An intro...

A bunch of fellow T1 mommies have created blogs to share their experience and thoughts about our lives in the T1 world.  It seemed like a good idea so here I go!

Megan was diagnosed on August 23, 2010.  She was 11 years old.  We had just gotten back from our summer vacation in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.  Both my husband and I had noticed while we were away that she was drinking a lot more than usual but just chalked it up to being at the beach.  I noticed that she looked a bit smaller in her bikini but not enough to register it as unusual.  When we got home, Megan had a horrible earache so I made an appointment for the next morning to get medicine for swimmers ear.  I vividly remember being in Justice (the clothing store for girls) and her saying she was thirsty and needed a drink NOW.  She drank an entire bottle of water in one go, just chugged it down and was looking for more.  I knew at that point that something was not right.  We went home and I was joking around with her that I had gained some frozen drink weight while we were away and told her to get on the scale to see how she did.  She got on the scale and we saw that she had lost 9 pounds.  9 POUNDS.    A little alarming.  I got on the internet and starting googling, as I am known to do :), and every time I put in the symptoms it came back diabetes.  I called my sister and told her what I saw online and we both said no way, it can't be.  Must just something silly.  We went to the doctor for Megan's ear and I mentioned what I had noticed the day before.  He suggested we check her blood sugar to be sure so they did a finger pick and a urine sample.  He came back in a few minutes later with a horrible look on his face.  We know our pediatrician really well, his child has been in Megan's classes at school.  He sat down on the exam table with Megan and said that she has diabetes.  Even though I knew from looking online, I was shocked and was fighting back tears.  Her blood sugar was 486 and she had large ketones in her urine.  I remember him telling me that he wanted to show me something, and took me out in the hall.  He put his arm around my shoulder and told me he understood how upset and scared I was, but that Megan was going to take her cue from my reaction and I needed to be strong and show her that everything was going to be okay.  He called the pediatric endocrinologist that he knew and had her waiting for us at Fairfax Children's Hospital.  Megan was admitted and our journey began.  For the next three days, we learned about our new life.  Every other T1 parent knows how overwhelming and scary all of that information can be.  We were told by the nurses that we were lucky and that it was really unusual that we caught it as early as we did.  They said that most kids come in a diabetic coma and are in the PICU.  Megan was just in the regular unit and we were very thankful it didn't get as bad as what we had heard.  We had many different doctors and educators visit us during her stay.  We were sent home 3 days later, not completely sure we were ready to do this on our own. 

That was the beginning of many sleepless and interrupted sleep nights.  Sometimes I am little over the top in checking on her, but it makes me feel safer knowing she is okay. 

It seems the more I learn about this disease, the more I am confident in our ability to handle it and the more it scares me of what it can do to her if we don't handle it right.  People who don't have a type 1 diabetic in their family or circle of friends have no idea what our lives entail and what Megan goes through every day.  She checks her blood sugar atleast 6 to 8 times a day.  And that's a good day.  Many times it goes way above that.  We give her 4 shots of insulin a day.  My husband or I get up every night at 12:30 am to check her sugar while she sleeps to make sure she doesn't go low in the night.  If her sugar is high then, we give her an injection to bring it down.  And stay up to make sure it doesn't go too far.  If her sugar is low, we have to make her drink juice or a drinkable yogurt to help bring her up.  She does this in her sleep and doesn't remember it in the morning.  But we stay up and check her every 15 minutes until she is at a good number for the night.  She does not wake for these checks either.  I am very thankful that she is able to sleep through all of it.

I am also so thankful that I found a group of friends through our facebook Type 1 Parents group that I can vent to and they understand.  I wouldn't have made it without them.  Hearing their stories and sharing their experiences makes me feel not so alone in what we are dealing with.

Megan is amazing.  She takes most of this in stride and keeps going.  She is a very active young lady and hasn't let this stop her.   Her doctor was adamant with us that Megan is a young girl first and foremost, just a girl who happens to have type 1 diabetes.  Diabetes does not define her - nor will it. 

Ok, background first post done!  Let's go forward :)