I've never told the whole story. I looked back at the first post I wrote and I see I wrote "I'll spare you the details at this time." I guess it's time to tell the story.
Sometime in January 2016, Trey began getting up to go potty in the night. He also had a couple times where he started to wet the bed, but woke himself up. Jordan and I chalked it up to him drinking too much before bed, so we told him no more drinks at bedtime. There was also a time in January that he came down with what we thought was the stomach flu. This mom doesn't do puke very well, so he climbed into my bed with Jordan and I slept - rather, laid - downstairs on the couch. Jordan got up to deliver newspapers the next morning and I then sat with Trey. He was still vomiting but I made sure to keep pushing fluids so he wouldn't be dehydrated. Surprisingly, no one else caught this flu-bug. I remember talking to my mom this night and told her how much he ate for supper - that he just couldn't get full. Then up everything comes. Knowing what I know now ... this was not the flu. This was diabetes.
As his pottying in the night continued into February, I remember looking up reasons why this would be happening to a 4 year old who had been toilet trained for two years already. Diabetes was listed as a possibility, but at the time I made light of it. I mean, if you google why your headache has lasted for two days, it probably says you have a brain tumor or brain cancer, right? However, I do remember Jordan saying at one time that it really could be diabetes as he remembers his Uncle Jeff saying that was one of his symptoms before he was diagnosed. I kept telling myself it was probably a UTI or bladder infection, but he would never complain of it hurting when he went. I reached out to Trey's daycare and asked if he was using the bathroom more often. She didn't seem to think so and said she believed the reason for his excess urination could be due to a growth spurt. When a child is 4 and you have 12 kids to keep track of, how would she really know if he was using the bathroom more than usual? But I had to ask.
It's now mid-March and we have a weekend planned to head to Waterloo, Iowa to watch Ronnie Hein play hockey. It's a long, 8+ hour drive, so we make a McDonald's drive-thru run somewhere along the way. Trey orders a 4 piece Chicken Nugget Happy Meal with a milk. I also always took a bottle of PowerAde or water along for these rides. He eats, falls asleep and 30 miles down the road mom has to use the bathroom. I tried waking Trey up to see if he needed to go potty but he was out cold. I return to the vehicle and see Trey awake and Jordan talking to him - but his pants and car seat were soaking wet. Jordan kept asking if he peed his pant and Trey was insistent he didn't. He was almost in tears as he was adamant he didn't pee and didn't know what happened. I dug into his suitcase to change his clothes and asked him a dozen times if he had to go potty as we finished our trek to Iowa. Now I was concerned. I look up diabetes symptoms again and I just knew in my heart, this is what we were dealing with.
Saturday morning we woke up and headed to Cedar Rapids which is about an hour from Waterloo. My cousins live there and we had planned on having lunch together at their house. I recall Trey eating several fruit-kabob skewers of strawberries and grapes as well as sucking down two juice boxes. He didn't eat much else food-wise. I have a photo of him sitting in a chair looking like he's about to fall asleep shortly after we ate. We said our good-byes, loaded up the car and headed back to Waterloo. Trey, once again, was passed out cold in the vehicle after 4 miles on the road.
We woke him up when we got to the hotel. He was so crabby and kept saying, "I'm tired. I don't want to go to the game. I'm too tired." Once in the hotel room, we made him go potty and then he crawled into the bed, covered up and was asleep within seconds. We didn't have time for a nap- we had to get to the game. We finally convinced him to get up and go so we could see Ronnie warm up. At the game he ate a hot-dog and drank two bottles of water. He also went to the bathroom 6 times. It wasn't like Trey to miss hockey just to go potty. I told Jordan that I would be making a phone call to the doctor Monday morning to get him checked for diabetes.
Monday morning - March 14th - comes along and I remember Trey didn't eat any breakfast. He sat on the couch with a sad face. He looked like he was either getting sick or like he hadn't slept in days. Jordan went to work and I took Trey to the appointment. When the nurse asked what we were there for, I said, "I want him tested for diabetes." and she looked at me like I was nuts. I told her some of the symptoms and she said OK, doc would come in and take a look.
