How it all happened

A few months ago I had a few suspicions that my Little Man was showing signs of being diabetic. Since we saw the Endo every month for his sister I thought I would just talk to him about it. I tested his blood occasionally and would get readings anywhere from 100 to 209.

In May we heard of a study that would test family members of diabetics to see if they have a chance of getting it someday. It is a simple blood test that looks for a certain antibody that shows up as diabetes eventually....or something like that. Honestly I don't really know how it worked but I signed the entire family up for it! Little Dude, Little Man and I went to have the test done in May. Little Man's veins are tiny so they couldn't get enough blood for the test. Dude and I got our results and we are in the clear. I still wanted Little Man to get it though so I set up an appointment for him to go with his daddy in July. Well again they couldn't get enough blood....Daddy is in clear. When he started to show a few more signs of it I really needed to find out more since the next time they were doing the study was in November.

I set up an appointment to go and see the Endo in September. They looked at his glucose numbers that I brought in from the times that I had tested him. They did and A1c and it was 5.6, still normal. But they wanted me to bring him in next month to see how things were going. The end of October I took him in again. Still a few higher glucose number and his A1c went up to 5.9 but still ok. They told me to check him still when he is showing signs and to call if I have any questions.

I called Monday morning because boy oh boy did I have a question....ok really, I already knew what he was going to say. On Sunday night my Little Man had a major melt down over daddy taking away stickers that he was not playing with nicely. He went to a time out after trying to hit is daddy. He sat there and screamed at the top of his lungs. No matter what we did he wouldn't stop. I moved him to his room for him to know that I mean business. He screamed ever louder. I went in and sat on the floor and tried to talk to him. He backed up into his closet and screamed for almost 20 minutes. In that time he would come after me and try to pull my hair or bite me. I happened to look into his eyes and I saw something very frightening. It was all the signs of a high blood sugar and that he was officially not in control. This was far more than just a typical 2 year old melt down. I had the thought to test his blood sugar, but there was no way I was going to do it until he was clam. Finally I just grabbed him and held him in my arms and whispered in his ear. He finally calmed down and I just held him. He sat on my lap for quite some time while I talked to him. A little while later I tested his blood sugar and sure enough...394!

I panicked. I couldn't stop shaking. I kept thinking "he has been caught sneaking candy all afternoon. Maybe that is all that it is." Denial I suppose. I know better. Tears kept coming as I realized what this meant. As soon as I turned on my computer to let my mind escape for a little bit my D-mom friends were chatting and invited my to join. I needed to talk and somehow it worked out that they were right there. All of them, including myself were in tears. We all knew what this meant. What a support it was! I am thankful they were there to help my hubby and I that night! (Yes, he read the entire conversation.)

My hubby held me while I tried to sleep. I couldn't. I just cried. The plan was to call the Dr. in the morning on my first break at work. My hubby and I tested his blood all night until it finally came down to 160 at 4:00 in the morning.

I couldn't work Monday morning. My training class starts at 6:30 so I was tired, but I couldn't stop thinking about it. 8:30 came and I called the Dr. and told the receptionist what was going on, then left a message to have the Dr. call me back. Not even 2 minutes later he called me back and told me that he needed to go to the ER. I stared to sob. I knew I couldn't leave my class. There was no way if I left I was going to loose my job. He told me to go straight from work to his office as soon as I could after work. The rest of my morning was a blur.

I picked him and his sister from the sitter and headed to the Dr. They weighed him. He had lost 1 pound since the end of October. They checked his A1c. It had gone up from 5.9 to 6.2. Going up, but still on the boarder line of ok. The Dr. pretty much knew what was coming, but needed to know how fast. He sent me home to give Little Man as much sugar as possible to put his pancreas to the ultimate test. Then I had orders to take him to Alta View Hospital to do a blood test. He said that if his blood sugar was over 200 his pancreas had failed the test. I did what he said.

Before we were called back to have the blood drawn I pulled out his tester and got a reading of 388.

He had failed the test.

The Dr. called that night and said that it was official he is diabetic. He told us to head up to Primary Children's hospital so they can monitor him while they tried to get the correct insulin doses down. He was admitted on Monday night and sent home Wednesday afternoon.

1 year and 5 days apart from his older sister's diagnosis. Can you believe it? I am still having a hard time believing it myself. But we are good!

More to come....even with pictures next time!