Katie & Benny
Member Since 2025
Hello everyone, I haven’t written in a while about Benny and that is because we just recently got him back from his 3rd hospital stay since late November. I am going to try to summarize everything as succinctly as I can but it might be tough so bear with me.
Last time I posted here on December 16th, ? - 12/16/25 Benny, Vomiting Same Time Past 3 Nights, you can see that benny wasn’t doing very well and we decided that morning to take him back into the hospital. They found that he had a fever and that his ketones were confirmed very large so they were going to evaluate once again for DKA. For the rest of the day he received IV fluids and would be transferred to Internal Medicine in the morning to look at a possible infection, pancreatitis or a UTI.
Next few days his energy and appetite improve but he still has an occasional fever. They did blood cultures, urine cultures, ultrasound, nothing. Couldn’t find any large infection that could be causing his temperature to go up. His potassium did dip so he was then given potassium through his IV to assist. Still not big answers.
On December 20th, we got the breakthrough answer we needed. A new resident to his case somehow found a huge skin infection on his chest and front leg. He was finally put on an antibiotic and taken to surgery to remove the dead skin. We couldn’t believe what they found and that ourselves and multiple hospitals of doctors did not find this infection. The procedure went well and he was already up and moving looking for dinner after the surgery. The doctor felt like this infection was a huge reason for his high ketones returning so quickly and his glucose numbers bouncing all over the place. We finally felt like the main culprit to our struggles was found.
Since finding the skin infection, Benny has been slowly but steadily improving. He was in the hospital from December 16th until just yesterday, December 26th. His insulin dosage has gone way down because he has had some hypo episodes in the hospital due to his body now being rid of that infection and adjusting. Right now, we are on day two of .5 units morning and evening with three meals a day. Benny will have a check-up in a week to check the sutures on his skin. Otherwise, his energy has been better than it has been in months which I am so grateful to see. He has peed 5 times today which I am considering an improvement since the last time he was home he was peeing 11 times a day.
For future testing, we are still looking at possible GI issues, small cell lymphoma, and Cushing’s. He tested negative for a UTI, pancreatitis and his GI panel was showing no infection while in hospital. Our main concerns are still his weight and getting his glucose in a steadier range. The doctors talked about Benny being a possible candidate for Trejeo insulin. Has anyone else tried that brand before?
Thank you to all who responded to my 5am fire alarm on the 16th. I didn’t have the chance to reply since we were heading to the hospital but I greatly appreciate all the advice and support from this forum.
Last time I posted here on December 16th, ? - 12/16/25 Benny, Vomiting Same Time Past 3 Nights, you can see that benny wasn’t doing very well and we decided that morning to take him back into the hospital. They found that he had a fever and that his ketones were confirmed very large so they were going to evaluate once again for DKA. For the rest of the day he received IV fluids and would be transferred to Internal Medicine in the morning to look at a possible infection, pancreatitis or a UTI.
Next few days his energy and appetite improve but he still has an occasional fever. They did blood cultures, urine cultures, ultrasound, nothing. Couldn’t find any large infection that could be causing his temperature to go up. His potassium did dip so he was then given potassium through his IV to assist. Still not big answers.
On December 20th, we got the breakthrough answer we needed. A new resident to his case somehow found a huge skin infection on his chest and front leg. He was finally put on an antibiotic and taken to surgery to remove the dead skin. We couldn’t believe what they found and that ourselves and multiple hospitals of doctors did not find this infection. The procedure went well and he was already up and moving looking for dinner after the surgery. The doctor felt like this infection was a huge reason for his high ketones returning so quickly and his glucose numbers bouncing all over the place. We finally felt like the main culprit to our struggles was found.
Since finding the skin infection, Benny has been slowly but steadily improving. He was in the hospital from December 16th until just yesterday, December 26th. His insulin dosage has gone way down because he has had some hypo episodes in the hospital due to his body now being rid of that infection and adjusting. Right now, we are on day two of .5 units morning and evening with three meals a day. Benny will have a check-up in a week to check the sutures on his skin. Otherwise, his energy has been better than it has been in months which I am so grateful to see. He has peed 5 times today which I am considering an improvement since the last time he was home he was peeing 11 times a day.
For future testing, we are still looking at possible GI issues, small cell lymphoma, and Cushing’s. He tested negative for a UTI, pancreatitis and his GI panel was showing no infection while in hospital. Our main concerns are still his weight and getting his glucose in a steadier range. The doctors talked about Benny being a possible candidate for Trejeo insulin. Has anyone else tried that brand before?
Thank you to all who responded to my 5am fire alarm on the 16th. I didn’t have the chance to reply since we were heading to the hospital but I greatly appreciate all the advice and support from this forum.
What an awful ten days for you guys to go through. You're getting good advice, I think; I'd definitely give his system a little recovery time before making any major dosing/med changes. (I'm sure that's not easy. Gen's going to have surgery sometime in the next month so I'll have to contend with this kind of thing myself soon enough.) Welcome back, and thank you for the update!
