Just wondering how you found out about your child’s diagnosis. What symptoms were they having? How long were they in the hospital? What date were they diagnosed? You know, things like that.
I’ve got to go to work right now, but will be back later to post Riley’s story.
Here’s our story:
Let me preface this by saying that my dad was dx’d type 1 at 12 years old, so my parents were constantly concerned that I was going to develop D as a kid.
So Samantha was a very good baby, toddler, child. Aside from the normal illnesses she was never very sick. Despite having been potty trained for over a year, she started having an accident or two at school everyday. This was just before her 4th birthday in May of 2002. I didn’t think much of it and started to negotiate with her for “no accidents at school”. We made a deal that if she could go one week without accidents I’d get her a Barbie house (something she had wanted for a while). Well, that week came and went and she didn’t get the house, because she kept having accidents. She had also started drinking much more.
The following week she went to visit some relatives in Oklahoma with her dad’s side of the family, they drove. He called me on the way home to say that she had to stop to pee every 30-40 minutes. I wouldn’t say he was worried, but he was definitely befuddled. I was worried though and I called my dad to ask if this could be D. He said that she was showing no other signs and that if it were D she would be super sick. So I dismissed it as being dehydration from the hot car ride. (As a side note, when my dad was diagnosed, he had gone a very long time without knowing why he was ill. He lost 1/3 of his total body weight and was hospitalized for several weeks).
She had only been home for a couple of days when she threw a fit when I withheld water before bed (yes, I thought I was doing the right thing, but I so wasn’t!). For me that was a big deal because I had never in my life seen my child throw a fit over anything. This was water, something she needed to live and she was dying for it. I let her sleep in my bed with me because I was so worried and that night I had dreams about her having D all night long. She woke up in the middle of the night and had to pee; we barely made it to the toilet (about 15 feet from the bed) and she peed a little bit on the tile floor. I grabbed a towel and tossed it on top of the pee and we went back to bed. Next morning I went to clean up the pee and the towel was literally stuck to the floor. The pee was super sticky. It was at this point that I knew she had D.
I called my dad again (they were out of town) and asked to borrow a meter. The only working meter he had was with him and they were due home the following day. He told me that he thought I was over reacting a little and that he knew I was scared but that he was positive she did not have D. But to make me feel better he said we could come over and test as soon as they got home. The following day we went straight to my folks house after pre-K and tested. My dad’s mouth fell open after the first “hi” reading and he had to leave the room after the second one. I immediately called her dad and told him that I think she has D. He also thought I was over reacting and totally out of my mind. I told him that she would be going to the doctor first thing the next day and he had better clear his schedule. I pushed the water a lot that night and checked her BG several times. By the next morning she was down to the upper 300s.
First thing that morning (June 2, 2002) I called her pedi and made an appt. They insisted they had no appts available but I told the receptionist what the meter read and asked her to go run it by a doctor before they put me off another day (knowing full well they wouldn’t let us wait one more day). They squeezed us in at 10 am with a Dr that we had never seen before.
