I am a mother of a four-year-old son who has type one diabetes, he was diagnosed February 14, 2016 he was in DKA. We found out a week after his diagnosis that he was the youngest recorded in our county with having type one diabetes.

My son is very energetic a typical boy, he is in preschool and at home likes to roughhouse with his daddy and his little brother. He is very loving and compassionate towards others. I don’t think he really remembers much of before her diabetes because he was only 18 months old, but he does recall the day that he was diagnosed. He has told me about things that we never discussed in front of him.

It was very scary before being diagnosed with type one diabetes because he had three missed diagnosis and a doctor that asked us if we had a history of T1D (I told the doctor my Grandma was diagnosed with T1D at the age of 19 years old. I thought they would have tested him then and they did not and sent us home with the diagnosis of hand foot and mouth disease), which almost costed him his life.

The day he was diagnosed he was lifeless due to the extreme lethargy and DKA had already set in. Our son’s diagnosing endocrinologist and ER Doctor has told us that with our fast thinking and awareness of our son’s normal behavior saved his life by trusting our intuition that something about the diagnosis of an ear infection, hand foot and mouth disease, and sweaty sock syndrome wasn’t adding up to all the symptoms he was experiencing. (Wetting through his diapers, drinking so much water, having no energy, not gaining weight, sweet smell on his breath, labored breathing)

It has definitely been a journey of learning new ways and trying to make sense of everything. We are very involved with JDRF and I am an administrator of a JDRF group on Facebook and a administrator of a Type 1 Diabetes parents group. We participate in the JDRF T1D walk and other JDRF programs.