Six days ago my entire world changed. My almost two year old son Hunter was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. As you can imagine the past week has been a whirlwind of prayers, tears, and hospital visits.
It started about three weeks ago when the heat hit our little town like none other. Hunter seemed extra thirsty, but that wasn't unusual since it was almost 100 degrees outside. He began waking in the night crying for water which seemed odd to me. Still I blamed it on the heat. Then he began soaking his bed every night. Still I reasoned with myself it's all the water he's been drinking because of the heat. Then came the horrible diaper rash that turned into a yeast infection. I started to worry so I Googled, as I always do when I worry. I typed in his symptoms and the first hit was Type 1 Diabetes.
For those of you who don't know Type 1 Diabetes is when your pancreas stops producing insulin. Which in turn makes your blood sugar rise. Left untreated it can cause kidney damage, blindness, and death. Type 1 is not caused by poor diet or not enough exercise and it cannot be reversed by improving these things. In fact doctors don't know what causes it.
Hunter was diagnosed with Kidney disease at birth (that's a whole other adventure I will write about sometime) and because of this has had extensive blood work and testing done. His kidneys are in perfect working order dispite this diagnosis. (Yet again another story to write on the goodness of God and His promises.) He still gets check ups and blood tests every three to four months because of this.
OK getting back, when I saw Type 1 pop up on Google I thought, "no it can't be, he would be sick, the docotors would have caught this in his blood work." But my "mom sense" kicked in. I decided to take a look at his glucose levels from his last blood test in June. When I saw it I was shocked. 199. Normal is below 100. Since this was happening at midnight I called my pediatrician first thing in the morning. She said with out hesitation to come in today.
Flash forward through all of the initial testing. My son's pediatrician, who I have known for years because she was my pediatrician came in to tell me she believed Hunter had diabetes and that we needed to go to the hospital. My world stopped. Everything froze, I felt out of body. I started to sob all while my little boy patted me on the arm saying "momma, momma." He didn't understand. Through my tears the pediatrician told me, "we caught it in time another week and he would have been comatose." She said I was a good momma, but at the time I felt anything but.
The next day we went to the hospital for eight hours and attended classes on how to give Hunter his insulin. Again, the doctors, nurses, and educators told us it would all be OK. And again I felt out of body, like I was looking down at all if this happening and feeling it was a dream I would wake up from.
I know that this isn't the worst thing that could happen. I know there are people going through so much worse with their children. But for me, this is the worst that we have ever been through. This first week has been filled with highs and lows. One day I feel I can take this diesease head on and the next I feel completely overwhelmed and hopeless. I hope no one ever has to know the pain of having to see your child cry while pricking their finger for their tenth blood check or giving them their fourth injection for the day. It kills me to see the little bruises on his arms from all of his injections. He doesn't understand and really right now, neither do I.
What I do know is God is good. Bruises will heal and this will become the new normal for our little family. Hunter will be alright and we will protect him from the effects of this disease until a cure is found. God spared us from the worst by catching it in time. He also provided us with an amazing support group of family, friends, and pastors that have our backs through this.
We are blessed. I know this will not be the only trial we will face as a family. But God tells us not not to worry about tomorrow because He is already there.
I have realized it is ok to cry or feel sad about this because I am human. But, what is most important is that through it all, it is well with me.
