Diabetes entered our lives with a huge bang...tears, anger, fear, sadness, anxiety, guilt, and almost every other bad feeling you can add to that. When Miss E was first diagnosed with type 1 diabetes I remember thinking "WTH is that?!!" I had heard of type 2 diabetes, I had heard of gestational diabetes...but type 1, nooooo.
Wow, was I in for a lesson.
Miss E was two years old, we had a beautiful new baby in the house (Lil Miss C) who was just six months old. I remember noticing changes in Miss E, she was constantly thirsty and soaking through her diapers. We noticed that she was starting to look alot thinner than normal, we thought that she was just stretching out...but my gut was starting to tell me that something wasn't quite right. I will never forget the day that my mommy instincts stopped whispering in my ear and started shouting at me. I had taken the girls to visit their daddy for lunch at his work, afterwards as I was driving home she started rubbing her eyes and telling me that her eyes were crying and she didn't know why. I asked her if she was sad and she said "no, they just keep crying mommy and I can't make them stop."
I looked in my rear view mirror and I saw fear in her eyes, that made my stomach turn. We got home and she immediately asked for milk, I filled her sippy cup and she chugged it as if she hadn't had a drink in days. I remember watching her down this milk like it was nothing, she wiped her mouth and immediately asked for more. I gave her more and again she downed it like it was nothing, not more than a minute later and I heard her crying out to me, she had SOAKED through her diaper. Her face looked pale and exhausted, my stomach dropped.
I knew then that something was terribly wrong so I got on the phone and called her doctor, they didn't have any appointments available until the next week but I begged them to see her sooner. Luckily they agreed to see her right at closing time, I called my husband and asked him to meet us at the doctors office, I am so thankful that I did. I told the nurse that I thought it could be a urinary infection so they decided to take a urine sample. The nurse came back in our room and told me they wanted to do a blood glucose test on her because she had alot of sugar in her urine, I watched as she poked Miss E's finger and touched it to her meter...all it said was "HIGH". The nurse didn't even look at me, she just said "I'll be right back, I think there is something wrong with this meter." She came back with a new meter and the doctor and they retested..."HIGH".
That's when the doctor left the room, a few minutes later she came back and began to tell us that she thought Miss E had diabetes and we needed to take her to the hospital immediately. She had already called and spoke with a doctor at the ER and they would be waiting for us, we were in total shock.
I will never forget when we walked into the Emergency Room...it was packed!!! I thought we were in for a long wait, boy was I wrong. My husband signed us in, came to sit back down with us and then we were immediately called back. That scared me...there were at least 20 people waiting and we went to the front of the line...not a good feeling at all, I think that's when I knew this was very serious. Again, they tested her blood glucose and again it said "HIGH", she was rushed to a room, hooked up to an IV and that was the beginning of our new life with diabetes. Traumatic, scary, exhausting, and overwhelming. We spent four days in the hospital learning about type 1 diabetes, everything and anything that we could cram into our stressed out brains and then some!
I knew that we were about to embark on a crazy journey, one that would be filled with alot of pain and alot of challenges but one that I was ready to take head on! Little did I know, this was just the tip of the iceberg for our family and this new beginning was barely getting started.
I love you so much Connie! You are such a great mother and wife and best friend. I am so excited about your new blog. Love, Kristina
ReplyDeleteKristina,
ReplyDeleteThank you sooooo much for the beautiful comment! You are a true friend and I thank you for all of the love and support that you have given me. You are an amazing friend!
Thank you for your comment on my blog. I can't imagine how hard it must be to have 2 children with D. It's agonizing enough with just 1. And reading these posts brought back all those hard feelings at diagnosis-- I cried for weeks afterward. You definitely have to take time to grieve.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to more of your posts and getting to know you better.
Thank you Danielle for your kind words, it is very hard to have 2 little ones with diabetes. Some days are harder then others, but I always give it my best...even on those days when I feel like my best is never enough.
ReplyDeleteWow Connie. Such a familiar story. It makes me crazy that a doctor's office could hear these symptoms and suggest seeing you in a week. I'm so glad you insisted. They had us wait until the next day with Caleb. I still think that was so irresponsible. With such obvious symptoms, the advice should be to get to the ER immediately. We were lucky that Caleb had not progressed further.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to getting to know you!
Lorraine (and Caleb)
Lorraine,
ReplyDeleteThank you for stopping by and saying hello. You are so right, I hate to think what would have happened to Miss E if I hadn't insisted they get me in sooner. When she was admitted to the hospital her numbers were so high that the nurses and doctors were telling us we were lucky we brought her in when we did. It was so scary, I wish I had known what the sypmtoms of diabetes were before she was diagnosed. But in all honesty I would have NEVER thought that would have been it, she was such a healthy little girl who would choose broccoli over french fries! NO JOKE!
That is what is so upsetting to me now, whenever you hear about diabetes in the media they are usually talking about type 2...but rarely make the distinction. I didn't even know what type 1 diabetes was until my daughter was diagnosed with it.
The diagnosis is all too familiar. Where we became most concerned was when Ryan's emotional well being was changing. He would cry and didn't know why or have drastic mood changes. We had even investigated emotional disorders.
ReplyDeleteSo happy you connected. We will talk again. I know it. Keep your head up. . . can't imagine having two little ones with different factors, sugars, routines, etc. I should try to connect you with a facebook friend of mine who has three T1 children. She might be able to give some different insight and perspective too.
Life IS hard, but you're not alone. :)