Turns out it was great that we got the Dr. we saw that day. He has 3 type 1 kids! After we talked about my certainty that it was D and the meter readings and her symptoms, he said that he also was positive she had D, but that he needed to do a urine test to be sure. We were also surprised to learn that she had lost about 4 pounds in the last week. Less than ten minutes later he confi
Hi I will share Shelby’s story. I had just had our 2nd daughter Kendel and it was Jan. of 2006 after the new year and Shelby was not feeling well and they(doctors) said Shelby had the stomach bug and so this was friday and by Monday she was peeing through the pull ups she had on lost quite a bit of weight(turned out to be 15 lbs 1/2 her body weight) was throwing up and was just laying there not really moving much but was talking an awake. So I took her back into her doctors where they wanted to do a urine dip and it showed she had type one diabetes. I was in shock!!! So we had to take her to the hospiatal about 10 min away where my mom met me to pick up the baby and my husband was leaving work to meet us. Once they took her back and hooked her up to and IV for insulin and fulids they did a ton of blood work where we found out her BG was 798 with no keytones though!!! So they told us Shelby needed to be taken to another hospital (about the time my hubby got there) so we found out we were going to childrens in DC. So we waited 3 hours for our transport. Durning transport I rode with her and My husband went home to get us clothes to stay over night at the hospital so we could learn to take care of her new needs. Durning the ride something started Beeping really load I was on my cell and yell to my husbad get to the hospital now !!! As I hung up they went to lights and syrines. I turned around and there was an emt shocking my daughters lifeless body back to life. I remeber every second of it she was talking to the emt and watching aladin then she screamed and everything went limp, I thought she was dead. As we pulled up to the hospital one of the three emts got ontop of Shelby and the other two got them out and took her into a room of about 35 people and I was not allowed to go in I hit the floor screaming!!! (I was alone and watching my child die!!) They did get Shelby’s heart working again they had to put her onto life support she had 9 IV’s on her so there were tubes every where. I got to see her when they took her down to get a CAT scan. I was singing to her “our song” and told her she better not leave me because I loved her sooo much. (kind of selfish but she is my baby) I waited in a room while they did a CAT scan I was quite and still in shock when my husband and mother in-law walked in I broke down I fell to the floor and sobbed. We waited for a bed to open up in the PICU about two hours and I needed to pump so bad it was not funny thank god they gave me a pump!!! I was about to expoled. Once we were in the PICU a doctor finally gave us news Shelby had a very RARE comp. brain swelling. And they gave her a 2% chance of making it they said the last hospital gave her to much insulin to fast for her body weight…! And this is why that happened. But Shelby pulled through the night (she is a fighter) and by day 3 (of no sleep ) she was trying to pull the tubes out And I was holding her down (it was hard and I cryed doing it) trying to keep the tubes in and then the swelling was down enough that we could take her off life support and if anyone has ever done this you know how hard it is. it took 15 hours to get her to breath on her own and it was scary!!! But she came out of it She had to learn to walk agin which took about 7 months of PT 3 time a week The DKA had eaten all her muscel mass off her legs thats why she lost so much weight (muscel weights more then fat). I ended up loosing my milk the next week after we left the hospital due to stress. But everyone was alive…! And now you would never know anything ever happend to Shelby she is very out going and takes dance class and is super girly I am thankful everyday for both of my Girls and my wonderful husband. ~Korin~
I was at work and my parents had taken Nikki to church with them. She asked to use the bathroom 6 times during the hour service, and then stop at the water fountain. She had just been potty trained for a week and had started having accidents, so the signs were there…
But we knew. My parents did a blood test with my brothers meter and it showed 435. My mom called me at work and told me about church. I didn’t even have to ask if they did a blood test, just what her sugar was…
As much as I knew with my family history and genetics, and being told that any children I had would have high chances, it still hit me hard you know? Since our ped is also a family friend, my mom called her at home and by the time I got from work to my parents, the hospital had a room set up to admit Nikki.
We caught it so early, that she barely had any ketones and no signs of DKA. I didn’t want her admitted, but I did need training as I had been on the outside as far as the inner basics such as insulin, basal and back then still they were doing food exchanges as meal training. She was in for 3 days on diluted H and NPH. Honeymoon lasted 2 weeks. It’s been a long road, among some DKA incidents before the pump, and her missing so much school and had to repeat 1st grade. But now she is on to 4th grade, we’ve been on the pump for some time and no major problems with D since then (now she was just dx with asthma and allergies, so on that road now too!)
Oh my, Korin! That is the most moving story I have ever heard (I am crying my eyes out). I can’t believe all you guys have been through!!! I was just reading some teaching slides yesterday about DKA and they exactly described what happened to your daughter, infusing insulin & fluids too quickly and causing cerebral edema. I can’t believe you had to go through all of that … you are so strong!!! Why were her ketones negative at first? I can’t believe that she would be that far into DKA with no ketones present. The test must’ve been wrong. Anyway, I really admire your strength!!
Korin,
What a terrible and scary story. I’m so glad that Shelby is OK now though. I can’t imagine how you must have felt when all of this was happening.
