So much healing going on at the Wilkinson household! Since Jack’s tube removal in June, we have gone on a family roadtrip (turns out it’s easier to manage his diabetes when he’s within 10 feet of us at all times 😜), celebrated Jack’s 11th birthday and had our 3 month follow up appointment.

After Jack got his tube out, we decided to attempt a roadtrip. We live near US-12 and learned it ends in Washington. Why not take it to the end?! After being apart and everyone out of sorts, it was nice to spend a few weeks as a family together 24/7. It also turned out to be a great way to allow Jack to heal. We put over 6,000 miles on the van which gave Jack plenty of time sitting and resting. It was much needed as he has been overdoing it on a daily basis. It also aided us in his diabetes management since we could monitor closely the entire time. More importantly it gave our family the first feeling of normalcy in over a year. It was good for all of us to experience adventure and recognize that life goes on and we can too.

It was also fun to watch Jack’s strength build throughout the trip. A flat 2 mile hike was too much one week, but the next he was strong enough to hike 4 miles with a 650 foot elevation change. Thank goodness for a high tech world so we could send prescriptions up the route to ensure he had all the diabetes supplies necessary for the three week duration. We explored 14 states through 4 time zones and the kids earned junior ranger badges at 6 national parks. It was perfect.

Last week Jack turned 11! It’s crazy that a year ago I wasn’t sure he would still be here to turn 11. I’m forever grateful to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital for finally listening to us and diagnosing him. It was truly life changing. If you told me on his 10th birthday the journey our next year would hold…I’m not sure I would believe you. It’s insane that in one year we went from multiple ER visits where I was told ‘your kid is fine you are overreacting’ to local hospitalizations being considered ‘one off’ situations to our visit to Cincinnati for a second opinion where he was diagnosed with chronic pancreatitis, underwent multiple ERCPs, was evaluated, approved and underwent the TPIAT and now he is 3 months post operation. What a crazy exhausting year!

Naturally after all that, we had to celebrate big! We spent the days before his 3 month post op appointments at Great Wolf Lodge and Kings Island. Jack was reminded that he really is freshly out of surgery when he rode roller coasters but he still managed to have enough stamina to stay until the park closed.

Finally, we had his 3 month follow up! It went great. The consensus is that all the teams can’t believe he’s only 3 months post surgery. His PT eval showed he’s almost back to his strength before surgery. The pancreas team took him off multiple medications. The surgery team was blown away by how well his scar healed and officially unrestricted him 100%. Lastly, the endocrinology team cut his insulin rates in half and said his A1c has improved in 3 months and his mixed meal test came back basically normal. the doctors anticipate he will be off adjusted insulin for meals by 6 months and are hopeful he will be fully insulin independent by 1 year Truly, all best case scenarios.

We head back to Cincinnati in October for his 6 month follow up so I don’t anticipate many updates between now and then. School starts next month and that will be a learning curve with a new school and diabetes management, but I’m sure he will do awesome.