Walker's Diagnosis
Walker was diagnosed on July 5, 2015. She was 5, and a few months shy of beginning kindergarten. Around April/May she started wetting her bed, something she hadn't done for quite a while. She was also peeing frequently during the day, but at the time this didn't raise any red flags. "She's going through a phase", "she's regressing", "she must be anxious about leaving her wonderful preschool and beginning kindergarten". We had a reason for it all. We were aware of the signs as Marshall is Type1, his dad was Type1, my aunt was Type1; we thought this couldn't possibly be that. Marshall, prior to his diagnosis, was sleeping any chance he got, dropped a ton of weight, and was drinking and eating like crazy. This wasn't how Walker was behaving.
Mid-June, and we pack the car to drive 2000miles east. We were spending the summer in Maine. What felt like every hour Walker would say she had to pee. We stopped at nearly every rest stop on I-80, and more than a couple dirt piles on the side of the breakdown lane. On the second day we spent the night at my brother and sister-in-law's in western Mass. The following morning we stopped for breakfast as we were leaving his town, on our final stretch to Maine. Walker got an orange juice and breakfast sandwich. An hour or so later the typical "I have to pee" was heard from the backseat, only this time it was coupled with "and my belly really hurts." A few minutes later she was sick, which is very unlike her (in hindsight, she probably chugged her oj, had a carb heavy sandwich, was sitting in a car, and her blood sugar was probably through the roof)
The excitement of being in Maine and seeing family and playing in the water took over the majority of our headspace for the next couple weeks. She was still peeing frequently (only now probably in the lake while swimming, so less obvious), every morning her sheets were soaked, and she began to look thin. Again, not super out of the ordinary, as the kids have always been thin and spring/summer are their typical growth spurt months. But the peeing began to worry us both. Marshall had to leave for business back in Colorado, so it was just the kids and I (and our family only a few miles from our rented camp). While Marshall was gone, in a short week, things turned. Walker began drinking ridiculous amounts of water, eating constantly (even more than her normal high volume) still peeing, and now she seemed different. I can't describe it, other than her laugh seemed not her own and her expressions seemed like someone else. It seemed as if she was forcing a facade of her former self. It just seemed not right. My mother-in-law took the kids to a nearby farm one afternoon, and when they returned she was concerned. She said walker peed 5x or more, drank hers and everyone else's water, and that something was off. Marshall wasn't due back for a couple days, but she thought we should probably get her checked just to be safe. I think we all knew what it was, but wanted to be together before confirming it. Marshall had a blood glucose meter and we would know in a matter of seconds. I convinced myself it couldn't possibly be diabetes; Marshall was 16, his dad was around the same age as was my aunt, at diagnosis. Walker is too young, I thought. (In retrospect I'm glad Marshall was was with us when we finally went to the hospital, but I wouldn't suggest others wait if they suspect. DKA (diabetic ketoacidosis) will kill you if left untreated.)
When he arrived a couple days later we tested her blood the following morning (4th of July). Her fasting bg was in the 200s. In that instant we knew. Being the Fourth of July, and being in a small town in Maine (where the favorite holiday past-time is still playing with fireworks while being drunk on coffee brandy) we thought it best to let the ERs clear out and wait until the following day to go to the hospital. Marshall kept close watch of her bg, testing multiple times throughout the day and night. On the 5th we got ourselves ready. My entire family happened to be in town for the Fourth and staying at my mom's. Ollie would be well cared for by some of his favorite people. We left for the small hospital in my town, convincing ourselves we'd spend maybe a night and then head home. From our room I could look out the window and see the house I came home to from the hospital, the same hospital my daughter was now lying in. After an excruciating IV and blood panel, Walker and I were getting shipped via ambulance to Maine Med an hour away. She wasn't in DKA, thankfully, but they were better suited to treating her. I later learned that, although stabilizing Walker was the priority, educating ME was going to take more time. Once Walker started receiving insulin and her ketones were normal, she was feeling so much better. I, however, received a crash course in endocrinology and the basics in keeping my child alive. The pediatric endocrinologist focused on me, as he knew Marshall was already up to speed. I thought I knew all about diabetes, I mean, I'd been married to someone with diabetes for 10 years. I didn't even know what I didn't know. I quickly found out I had a lot more to learn.
Walker stabilized quickly, she wasn't overly sick when we were admitted, and she looks back on those crazy couple days and remembers all the people who helped her. She still talks about Nurse David and how nice he was. She remembers how fun the ambulance ride was, and that it took so much less time to get to the hospital than it does to get to the airport in a normal car (both in the same city). She remembers the toys in the Barbara Bush Children's hospital, and how bright the play room was. She used to bring up how scary the IV was and how she didn't like all the shots, but as the years have passed it seems to have faded in magnitude. The things that were scary are now normal.
I'm thankful we were surrounded by so much of our family. The story would have been so different had we not.