(((hug)))
OK, here’s Riley’s story.
My mom keeps Riley while I’m working. She told me a couple of days in a row that he seemed to be unusually thirsty. I noticed that he had also begun to wet the bed at night. He was 3 1/2 and while he was potty trained I just chalked it up to accidents.
Thursday, October 6, 2005, I had the day off. I had fed Riley breakfast and was getting ready to go to the grocery store. He had drunk a big glass of juice and asked for more. After that glass he asked for another. I gave him more. Looking back I wonder what I was thinking. After he drained that glass he asked for more. I told him no and he began to cry. He begged for water. That’s when it dawned on me that something was very wrong.
While I didn’t think he had diabetes I decided to test his sugar just in case. I am a home health nurse and had a meter in my car. When I tested with it “HI” flashed on the screen. I let out a gasp and dropped to the floor. I tested him again to make sure and it registered HI again. I knew this meant his sugar was over 500. I still was in a little denial though.
My dad is Type2, so I called my mom and asked her to bring his meter. She did and he tested HI yet again. Now, I knew. There was no doubt.
I called his pediatrician and told the nurse what was going on. She told me to bring him in as soon as I could (we live an hour from their office) I called my husband at work and told him what was going on. I tried not to cry, but I didn’t succeed. Luckily Riley was in the other room and didn’t see me.
Then, because I didn’t know how long we’d be gone I went by my other son’s school and picked him up and took him with us.
When we arrived at the Dr’s office they immediatly took us back. When they weighed Riley I found out that he had lost 3 pounds. How had I not noticed? Then, he peed in a cup. That showed a large amount of sugar. When they tested him with their machine his sugar registered at 574.
Not long after the Dr. came in an confirmed my worst fears. I’ll never forget the look on his face when he said, “Your son deffinatly has Type 1 diabetes.” I stood there and listened to everything and nodded my head. I tried to look calm, but inside I was screaming “No, this can’t be happening!!”
The Dr. explained that Riley didn’t have any ketones and didn’t appear to be sick, but he would be admitted to the hospital.
Then, I made my way to the waiting room to see if my husband had arrived. When I saw him I fell in his arms and started to sob. My other son, Holden, who was 14 at the time, began to cry to. I told Michael, my husband, what was going on and that we were going to the hospital.
I made my way to the bathroom and dried my tears, washed my face, and took a deep breath. I refused to let Riley see me cry. And, as much as I’ve cried over his disease over the past 19 months, he’s never once seen me cry.
OK, this is getting long. Riley was admitted to the hospital. They started an IV as a precaution ,but didn’t have to hook him up to any fluids. He was so brave. With all the needles and questions and everything he didn’t cry, not once. He really is my brave, brave boy.
We were discharged from the hospital the next afternoon. And, we’ve been dealing with it the best we can ever since.
Riley’s A1C was 9.7 at dignosis. He started on an insulin pump 5 months after he was diagnosed. We go back to the endo. on Friday, but his latest A1C was 6.6.
Thanks to everyone who has shared your stories and I look forward to reading more.
I don’t know what to say Korin. Thank God is all I can think of.
We caught Trey’s very early I must say. Trey had been having accidents, and he had been very moody on occasion since May. We just bought a water cooler for our kitchen and I was o.k. with how much water he was drinking because it was new. Aug 13th we went to church and they had a celebration in sunday school(lots of goodies). We came home had lunch then we were looking @ pictures. I showed him a pic of my dd when she was born(he had seen this before) she had a little blood on her. He fell forward, I thought he was kidding. He was not, he was only out for a couple of seconds. He woke up saying" I don’t want to die" . We were freaking out, he said his stomach hurt a little. I called my sis to tell her what was going on she even mentioned “D”(because of the sugar that morning). I even got online and looked up children with diabetes I found CWD.com that night. I was thinking this isnt us. I took him to the pediatrician the next morning, he was passing his check up w/ flying colors untill the pee test. She said he has sugar in his urine, can I do a acu check(I did’nt know what that was) I said whatever you feel is important. His bg was 352. Our ped said Trey is diabetic, you have to go to the hospital and learn how to treat him. I called Eddie who was @ work and told him to come to the dr’s office to meet me, I did’nt tell him till he got there. We went to my parents house and told them so they could pick up my girls from school. We left for the hospital we stayed Mon to Fri. Thankfully he was not sick just alittle dehydrated. We learned our shots then went home SO SCARED.
