Charlie took a swig of his water, scraped his tongue with his teeth and contorted his face as if he’d just ingested lizard juice.

 "Dad, does everyone get ketones?"

"No," I told him. "I think mostly just people with diabetes."

Charlie stared at his water bottle and said nothing more on the subject. His lips, that wanted nothing to do with the water, were dry and colorless.

"Charlie, you have to drink the water," I said. "We need to get rid of these ketones."

"But it tastes terrible," he said. "The water doesn’t taste normal. I think it’s the ketones."

I hadn’t thought of that. Now that I have, I hate the thought of Charlie actually tasting the toxic effect of this miserable disease. Can any of you attest to this? Maybe it’s like drinking orange juice after brushing your teeth?

Was a long night. A terrible horrible no good very bad night.

We upped basals around the clock. I gave him a shot in the arm while he slept. He swatted his arm as if bitten by a mosquito. We gave liquids. We checked ketones. He spit up bile-like fluids into a bucket. Didn’t matter what we did to try to avoid it. Charlie seems to be fighting something wicked and insulin is proving to be no match for it. After finally getting blood sugar to 167 by 4:30 am he was right back up to 268 when he woke at 7 am.

Like a torture scene out of a movie, I took the first crack at him, injecting him with a syringe in the left butt cheek.

"Still won’t talk, will you????"

And in walked Susanne, approaching Charlie with a new infusion set, needle pointing upward.

"Let’s see if this jogs your memory."

She pinned down his legs and plunked it into his right butt cheek.

Sigh. Poor kid. We’re always coming at him with sharp objects.

Of course Susanne and I had plans to go out tonight, which is rare. We have tickets to see David Sedaris. I may still go, if I can find a date. Susanne will stay home, trying to fend off whatever it is that’s coming after Charlie.

Woohoo!!!!! Happy Friday!!!!!!!!!