Update about our emergency (Patreon)

Hi all,

Just a quick update on our medical emergency.

First of all, we've settled down back to our home, for the most part. Our son is no longer in a life-threatening situation, but our life has now changed quite a lot permanently.

So, what's wrong?

With absolutely no previous symptoms, our son was caught up with type 1 diabetes within three days. Usually the symptoms are coming bit by bit, taking months, or even years to manifest.

In our son's case, it was literally three days.

So, what's type 1 diabetes? It's an autoimmunity disease with no cure, where the body kills its own insulin production and makes it impossible for the body to obtain energy from any of the nutriments.

As opposed to type 2 diabetes, the type 1 diabetes has nothing to do with one's life habits, but is usually hereditary. In our son's case, we have no idea why he has it, and probably never will. There's no diabetes in both of our side's family.

And now you might be thinking "Just diabetes? Is that life-threatening?", and justifiably so.

Yes, it unfortunately is, especially when it starts so suddenly for such a young patient. Doctors told me that if we had gone to the hospital only a day later, our child could have very well died. Seeing the rapid decline of his wellbeing, I have zero doubts about that.

He was vomiting all over the place, and his blood sugar levels were higher than the first doctor's office's measurement tools were able to reach. His blood was turning into literal acid due to diabetic ketoacidosis.

Finland is a bit of a curious country, as we have the most type 1 diabetes cases per capita. Which, luckily, means that the care for diabetes is the best in the world.

The treatment started with some hurried IVs of saline, glucose and insulin. Right after that, we had a one-week intensive care at the hospital, with both of the parents staying with the child day and night, trying to find the proper insulin levels that help keep the balance of his blood sugar levels at correct levels.

If they go too low, our son might fall into a coma. If they go too high, his blood turns into acid.

This wouldn't be a problem at all, if we could've found the proper levels of insulin to give to him—but even after a week, the doctors are still trying out different amounts that change daily. At the moment our soon-to-be 4-year-old son receives as much insulin as a hormone-ridden teenager would receive. Which is a lot.

This brings us to today, a week after the diagnosis. We can finally stay at home, but there are also quite a few doctor's appointments to stay. Leila has to stay at least a week, or even two, at home with our son, before we can be sure that he's fit for daycare again. Assuming that we find the proper insulin amounts that are safe.

So there I was thinking, yes, perhaps this is it now. We can get over this together. As long as there's no more pressure.

But the world is a shitty place, and as the Finnish proverb goes, "everything is shit except for piss".

We also found a big dent in our poor dog's eye. I'm pretty sure that fixing that will cost us a fortune.

But wait! That's not all!

I also found out that my father has cancer. The very same cancer that both of my grandfathers died of.

The very same cancer that is the extremely hereditary.

Better start booking those yearly cancer screenings for me as well.

I'll try to arrange for some time to shoot the next project. It's something that might keep me sane, at least for a moment. If I only can find the time for that.