before i found this web page and the new school my son goes to i thought i was alone no one to talk to . i just would like to know how other parents found out . because i think if i had not have met my new husband i would have never knew my son was diabetic . my husband is a nurse . well here goes my story . i met my husband at work . one day he was helping us move out of our house and he took my son with him all day putting stuff in storage . when we got done he took my son and i to lunch he starting asking my questions about my son and my son had drink lots of water and went to bathroom several times . i told him what i could because i was a single mom and worked all the time my oldest daughter took care of my son .so he took us home i asked my daughter the questions he asked me he called i told him he said he wanted to talk to his mom who was a rn . then he called me and told me to take him to hospital and tell the hospital his symptoms i did they checked his blood sugar it was to high for the meter to read so they had to take blood when drs came back they told me his blood sugar was 623 and i was lucky i found out soon . so just wondering how anyone else found out .
Hi, Michelle.
My son was a baby when he was diagnosed. Right about the time he turned 1 year old he started drinking out of a sippy cup and I thought the newness of it was why he drank so much. There were a lot of wet diapers, but I thought nothing of it since he was drinking a lot more than usual. The first time he threw up I thought it was because he drank the juice too fast. When he lost his appetite I figured it was just a stomach virus and gave him lots of Pedialite. Within a couple of days he stopped eating and drinking altogether and was very, very tired and breathing heavily. I suspected food poisoning and took him to the pediatrician's office. While we waited he almost stopped breathing and was rushed to the back. He was transported to the Children's Hospital in Atlanta where he was diagnosed with DKA. The date was July 11, 2007. Exactly 2 weeks after his first birthday.
My son was 3.5 yrs old and we were at my parents cabin for Memorial Day weekend. My son was drinking constantly. He could drink 8oz milk, then drink 8oz of juic and then would ask for water. He was still eating fine, actually was eating a ton. That is when I first noticed he was VERY skinny too. But he has always been tall and thin and usually got taller before filling out so I figured it was just another growth spurt. He also had lots of bathroom accidents that weekend. He was so thirsty that when we were in church on Sun and it was time for communion, he said, Oh good I can get a drink. Lol. He did not get to take communion. ;) He also had several tantrums. My mom is a nurse, my sister was in nursing school, my SIL has 2 cousins and a BIL with T1 and we all talked and wondered if John could have Diabetes. And then out of fear, we decided, no it couldn't possibly be that.
On wed, our daycare provider said that John was not eating very much and was acting really tired. We scheduled a dr. appt for THur afternoon. Thur AM, we could barely get John to wake up. We went in to the clinic as soon as it opened. The Dr. (not our usual pediatrician) was told what symptoms he was having and we asked if he could have D. His BG was over 700 and we were sent to the emergency room at Children's. Fortunately, he was really only in the beginning stages of DKA. He had ketones, but they cleared quickly and he perked right up after his first shot of insulin. So he just stayed in a regular room, not in PICU.
We suspect he had been having below normal insulin production for at least 3 months if not longer. He had had some strong tantrums occasionally, that completely disappeared after dx. My husband and I think that was all due to High BGs.
just a few days after my son turned 8 i noticed he was thirsty all the time and using the bathroom constantly. i'd even wake up in the middle of the night and find him drinking out the bathroom faucet. i'm a nurse and i had an ugly thought that he might have diabetes but i hoped and prayed i was just being the paranoid lunatic i usually am. i was so hoping for a diagnosis of a bladder infection instead. but i brought him to our pediatrician and sure enough his urine was full of sugar. we were sent to the emergency room where his blood sugar was 413. this was a little over three years ago. it's been a wild ride ever since!
Hi Michelle,
My son was diagnosed 12-08-09. Around Thanksgiving time he had an upper respiratory infection and was on antibiotics. And I had noticed that when he was done taking the antibiotics he had been going to the bathroom a whole lot and even had a couple of accidents at school so I thought he must have a UTI or something like that so I took him to the doctor, They did a urine test and said that he had a high amount of glucose in his urine so they wanted him to come back the next morning. So he went back the next morning and his fasting blood glucose was 363. So they called our Childrens Hospitals Pediatric Endocrinology for an appointment and they so no he needs to come and stay in the hospital for 4-5 days. They are about an 1 hour and 20 minutes from here so I went home and packed clothes for us and he was admitted and we underwent intense training for the next 4 days. He had lost about 11 pounds in the previous weeks but I thought he was just getting taller and thinning out a little. But I am glad I listened to my instincts because he was starting to get dehydrated and had to have an IV to help rehydrate him when we got to the hospital. He was about 6 1/2 when he was diagnosed. It has been a really hard first year. He has never ate alot of junk food but we would have cake or ice cream and now we have to plan for it. So it makes him feel abnormal especially at school parties becaue all the other kids can have all the snacks and he has to choose which one he will have later. I just keep telling him that it isn't good to eat all that junk food in one sitting anyway.
Jennifer
Hi, Here's the blog I've kept since Jimmy's diagnosis on April 1, 2010 at 5 years old. It there's a diagnosis page that tells all about it.
http://jimmyjdblog.blogspot.com/p/diagnosis.html
Hope it helps.
Peace,
June
Hi Michelle,
My son is 4 years old and was diagnosed February 14, 2011. My husband and I bike race and on this current weekend we were doing a 3 day stage race. I, unfortunately, crashed on that Saturday, breaking my arm and ending the race for me. So, on Sunday the 13th, the kids and I decided to go watch my husband race the final stage of the race. Levi was a little whiny that particular day and was peeing so much I allowed him to pee behind the bushes on several occasions in downtown Phoenix. :) I am a nurse and I had made a comment, almost jokingly, that "you would almost think he was a diabetic". It doesn't run in our family. That night when we got home and he was crying for water. I gave him unlimited amounts, changed wet bed linens a couple of times and scoured the internet trying to find a different answer as to why he was drinking/peeing soo much. There was NOTHING to be found! We made an appt. with the doctor the next day and my biggest fear was confirmed.
