In the very early morning hours, our daughter, E, was rushed to the emergency room of the Kaiser Permanente hospital in Roseville, CA. E is our 33 year old daughter who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in high school. She had been very successful at keeping her diabetes in check throughout her young life, through the three deliveries of her young children, and she has thrived. Unfortunately, in late March, she suffered through several days of very high blood sugar, constant vomiting, severe lethargy, severe weakness, and overall concern for her well-being. All of the efforts that had proven to work well toward improving her symptoms failed her. Realizing the severity of her condition, E was taken to the ER for medical care. Her blood sugar was off the charts, literally. She was loosing control of her bodily functions, and she was only mumbling single syllables. There have been two times in her life where E has actually stated, “Mom, I feel like I am dying. I don’t want to die.” The first was when she was admitted to the ICU (so ill that the nephrologist stated that if we had waited another day, we would have lost her) for two weeks when her type 1 diabetes presented itself in high school. The other was that early morning.

E knew that her body was crashing. We had no idea why her blood sugar and body was in such uncontrollable distress. Thank God for Nurse Elaine!!! Labs were ordered immediately, and based on the results, Nurse Elaine knew exactly what was wrong. Nurse Elaine was more knowledgeable about E’s condition than the treating ER doctor. She flew into action. Aware that E, was not alert, Elaine calmly explained to us (E’s parents) that she had tested positive for the flu, type A. She explained that this particular flu causes Cortisol and Adrenaline levels to rapidly rise in the body which made E’s insulin injections useless. Elaine also explained the concern for the lab results of E’s high potassium levels and the urgent importance of getting the levels to improve swiftly. Please know that Nurse Elaine never stopped administering aid to E while she told us what she was doing and why. She was plugging in numerous machines, connecting 2 IVs, checking blood sugar, pulling blood for new labs, monitoring E’s heart with the EKGs, cleaning up E’s vomit episodes, and ALWAYS speaking to us with kindness and compassion. We had so many questions, and she knew the answers. She reassured us that E would improve, but that it was very important to bring her blood sugar down very slowly. Nurse Elaine was so knowledgeable about E’s condition and why her blood sugar was so horribly high compared to the other times she normally experienced very low blood sugar with such constant vomiting. We learned so much from Nurse Elaine. We feel blessed that she took the time to share her knowledge about E’s condition and how to prevent another medical crisis like this in the future. We learned more from Nurse Elaine than we have from all of the nephrologists over the years. We are so grateful to Nurse Elaine for taking such excellent care of our daughter. We are thankful that she recognized our need for an understanding as to how E ended up in such a scary medical state. Not only did we feel that E was in excellent hands with Nurse Elaine, we, too, felt that we were in equally excellent hands.

As parents, when words of thanks just did not seem like enough, we looked into a way to recognize Nurse Elaine for her outstanding care that was filled with such grace and compassion. We came across the DAISY Award and feel that Nurse Elaine deserves this award and so much more! We are grateful that our daughter returned home to her husband and three young children. Nurse Elaine was the knowledgeable, experienced, compassionate angel who made that happen. She is a true DAISY Nurse.