Addison laying on her $8000.00 pillow pet

August 2nd, 2011 - D-Day

I'm going to regress and try to relive and share most of our moments throughout the past 2 weeks.  Why you ask?  I don't know.  For my own sanity...maybe I can help someone down the line understand their own feelings.  Tuesday, August 2nd started out as a "normal" day in our world.  We went to the Y in the morning, ran a couple errands, and then came home.  Before we left for the Y I decided I needed to address this nagging problem we were dealing with in our house.  I like to call it the peeing problem.  Addison had become quite familiar with every restroom in the city of Minot.  And we couldn't make it more than 15 minutes without having to RACE to find a restroom.  She also became a wateraholic.  She hoarded bottle of water, she cried to buy water in stores, water was attached to her at all times.  This problem only started on about July 17th.  We noticed it when we were flying home from Florida.  It rapidly got worse over the weeks following.  And it actually became a joke at tball and swimming lessons.  How long could she make it before she had to pee.  I laughed, but in the depths of my mind and heart I knew there was a problem.  Anyways, I had made an appointment for her on August 15th with her Ped.  We couldn't get in any earlier, because our Ped was on vacation.  So, on August 2nd I decided we couldn't wait.  I called our nurse and told her what was going on.  She suggested we come in right away and transferred me to the on call doc.  So we went about our business for the day until our appointment at 3:30pm.  I "knew" it would be a quick visit...we would leave with antibiotics for a UTI and all would be good in a week.  But in the depths of my heart, I knew it wouldn't be ok.  I knew the news would be bad.  We started with a urinalysis to see if it was a UTI.  The doc came in and discussed her symptoms.  I told her that she was waking up with a pull up that was so full it would literally fall off.  The doc stopped what she was doing and looked at me and asked " have you considered diabetes?".  That was the first moment I finally said with honesty that I had thought of it.  At that moment I knew what I was going to hear.  So we waited for the test results.  Of course, my sugar princess had to go to the bathroom....so we headed off to the bathroom.  We walked out of the bathroom and the doc was standing there.  I could see the sadness in her eyes and my heart sank.  She showed me the results.  Any dummy could read the results.  I held on for a few minutes.  I couldn't cry in front of this little girl.  I had to hold it together.  But I couldn't. 

The doctor told us she would have to go to the hospital.  The did a blood sugar test there and it registered HI.  The meter only reads so high.  So we had an hour to prepare for the hospital.  Princess was super excited to got to the hospital.  We came home and she happily packed her bags!  This was gonna be fun....she was proud.  All while my heart was breaking.  We got to the hospital and did the whole admission thing.  She was still having fun.  After all they gave her a lady bug pillow pet that I like to refer to as the $8000.00 pillow pet!  A couple hours later the fun started to stop.  It was time for the IV.  I warned the nurses.....she freakishly strong.  They prepared.  My strong princess sat there with one tiny peep while they put her IV in.  I sobbed in the chair while daddy told her how brave she was.  They drew her blood and we settled in.  Her blood results came in...her BG was 743.  At that point all I knew was it wasn't good. They started her on an insulin drip.  Checked her BG every hour and drew blood every 2 hours.  I begged her nurse to put the magic cream on her arm so she wouldn't feel the poke when they would draw blood.  Amazingly she slept through the night. I sat in the dark next to her bed wishing this nightmare away.  Begging someone to give me the Disease...not my 4 year old.

Our Story

It has been almost 2 weeks since our little princess was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes.  To say that it has been overwhelming is an understatement.  At approximately 4:00pm August 2nd we hopped on a roller coaster ride.  Through our 2 week life change I have experienced every emotion possible.  A VERY long time friend sent me a Facebook message telling me to write, to get all my emotions out.  If I were to write all my emotions, I would have been writing for 2 weeks straight.  I would be the Forrest Gump of blogging!!  There have been so many moments when I try to will  the "nightmare" over.  But reality is.....Type 1 is our reality.  I have been ever so fortunate enough to be surrounded by phenomenal family and friends.  I have also had a fantastic opportunity to meet other T1 families and see that this disease is something we CAN and WILL be able to deal with.  There have been many dark moments, but thankfully my little sugar princess has pulled her weary mommy through.  I will post a more detailed story of our 2 week journey later.  My goal of this blog is to help other totally shocked families ease into this new life.