We headed down to the lab area to first check his urine. When doctor Biegler came in the room, he was visibly upset. He said there did appear to be sugar in his urine and we were off to the lab again for a blood draw. Trey was a pro - flinched and said, "owie owie owie" a few times but was so brave. Mom, on the other hand, had tears falling down her face and was feeling sicker by the minute. We went back to our waiting room and I texted Jordan that he needed to come meet us. Dr Bieger came in again and confirmed what I knew ... "Trey has Type 1 Juvenile Diabetes. His blood sugar is 477." I sat there, staring at my 4 year old son, who didn't have a clue what he was even at the doctor for, and while tears filled my eyes as I listened to Dr Biegler explain that it's nothing I did or didn't do, it's no one's fault, he could live a long life; he did not have any ketones nor is he dehydrated ... I grabbed Trey and hugged him. I then mustered up enough composure and said, "I'm sorry I'm crying ... this is upsetting. I had gestational diabetes with him ... is there a link?" and Doc says he too felt like crying. He told me gestational is not linked nor is Type 2. He told me I'm a great mom for knowing my child's routine and getting him in to be checked after really the only symptom being excess peeing. He said many kids come in and they are so so so sick that they end up in the hospital or have large amounts of ketones. I remember I said to him, "I don't feel like a good mom right now at all." I then, again while crying, asked, "Can he play hockey? It might seem like a shallow question but that's all this kid has ever wanted to do is play hockey." "YES!" Doc said. Jordan arrived and we sat in the room staring at one another not really knowing what to do next or what to say. Doc ordered an A1C check on Trey's blood and it came back at 7.6. He went over some information on diabetes, insulin and nutrition. Gave him a shot of 6 units of Lantas and told us to come back tomorrow and we would discuss heading to Sioux Falls to meet with the Pediatric Endocrinologist there, Dr Gupta. Dr Biegler told me to not let Trey sleep alone that night and to really watch for anything out of the ordinary due to his Lantas shot and he would see us in the morning. That night after 5pm, Dr Biegler called me asking how we were doing and if Trey was still doing OK. He again told me that if anything seems fishy, get to the ER and don't be ashamed or embarrassed to do so.
We went back to the Dr office on Tuesday as instructed. A nurse was showing us how to use the meter to check Trey's sugars when Dr Biegler came in and said, "Did you hear the good news?? Dr Gupta wants to see you today so you need to leave now and head there." We went to Nan and Pop's house, asked them to take care of the dog and Delanie, went home to pack our bags for a three night stay at Avera McKennan and left.
We were at McKennan for two very long nights. Jordan and I met with nurses, doctors, dieticians, certified diabetes educators and others. We were given books and paperwork to look over. We were fed so much information in those two days and my brain was fried. I was short on sleep, patience and was scared to death about how I was going to leave the hospital with this child and keep him alive. I missed Delanie like crazy and I wanted to stuff a sock in the mouth off the child next door who was screaming after his broken arm surgery. The room on the other side of us had a very, very ill infant whose alarms kept going off which would put mom and dad in the hallway in tears. My own heart was breaking for my son, but then this family - I had to imagine their situation was worse than mine.
Trey captured the hearts of his nurses. He was so brave and so well behaved for being cooped up for so long. He ran out of bandaids for his finger pokes often but he made the nurses cards to make up for it. He would order food off the menu that Dr Gupta approved for him, but when it came, we knew it was nothing he would eat so the nurses let him have Mac n Cheese or sandwiches. Jordan and I took turns figuring out carbs and giving the shots of insulin as well as doing the finger pokes.
We gathered up all of our things we had accumulated and walked out of the hospital as parents of a Diabetic child and I can say quite honestly, that was one of the scariest times of my entire life.
Look how far we've come. 365 days down.