It looks like so many of us have similar stories where we were just thrown into diabetes…
Here is mine:
I was eight and a half months pregnant expecting my third child to be delivered by a scheduled c-section, so I knew that everything looked to be right on schedule. I took my maternity leave starting two weeks before my due date, mostly so that I can spend more 1:1 time with my children before the new addition arrives. I had plans on going to movies, walking my oldest son to school, etc.
I was also blessed with a great babysitter, who on the last day of her service pulled me aside and said that she didn’t think it was that important and didn’t want to alarm me, but she used to watch a diabetic child a long time ago and my daughter has some of the same simptoms…
I started thinking about it and indeed, she has been drinking way too much. The other day as we were driving she asked for a drink, so I handed her a whole bottle of water, and with in a few minutes she said “all done, more please”. I thought she was kidding, but she showed my an empty bottle, I looked on the floor just to make sure she didn’t pour it out…
The same week my friend made a comment: “she really thinned out, huh?”. Again, I didn’t think much of it, my oldest son is a “toothpick”, so she must be turning out to be just like him, I thought.
At the same time she started having accidents in her sleep, almost every night. She has been potty trained for a while, so that did make me a little more concerned.
On my first day off I went on internet and looked up symptomps for diabetes as well as causes for bed wetting. I found that one of the signs of diabetes is bedwetting, but there were many reasons for bedwetting.
Still in denial, I found that one of the reasons for accidents can be a drammatic event, such as a “birth of another child”. “Bingo!”, I thought. That MUST be it!!!
Never the less, I called pediatrician that day. Of course he is busy this whole week. I tried explaining that I am having a baby and I need to know what’s wrong with her, so that I can take care of it before that. I had a nurse take down notes on the symptoms and and promising to call me back soon.
I got a call back within an hour, they wanted to see me the next day.
That morning I dropped my son at school and took my daughter to her appointment. After talking to the doctor I was told that there could be three possibilities for what was going on. Brain tumor, kidney issues or diabetes. I wasn’t sure which I should pick. LOL He said we will start with basic urine test, if that shows nothing, go to blood works, then to MRI, etc, until we know what it is.
No problem with getting a pee test… it was more of “how big of a container would you like me to fill”…
As we were sitting in the room I could hear nurse taking to the doctor outside our door. Can’t make out what they were saying, but sounded serious. Next thing I know the doctor walks in and tells me: "I don’t have a good news. Your daughter has diabetes. You have a bed waiting for you in Children ICU. You must go now!"
I felt like someone just knocked the wind out of me… I felt so confused. Diabtes does not run in our family, so I had NO idea what that meant and I didn’t even question why ICU?
Stupid me, I went home instead, got a hospital bag for her with PJ’s, toothbrush, a good book, etc.
Then I woke up my husband (he worked nights at the time and slept during the day) and told him what was going on. On the way to the hospital we even stopped by McDonald’s to get a Happy Meal!!! How little did I know. After that, everything happened so fast.
We got to the hospital, nurses tried getting her glucose tested with a meter, but it was too “HI”, so they send her blood to the lab… waiting… waiting…
Nurse came back and informed me that a reading was 850, but she had no ketones, etc. I felt like i am being spoken to in a foregn language. “Is 850 good or bad?” I ask. “What does that mean?” I had so much to learn…
My heart goes out to the parents here. It’s a very difficult thing to go through, but I am happy to see the common thread we all share…not letting a diabetes diagnosis steamroll over us, but rather, fighting it all the way for our kids.