Lucky for us we have a fabulous pediatrician. Levis blood sugar was 523 and he wasn't throwing ketones, so our pediatrician spent time getting in personal contact with the endocrinologist to avoid hospitilization. One of the local children's hospitals wanted him to come to the ER to be admitted and I am so glad we were able to avoid such a traumatic experience for Levi. The endocrinologist felt comfortable with sending Levi home and allowing him to drink plenty of water. We did and followed up with endo the following morning. He started Levemir in the office that day, gave us a rundown on type 1 diabetes and told us we would continue with education through the hospital over the next couple of days.
Levi had his 4 week check up today since being diagnosed and so far so good. I feel we are finally finding our new "normal" in life, though not easy.
thank you all for the stories its nice to see we are not alone . my son was doing great he had a very bad day on monday he made a decided he was not a diabetic for the day . its spring break his best friends mom watches him and my daughter while we work well when i picked him up i looked at his meter because the babysitter told me he got a lil upset cuz she asked to see the meter after he checked it from playing out side so i checked it and it said it couldnt read because it was over 600 it was a long night i looked at his pump and he did not take insulin for anything he ate that day . he just did not want to i guess he is 12 yrs old and he knows better but he was around a lot of friends beside his best friend and maybe he didnt want the others to think he was different . his best friend is good about helping my son does everyone have bad days like this ? ironshoe7 i live in phoenix az too and i am a cna and my husband is a nurse wow a small world
thank you all for responding and listening
My daughter’s story is funny now to look back on. She was diagnosed August 18, 2006 when she was 8. All that summer she had been dropping weight, but she had always been a skinny thing. For a few days before we found out she had been drinking a lot. Drink after drink and would nod off in the car and she had not done that since she was a baby. Well, she got pin worms! Of all things so I made an appointment to take her to the doctor. When I got to her aunt’s house to pick her up for her appointment she said something to me about the amount she had been drinking and that I should have her tested for diabetes. I thought it was a good idea. Once we got there and where getting ready to leave I had forgotten all about diabetes. Until she said as we were leaving the office “I’m so thirsty”. I stopped the Dr. as she was leaving and said. BTW can you check her BS and told her what had been going on. She checked it and it was over 400. The checked her for Keytones and she also had them. We then went over to St. Mary’s Hospital but only had to spend one night. At the time I wished it would have been longer. It was worse than the feeling of when you bring a newborn home from the hospital. I had NO idea what to do. Well now she is 12 and on the pump and every day is an adventure!
My story is a little bit diffrent. My daughter had always been a big drinker and of course had to pee a lot. I had asked her doctor several times to test her for diabetes, and it always came back negative. Then the sumer she turned 10 I started to notice she was losing weight and she was more tired than usual. I talked to my husband about it and he said she was just going through a growth spurt (she also had grown about 3 inches). Then in October of 2008 she would come home and lay down and fall asleep, her school work started to slip (she was a sraight A student), and the cleancher (for my husband) she would just sit in a room and not talk, Casie is a BIG talker. He then said something was wrong. We had a lot going on at home so he thought maybe depression (remember we had her tested at least 5-6 times before for the diabetes). So I made an appointment and she was supposed to go in on 10/20/08 at 8:45am, but the doctor had her do some labs over the weekend. When we went in on Monday they took her into the treatment room and tested her again and the meter just said HIGH! The blood work came back at her being 719! We were then tranfered to the hospital and stayed 4 days, and the fun has not stopped yet!
My daughter was diagnosed September 13, 2010 when she was 6. She had been showing symptoms for a while and I didn't recognize them at first. On August 30, 2010 (first day of school) she was lining up for lunch and just passed out. They sent her to the hospital via ambulance and the stupid hospital considered her passing out at school as a "clumsy" little girl. Her only complaint was she was hungry but they did not do any tests and said she had a small concussion. After that day I just watched her more closely because I had a nagging feeling something was going on. I realized she was drinking gallons a day, eating more than the average adult, and wetting the bed. I woke up Sunday Sept 12th and had a feeling it was diabetes. I called my little brother, who is Type 1 and he agreed. So I went to the store got ketone test strips and she measured with a large amount of ketones. The next day I took her to her pediatrician. Her blood sugar was 597. They sent us to Children's Hospital in Washington DC to start treatment and diabetes management classes. Her A1C was 11.7.
If only I recognized it the day she passed out at school......
My son was diagnosed November 21, 2010 a few weeks before his 9th birthday. I myself am a Type 1 diabetic so I always tested his urine every few months and when I noticed he was losing weight, thirsty and not quite as energetic as usual I tested him and he had high levels of ketones. He was 17.8/305 when we took him to the hospital. Since my father, brother and myself all have Type 1 fortunately (unfortunately for my son) I have a good knowledge of diabetes. However, taking care of myself and a child with diabetes (and I have complications) is very challenging. I don't find his school very helpful but luckily my son has taken very well to his diabetes. It is very tough as it is a 24 hour a day job, day and night and I worry constantly. So far we have NO ONE comfortable enough to look after him so we haven't had a break in 6 months :-( Even my mom who had a child that was diabetic (my brother) growing up and her husband is not comfortable watching my son or giving injections. When I tried to "train" my inlaws and our cousins they seem SO NERVOUS and NOT ready to learn and they said "Wow, this is a 24 hour a day job". If anyone lives in Montreal, Quebec I am trying to organize a support group in the West Island area. Good luck to all of you and your kids :-)