is lacking. This should allow for better regulation of his blood sugars and hopefully prevent him from having anymore hypoglycemic episodes. He will come home on this medication and probably with a blood sugar monitor so we can check his glucose levels several times daily. Our prayer is that he will grow out of this and we can slowly taper him off of this medication.