Noah was showing textbook symptoms; thirst, hunger, bedwetting at age 6 etc, etc. Neither my husband or I have ever known anyone with d, and it doesn’t run in the family, so we assumed these changes were the result of a growth spurt of some kind. We have our good friend to thank for bringing up the possibility of diabetes.
The next day, we went in to see our PCP and I was still skeptical. The blood and urine tests came back later that afternoon, so I waited by the phone and sure enough I could tell by our doc’s tone it was not good news. He would not say definitively that it was d, because he wanted the second opinion of the endo specialist, but I pressed him and asked his opinion and he said “yes, it’s my opinion that Noah is diabetic”.
We went to Boston the next day and got the official diagnosis. They never did admit Noah, but we spent all day there, and went back once a week for the next several weeks to learn to deal with what we were up against.
It took alot of time to accept it at first. The tough part was telling our parents and family…they took it hard and I remember saying to a few family members "please don’t lose it , because if you cry, I’ll cry - and I can’t afford to cry right now. I have to be tough!"
Eventually the shock wore off we realized this is our hand in life, and as parents to this incredibly smart, funny and brave boy we had to get on with living life to the fullest!
All of these are so similar. I think the amount we knew about diabetes affected how soon our children got to the hospital.
My husband is a type one diabetic. We were always told it skips a generation, so I thought a bit about it, but not too much. David was three and a half in March. We had just finished potty training as well and I was getting frustrated with all of the accidents. He had a fever about a week and a half before diagnosis. There were no other symptoms other than he was tired. It was gone the next day. He was wetting through Pull ups at night. It crossed my mind slightly that it might be d but put it out thinking he must be just regressing.
David went to spend Saturday and part of sunday with his grammy and grampy. When he came home, his grandmother said that he had wet through two pull ups the night before and was saying he wanted water. He was thirsty. He never asked for water. He always wanted juice before and I would water it way down. My Mother in law never said anything else, but left rather quickly. We knew exactly what she was thinking and as soon as she left the house we tested David. It registered at HI. I said no test him again and it was Hi again. We rushed him to emergency, told them that we thought it was diabetes and they quickly rushed him in started an iv, which he cried through. My friend Val came right in to help as I had called her to cancel our Bible study that night. She told David that his arm was drinking water. he liked that. He also cried when they took blood out of his arm the first time. We were rushed by amulance to the Regional Hospital an hour away. Val took Den home and got stuff for a stay and I went with David. He had no keytones so we must have caught it quickly. We were 4 days in the hospital and on the third day we all got the stomach flu. Wonderful way to start out at home with a diabetic boy!
We have adjusted. David is a trooper and takes his needles and pricks easily. He was used to watching Daddy do it, so we never had a problem.
I am so glad we caught it when we did. We didn’t have to go through some of the horribleness that some of you did. But we all live with it today and that is why it is so nice to have places like this to come.
Korin,
OMG!!! I am sitting here crying. I can’t believe what you had to go through. I’m so glad that Shelby is ok now.
Lisa
We all have such similar stories. Isabelle (3) was diagnosed on April 2 of this year. Here is our diagnosis story.
My kids have been sick basically all winter. That is strange because Isabelle hardly ever gets sick and Alex had never really been sick either. Isabelle had been complaining about her stomach hurting almost every night since Thanksgiving. I really just thought it was her not wanting to go to bed. I did mention it to the doctor on one of our sick visits, but they couldn’t find anything wrong. Towards the end of March Isabelle had what we thought was a stomach bug. I took her to the peds when she started to have hives. The doc said it was just a stomach bug and gave up some medication to help with the nasuea since it only seemed to be bad at night. A week later she still had hives so I called the ped again and they said to try Claritin during the day to help with the hives. We started it the next day and I noticed that she was really, really thirsty and peeing a lot. I thought it was the Claritin since she had never had it before so, I didn’t give her the Claritin the next day. That was a Friday.
