My sweet boy was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes on July 25, 2012. The few days before he was admitted he began to throw up. It seemed as if he would drink too much and would throw it up because he was water logged. He also began peeing, TONS! Which I assumed, "he's drinking tons, so that means he's peeing tons." On July 24, we took him out for Pioneer Day. He ended up throwing up all over our blankets right before fireworks so we decided to just take him home. The next morning, I told Isaac to leave the car at home just in case I decided to take him in to get checked out. That day is when he began to act very sick and lethargic. All he wanted to do was lay in his crib. He could barely crawl. He would crawl a few feet and would lay down because he was so weak. I decided to call the doctor and was able to get an appointment that afternoon.
I took these pictures to send to Isaac to show him how sick he was. This was just a few hours before I took him into the hospital.
Our normal pediatrician wasn't in, so another doctor came in and checked him out. The doctor looked at me and said, "you know, I would just send him home with the flu, but his breathing is really worrying me." I looked at Jett and realized he was hyperventilating. The doctor walked in with what now I know as a meter and checked Jett's blood. The meter said HIGH. It didn't give us a number. The doctor then looked at my and said, "the worst it can be is diabetes." I then just began to bawl. Diabetes?? I knew little about it. Jett was admitted into Logan Regional Hospital. Isaac was unexpectedly working late that night- I couldn't get a hold of him and I couldn't get a hold of my parents. So here I was a distraught 21 year old mother whose 13 month old baby was being poked with needles galore and who they wouldn't let in the room to comfort him. While I was out waiting for Jett to get all hooked up to the machines, the doctor who diagnosed him came by to talk to me. That's when he told me he had diabetes. I was so glad he was the one who diagnosed Jett because he knew the symptoms. It could of easily been mistaken for something else. He said I had mother's intuition taking him in because it easily is mistaken for the flu or a virus. The doctor told me if I waited much longer- it could have been just hours and he would have been gone. I was so grateful I took him in when I did.
I finally got a hold of everyone and they all headed to Logan. A few hours later, we were told his levels weren't in the range we needed them to be and life flight was coming to pick Jett up to take him to Primary Children's Hospital. I was going crazy, I didn't know what to think. At first they told me, I wouldn't be able to fly with him, but once the crew got to the hospital, we were told one parent could ride on the helicopter with him. Isaac had no choice, I had to go or I would have gone completely insane. It was 3:30 in the morning and we were on a helicopter to PCMC. When we arrived, I was told Jett's blood sugar was over 600 and he was in ketonacidosis (sp?). He was admitted into the pediatric ICU and stayed there for about half the day. Finally by afternoon he was admitted on to the Diabetes floor. He began to smile and talk. I was SOO happy!! He hadn't smiled for days. It made my heart so happy.
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At Primary Children's- finally starting to interact and smile. :)
The days after were lots of classes and learning how to give a baby shots. The nurses and doctors were so kind and made us feel so good about taking on such a scary task. When we finally got home, it felt like it was taking a newborn baby home. The next day we went to church and I was an emotional mess. I looked around at all the kids and was so sad. They were able to eat what they wanted without getting a shot. I sat in the overflow with Isaac and just cried. I am never taking eating whatever I want for granted again! As silly as that sounds. The weeks after his diagnoses came with lots of crying and nervous breakdowns. But we are so happy that it was nothing worse.
These are pictures just a few days after we got home from Primary Childrens. He was so happy!! YAY!
I don't want to sugar coat anything- diabetes is a scary disease. Especially with a toddler who at first couldn't tell you how he was feeling. Now it's easier to tell because he will come up to you and cry and sometimes he will be drenched in sweat with lows. Besides having diabetes, Jett has been very healthy- not one ear infection or cold. Not even a running nose! Only when he's playing and it's cold outside. But with his diabetes, he's been sick twice. One with a virus, where we had to take him to the ER because his blood sugar wouldn't go higher than 40's. The other time, we were able to stay a little above forty but under 80. For his age, they want him between 100-200. We ended up taking him to his pediatrician that time. We try to keep him as healthy as possible because when he does get sick, a hospital visit is in our future.
Diabetes doesn't run in either of our families. And it wasn't because I gave him too much sugar. ;) I don't know how many times I've had people come up to me and say, "I'm so worried my child is going to get diabetes because they eat too much sugar!" Doctors really don't know what causes diabetes, but there is a possibility it can be caused by the environment. We THINK he caught a bad virus and it attacked his pancreas, but we don't know for sure.
We are so happy that Jett is as happy and healthy as he is. It comes with many sleepless nights-staying up worrying about if he's going to drop low and crying with this mama.I know it will get better with time. I'm pretty sure I am sad more than he is and he's the one getting his fingers poked 6-8x a day and getting shots 4-5x a day! He is such a strong boy! I love him so much! He definitely is stronger than his mama. He is, without a doubt, my hero! Love you baby boy!!
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