This was written by me a few days after diagnosis. I wanted to remember the chain of events. Honestly I can write a book based on those 3 days alone. This is just a snippet of how our story began.
My son was off for about 6 months prior to diagnosis. He was whiny, angry, tired, and cold; it almost felt like he had PMS for a 3 1/2 year old boy. He was so yucky to be around that I thought that our fun life was over at 3 1/2. He used to cry and say he didn’t want to turn four; he didn’t want to go to school. I actually thought he was depressed. Over what, I had no idea, but that’s how it felt living with him. Fast forward to 2 weeks after his 4th birthday and he peed the bed. NEVER did that once. Then he started asking for drinks. Then started demanding drinks and he started peeing all the time. Every 20 minutes. I immediately thought diabetes (don’t know why) and started doing research. I asked moms on an Internet bulletin board if they had any stories about diabetes and some did. I kept the knowledge on the back burner. During this time frame I made his 4 year old visit for 7/25/07.
The night before the visit, my son got up to pee 6 times. I mean really pee, like he hadn’t peed in days. Well the morning of the visit (my husband was home to watch the kids for a checkup for me too); my son comes to his dad and me and tells us he’s hungry. I look at him, his lips are blue, he is completely grey and shrunken, like someone had sucked all the life out of him. I spell ‘hospital’ to my husband, and told him to quickly give him juice (I thought he needed sugar for some reason) and I made him pancakes. He perked right up with the juice and pancakes.
At the visit at 3pm I told the pediatrician to test his urine for diabetes (I didn’t know Type 1 or Type 2 yet). We go through the whole visit and the doctor never mentioned the urine test that she did. I had to ask in the final few seconds of the meeting. This is where is gets annoying-Dr. says “you’re going to have to go see an endocrinologist.’ I tell her I don’t know any, she says maybe the girl up front can find you one. Okay, I yell to the girl up front that while she’s looking for an endo for me to make the appointment IMMEDIATELY and I would drive anywhere on the East Coast (I knew in my heart my son was dying). Dr. says to the receptionist, “Oh and let me talk to them, maybe it will get you in sooner.” Endo says come to ER immediately (of course) and we drove there on autopilot, only stopping home to get clothes, toys, kiss daddy and sister. On the way to the ER I make plans for my mom to come and stay with my daughter, so that my husband could come to ER too.
The really annoying part…his sugar was off the charts, over 1,000, in that doctor’s office that day. We didn’t need that pediatrician to talk to the endo. They were waiting for us in the ER.
My son’s sugar registered 800 in the hospital after they had started insulin. No ketones. We were there for 2 nights and 3 full days. They gave me a crash course in care because I kept asking to leave. I started giving insulin the first full day there. I also started checking blood that fast too. I needed to prove to them I could take care of him (prove I could care for MY SON!), so I gave myself the first shot. They really tried to get me out as fast as possible and they did.
Nurses kept coming in to meet the mom that saved her boy from DKA.
We’ve been doing really well with it. Everyday we learn a little more, and it has not stopped our way of life. We deal with D (diabetes) all the time, and it has incorporated itself into our world. Our world didn’t stop because of D.
When my son was diagnosed 20 years ago, I was in complete shock. I lost about 25 pounds due to the stress. My husband didn’t think that it was a big deal, and all of the care fell to me. In those days (1980’s), the glucometer was a big machine. You had to put a hanging drop of blood on the strip, put it in the machine, and wait for one minute. Then you wiped off the blood and put it in for another minute. Often the machine would say, “Not enough blood”, and we would have to do it again. Glucometers have come a long way! I am still waiting for the cure that the doctors said would be a reality by the time he was 21. NOT!
My son is 27 years old now, and he still has to struggle with this terrible disease every day.
Thanks Jacquie. I am sorry about your daughter’s dx. I wish that someone would find a way so that no more kids are dx’d with this awful disease. I am glad you found my blog too. Many people find connections through it and I am glad to be here for you.
Leslie
Hi Leslie,my daughter Brianna was diagnosed with type1 4 months ago and its been hard,i feel i have aged 50yrs in those 4 months.Some days are a breeze and some well as you know are definately not.I am happy to have found your blog,in a masochistic kind of way it makes me feel not so isolated in dealing with it myself as well as helping my daughter deal with it.p.s. I definately agree with you in feeling like I could write a book on those first few days leading up to and after diagnosis,every second of it is etched in my mind like a bad dream.Take care and keep up the good work x