On Saturday she was still thirsty and going to the bathroom a lot. I just thought that she was still dehydrated from the stomach bug. That night my 1 year old started throwing up. Sunday DH took Isabelle to church while I stayed home with Alex. When they came home he commented on how much she had to go to the bathroom and how thirsty she was. I again just thought it was dehydration. On Monday we were getting ready to go out of town for Spring Break and I had some errands to run. We were only out of the house for about and hour and a half and she had to pee 4 times! I called the ped and they asked me to bring her in that afternoon. At this point I still thought it was just dehydration although D did cross my mind. When I was in middle school I had two close friends who had D and I knew the signs.
I took her in to the doctors and they did a urine test and didn’t find anything. Then they decided to do a blood test. When the doc came back into the room I knew something was wrong. He told me that she had D and that I had to take her to the hospital asap. He didn’t tell me what her blood sugar was (thank God because I would have freaked out). I had him do a blood test on my 1 year old because I was so freaked out. Thank God that was fine. I did a good job about remaining calm in front of Isabelle though. I had to run home to get the baby some bottles (he was sick so none of my Mommy friends could keep him) and packed a bag for the two of us. I called my Mom from the doctors office and told her what was happening and asked her to come over (she lives 4 hours away) and take care of Alex. I then called my hubby and told him what was going on and that he had to meet me at the hospital. We live about 45 minutes from the hospital.
We got to the hospital and they were waiting for us. Luckily Isabelle was doing pretty well. We caught it pretty early. I later learned that her blood sugar at the doctors office was in the 400’s and by the time we got to the ER at the Children’s hospital it was in the 600’s. She was in the hospital 2 nights and 2 1/2 days. DH and I did classes the whole time we were there and had to go back for a follow up about a month later.
I know people probably say this all of the time, but the only thing that kept me going the whole time we were in the hospital was the thought that it could be so much worse. When I was pg with Isabelle my Mom was diagnosed with Lung Cancer and she was only given a 10% chance of surviving 6 months. It has been over 3 1/2 years and she is fine. Completely recovered (minus 2/3 of her right lung). I kept thinking I just don’t know what I would do if we had to go through that with Isabelle. I’m so thankful that we can control this. She is doing really well. She has gained over a pound…that is a big deal since she has always been very little. She does pretty well about her s
Wow everyones stories are so powerul and it sounds like we all have been through a lot!! But I think in the end it will make use strong, I teach my daughter everything even though she is 3 I want her to know she will always have to do this(she is now carb counting if it’s from 1 to 10 carbs.) I just want to say I am PROUD of everyone in here!!! ~Korin~
Oh an they could Never figure out why Shelby had “NO” Keytones even though she was in DKA !!! But now we have to be very careful when she get sick, because if she go’s back into DKA her brain swelling can come back. ~Korin~
Hope everyone has a Great weekend!!!
Brenna’s Story:
Toward the end of July last year we had a heat wave. Brenna had just turned 2 the month before. The weather was over 105 degrees for a full week. The kids and I were all hanging out at the refridgerator waiting to take our turns filling up with water. The temperatures dropped to a somewhat more normal summer temp. 90 - 100 degrees. I noticed that I was changing a lot of wet diapers so started to try and potty train her. She had just gotten tall enough to reach the water dispenser in the fridge all by her self. Usually she would fill a cup, dump it on the floor and play in it. I heard her filling up her cup and ran in the other room – she was just drinking. Whew. Then I watched her fill up the empty cup to the rim and drink it all gone, not a drop spilled. That day I counted 12 diaper changes - as many as she had as an infant. The next day I had to work so my Mom was watching the kids. She said that it was strange how much she was peeing and suggested I look up stuff about diabetes. I looked on the internet and the only symptoms she seemed to have were the drinking and peeing. This was a Friday and my dad called me that night to tell me that mom was worried and that I should take her in to the doctor’s office and get her checked out. That evening between 5 p.m. and 6 a.m. I changed a bunch of really full diapers. At 2 a.m. the diaper exploded. Not literally but it was so full it was like we had soaked it in the pool for twenty minutes and her bed was sopping wet underneath her.
