Today for the Bitter~Sweet Diabetes Blog Week we are asked to share a memorable diabetes day.
I have several but I'll pick when Nora was diagnosed back in June of 2005; she was 4 years old.
That spring she ended up with walking pneumonia. She didn't sound bad...she was just lying around; not her typical monkey running around self. She was laid up for a couple of days when I took her into the Dr's office when they told me she had walking pneumonia. After about a week or two she seemed to bounce back to her normal self. But then I noticed that her hands would start shaking and she would whine that she was hungry. I didn't think too much of this as I have that exact same issue. It was always in the morning so it made sense that she was hungry. I would feed her breakfast and she would be fine. Then the excessive water drinking started. She would down 20oz bottles of Dasani in 30 seconds flat and ask for more. It was then that it hit me. 1. She would do well in college for beer bong contests or 2. Something is wrong.
So fast forward to the second week of June 2005. I called the Dr's office and asked for an appointment for Nora. I told them all her symptoms and then said I need her tested for Juvenile Diabetes. Here's the thing. I didn't know what Juvenile Diabetes was. Had no clue. The words just came out of my mouth. We have no family history. We had no friends with it. I've never seen it. I didn't know the symptoms. I didn't know squat about diabetes...let alone T1D. Call it divine intervention, a fluke thing...call it I don't know. But as I said those words it was almost an out of body experience. Weird...
That got me an appointment the next day. Urine analysis confirmed sugar in the urine. What did that mean? Sent us to get a blood draw. Now remember, Nora is 4 years old. She hated to pee in a cup and then she had to give blood. She was NOT a happy camper. I believe in bribery. By the time we stopped off at the mall for said bribery gift and got home a recording was left saying yes, Nora has diabetes and to go down to Children's Hospital where we would be staying for a week.
I remember that day like it was yesterday and Nora will be celebrating her LIVE-a-versary June 13th with 8 years of T1D.
