February 13th and diabetes

On February 13th 2009 we realized that diabetes was our new reality. After one month and a half of sickness, a few visits to the doctors office, a course of antibiotics and 4 hours in an E.R. waiting room our 3 year old daughter was diagnosed with type one diabetes.

The first thing people say to me when they find out about Cara and diabetes is how did you know that she had diabetes? The answer that I give is that I did not know. It took about a month and a half to figure out that there was something really wrong. Maybe it was because she would get sick with the flu (so we thought) and then in four days or so she would begin to get better. Just as she was starting to seem better she would get the flu again. Every time that she would get sick a few of our other kids would seem to have the same thing. Cara started taking a little longer to get better and soon she was not getting any better and having very different symptoms then the other children. The weekend before she was diagnosed she formed a yeast infection. I was socked and a little embarrassed, thinking that it was something that I had done, not bathed her well or not made sure she wiped herself properly after going to the bathroom. I’m not sure why mothers always seem to blame themselves. A few days after the yeast infection formed she began peeing A LOT. She was always in the bathroom about 2x’s more then normal. So I thought a yest infection + constant urination = bladder infection. Then soon after she was extremely thirsty, always asking for anything to drink juice, milk, water and Cara never asked for water she would actually complain about having to drink water normally. She also had lost a tremendous amount of weight in a very short period of time and that is what scared us the most. We made another doctors appointment for Cara. The doctor ordered blood work and sent us home. We had lunch and Cara went down for a nap because she was so tired. When she woke up from her nap she vomited for the third time in about two months. I thought to myself there is no way that she has the flu three times in about 2 months. This is when I brought her into the E.R. I was actually scared they were going to think I was crazy for bring my daughter to the emergency room for the flu. I knew that something else was wrong. As I was getting ready to leave for the E.R., my husband said “it my be diabetes”. Four hours later the doctor told me the same thing Cara had type one diabetes. Her blood sugar level was 53.2 when she was admitted to the pediatric floor.