Early the next morning I called the advice nurse and she got Brenna an appointment. I blogged a little bit about this last year here. The doctor we had the appointment with is Kaiser’s Diabetes Peditritian in our area. I hadn’t met him before and I felt like I got the brush off when I mentioned that I looked up the symptoms on the internet and that when it pointed to diabetes I brought her in. She was quiet and very “good” the whole time – and wouldn’t drink water while we were at the office. It took a while to get a urine sample and once we had it they did two tests: glucose & ketone. She had Moderate Ketones and no glucose in her urine. He told us she was dehydrated but didn’t have diabetes, just give her more water. MORE WATER! Other than the doctors office she was drinking constantly. I told him that and asked him why she was dehydrated when she was drinking so much? He didn’t have an answer but I was relieved when he said no diabetes I counted my blessings and took my daughter home. That night we went camping and ate a ton of marshmellows. She was having so much fun that day and Sunday that she didn’t drink as much and I thought we were out of the woods (figuratively & literally).
Monday and Tuesday were heavy water drinking days and on Wednesday a friend suggested I weigh her diapers and keep track of the amount of water she’s drinking and take her back to the doctor soon because there might be something else wrong. I called that afternoon to see if I could get an appointment with her regular pediatritian. Thursday at 3 p.m. Thursday while I was at work my Mom called me. Brenna was lethargic. Mom was having a hard time keeping her awake. She woke at 7 a.m. and went to sleep at 9 a.m. slept until noon and wouldn’t really eat more than a few bites. She said that she thought Brenna could wait until the Dr. appointment. Mom dropped the boys off with one of my best friends and met me at the Doctor’s office. We saw Brenna’s regular Pediatritian. She took one look at Brenna, asked what was going on, and sent in a lab tech. The guy pricked her heel and put this little white strip up to it flipped it over and it was dark black. He kept flipping the strip over and practically ran out of the room. Dr.E came back in and helped us gather up our stuff and took us to a back room with hospital beds and had Brenna hooked up to an I.V. At that point she gave me a hug and told me how sorry she was that my daughter had diabetes. She said that there wasn’t much that she could do at this point so she would be going to a Kaiser hospital in Sacramento - they had a bed but they needed a doctor that would take her. Then, we waited a while longer. They found a doctor but didn’t have a bed. I didn’t understand but held my daughter. Mom took off to go get stuff packed for me. I called my husband at work to tell him the news and he came as soon as he could get away. For an hour I held my sleepy girl in my arms and cried quietly and listened to the Nurse call Sacramento. I called my work and told them I was going to be out for a few days and I wasn’t sure when I’d be back in. Al came in and sat with us. By now it was after 5 p.m.
At around 6 p.m. Dr. E came in and told us that Brenna needed to be in a hospital and that Sac was taking too long. She called an ambulance and they would be taking her to Memorial - across the street from my house. She was strapped into her carseat, her carseat strapped onto a gurney and I wasn’t allowed to ride in the ambulance. We arrived at Memorial about 20 minutes after she did and I sat with her in the emergency room in a daze. Mom got to emergency around 9 ish? I don’t remember much. We sat together and the doctors didn’t do much other than bring her some diet 7 up. They did take x- rays and I think they gave her some insulin. At one point Brenna was acting like she was drunk. It was hard to tell, she was really happy, animated, giggled a lot, but when she started to slur her words. (Two year old words are hard enough to understand when they aren’t slurred) Nurses and doctors at Memorial couldn’t tell us about what hospital she was going to or what else was going on. Finally around 11 p.m. I get a call from my Dad telling me that she would be going to Santa Clara. The ER staff couldn’t verify that (Kaiser & Sutter don’t get along) but at Midnight we were sent by helicopter (after a few scary minutes I was allowed to fly) to Santa Clara Kaiser Hospital. It was the most amazing flight over the valley, over the mountians, to San Jose airport. It took maybe 25 minutes. I found out from the Helicopter nurse that Brenna’s number was over 400 and that her number at 12:15 a.m. was 80. I thought that was good at the time. He explained that they’d prefer her BG to drop slowly so that she doesn’t have a reaction. I have never (and will never) have such a short trip to San Jose ever again (I hope). Usually traffic is so bad that it takes 2 or more hours to get there from here. A short ambulance trip and we were in Santa Clara.
