Rock My World

My world was rocked yesterday afternoon at 12:53 pm. The doctor called with Cameron's blood test results, she said he has diabetes. The wind was knocked out of me and my head began to spin. "What?" "How?" Her instructions were to take him to a bigger hospital about an hour drive from our home immediately. I called Mike at work, asking him to take the rest of the day off. When I told him what the doctor had told me he said, "I knew it!" Thanks Husband, I really wish you had let me in on it. My Mama's heart had gone to the worst case scenario. I thought if he had cancer and needed some sort of donation that he has two parents and two siblings. Fears, we both had them but neither spoke to the other about them.

Thankfully our pediatrician faxed all paperwork to Loma Linda and we were taken right in. His sugar was at 415 when we arrived at 3 pm. His CO2 levels were down, his acidity levels were up, causing heavy breathing, and protein in his urine. He had labs drawn (through his IV line), he was IV'd (the nurse rocked getting him the first stick), and papers were signed for admittance within an hour. They pushed a bag of IV fluids for an hour bringing his sugar down to 330. WOO-HOO! This was promising. He was rolling with the punches, getting his finger pricked, and they even brought him a Nintendo Wii right to his bed. Then we got the news that they had to start a second IV line. They were going to insulin drip him. They poked at him 4 different times before getting a second line going. He began screaming, "I want to go home!" As a parent there is no greater pain in the world than that of your child hurt but you know it's the best for them. Prior to the fourth stick, they pricked his finger to get a blood sugar read. It was 266 which looked promising! FINALLY, that fourth stick kept and we were moved to the PICU.

The initial, and pretty confirmed diagnosis, is Type I diabetes. This is the kind you keep forever. He will be forever dependent upon insulin. My 9 year old, the healthiest child I have EVER known, has Type I diabetes. The child who has NEVER ran a fever in his entire life (including a 2 day hospital stay at 6 months with RSV). The child who I could count on 1 hand how many times he has vomited in his ENTIRE life. My perfect, intelligent, hysterical, handsome...my first born has Type I diabetes. How do I process this? How can I not feel like I failed him somewhere? His number was at 294 at 10 pm and had come down to 158 at midnight. Over night he dropped around the 50 range, they had to give him something to bring up his sugar. His CO2 levels are rising, his acidity levels are decreasing, everything is going in the direction they need to. The orders have already been drawn to transition him to food this morning. The next step is for us to receive our training and education for this new life.