They immediately hooked Brenna up to 2 more IV’s and put some other “stickers” on her chest and stomach. They took out the old I.V. and ripped off the tape. (It took us 6 months to get her to be O.K. with “stickers” again). I stroked her feet while these people decended on my baby like a pack of vultures. Later, they become friends, but at that point they were just taking care of business. I told her it would be O.K. everything would be just fine while she screamed. I don’t remember what all was going on but it was over and she was asleep. At 3 a.m. I started on some paperwork and the night nurse told me some stuff. I told him I hadn’t eaten since breakfast - I had no cash only my atm. I wandered around the hospital until I found the atm got to the snack area - no change machine. Back up to Brenna’s floor and a kind nurse finds change for me. I go all the way back to the basement to the snack machines get a sandwich and eat only half. By 4 a.m. I curled up on a matress near Brenna and fell asleep. 7 a.m. they are poking and prodding my baby and I wake up to her cries. That first day was a blur. Little food and little sleep. There were a ton of people coming in and out of her room telling me everything would be OK and she’d be on a pump in no time (I had NO visual picture - the only pump I knew about was my BreastPump which I needed about that time- Brenna was still nursing occasionally). I watched videos and took notes and the day nurse must have thought I was going to be noncompliant because I refused to take her number. I don’t think that I even left the room to go to the bathroom all day. Mom finally got to the hospital late in the day. I had just been talking to some lady, an administrator I think, who was telling me her husband’s D-story. She was the only person who asked me how I was feeling. I told her the whole story (I’m sure it wasn’t very coherent at that point) and she took my Mom aside and told her to get me out of the hospital and let me sleep. Mom took me to a hotel and went back to the hospital to stay with Brenna while I slept. I called Al & spoke to him for a bit and then crashed into sleep from about 5 - 8 pm. I called Mom to come and get me and I spent more time with Brenna. She was watching the Wiggles on her TV. She fell asleep and I went to sleep at midnight. I woke to somebody poking Brenna again. I was amazed that she didn’t wake when they took her number. I asked the nurses to wake me before they do something to her so that I knew what was going on. Over the next 3 days in the Pediatric ICU I learned a lot about diabetes and how to care for Brenna. I wanted Al to come and visit and learn but I knew he wasn’t in a state to drive and it would be unfair to have him drive the boys here for and back (4 hours round trip) for a short visit so I called him to give him updates. DKA was scary but now past and they needed the room for somebody else so we were moved to a pediatric room that we shared with 2 other children and their parents. One of them left before the end of the day but overnight we shared the room. That first day in the Pediatrics wing I barely saw a nurse and I took care of her diabetes the whole day, carb counting, mixing NPH & Novolog, Lantus in the morning, everything. The nurse was trying to get us discharged that day but the doctor suggested one more night, just to be sure. I had to prove I knew what I was doing to two more nurses, on seperate occasions the next day and, finally at 2 on Tuesday, Brenna was discharged and Mom drove us home.
Here is our story
My daughter Sarah and I had left the boys, (daddy and brother) at home while we went to Thailand for a weeks holiday and then onto Australia for 5 weeks holidaying visiting my family, she had a tough time earlier that year with phneumonia which she ended up having an operation on her left lung and was in hospital for 2 weeks, so a holiday seemed fitting and we also love to travel. Sarah had been unwell in ~Aus with a virus and then 5 days after returning back to our home in Ireland she was very lifeless on the Sat night.
She had leading up to this the usual frequent toilet stops and unquenchable thirst. I have a friend who is a nurse on maternity leave so I telephoned her and ran past the symptons, she advised to go that evening to the hospital, so that we did and she was diagnosed on Dec 10th 2005 at age 4. We spent 2 full weeks in hospital as she contracted the vomitting bug in there and this made things go crazy and they couldnt get her levels under control. We were fortunate to be released from hospital on Christmas eve! Dec 24th, just in time for me to rush home and stay up all night to help Santa Claus! It will be a Christmas we will never forget…