Type 1 diabetes - What it means

Ok so here is some content....

Type 1 diabetes: Is the for life kind. People often think of type 2 diabetes because it is more common but type 1 is very different. My son is type 1.... That means for life. For life he must get insulin everyday. At the moment, he gets insulin (needle injected medicine) every morning before breakfast and before diner. He also get a finger prick (small needle in finger for the purpose of checking his blood sugar levels) at least 4 times a day (morning, lunch, diner and before bed). 

Type 1 diabetes (in my own words) is an autoimmune deficiency, meaning the immune system attacked itself. Our pancreas has cells called beta cells that creates insulin for our bodies. Insulins purpose is to transfer sugar or glucose from our blood into our tissues and muscles in order for our body to use as energy. In a Type 1 diabetic, like my son, the bodies immune system attacked the beta cells and destroyed them, these cells do not reproduce and so the body requires insulin (by injection) in order to get the sugar into the bodies tissues to burn and use as source of energy. 

I hope this makes sense.... If not here is a link to the official definition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diabetes_mellitus_type_1

In addition to the medication and monitoring glucose levels, living with type 1 diabetes is also a balance of calculating and regulating the amount of carb intake and physical activities. In order to control diabetes, we also have to monitor and measure Jackson carbs. His program to follow was designed for Jackson by the amazing dieticians at CHEO. For example at breakfast 30g., am snack 15g., lunch 30-45g and so on.... This is a challenge in itself but it's crazy how fast we were able to pick up the routine and roll with it. Thinking back now, it became our new life style so quickly and naturally. Olivier and I count carbs everyday portion his food and do our best to make sure he has variety and balance given he is a growing child... We are lucky in a sense that all this happened before we was introduced to foods that he must stay away from: desserts!!! We always avoided giving Jackson sugar. So at least that part of the battle was not an issue for us (yet). It's getting harder but that will be a post for another day. The battle with sweets! (to come)....

This seems like a lot, but as a parent, you simply do it all and flow with this change because all you want is the best for your child. I'm not saying we don't make mistakes, god knows we do.... But we do our very best.

Going back to went Jackson was first diagnosed, it was June 24 and we were moving into my parents house June 30th until our new house was ready on September 9, 2014. It was simply a crazy time for us. With Jackson being diagnosed, learning about diabetes, I was pregnant and in the middle of a move.... It was insane times for us. Overwhelming even! I remember thinking the timing was just awful. But I am a believer that everything happens for a reason and it truly does if you take the time to think about what you took from every situation.

Moving into my mom and dads after finding out about Jackson, I remember thinking this was bad timing, I was having a hard time saying Jackson's name without crying and now living with my parents... OMG right... But it truly was a blessing for us. It was so helpful to have unconditional love and support there with us everyday. Learning about everything with us, figuring out carbs together, showing my parents how to use glucose monitor, showing my mom how to mix and give insulin. It is such a gift to have that kind of support in your life. I am so blessed with so many forms of support from my loving husband, to my parents who are ALWAYS there for me and my family, relatives, friends and of course support at daycare. The love and support we have and had had is just unreal. We are truly blessed and I am thankful everyday! Thank you xoxo

Where to start....

Thinking back at 2014 and what a year it was for me and my family... I got pregnant with our second boy early in 2014, I turned 30, moved into a new home and welcomed our second baby boy Dylan on October 20th. So many memorable, special moments that I will carry with me always... Despite all these wonderful moments that I cherish so much, 2014 marks my life as the year my oldest son Jackson (2) was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. For this reason I have decided to start writing about our lives as parents of a young diabetic in hope of maybe helping people understand the disease and possibly help others that may have same struggles as we do. So here I go...

How this all got started.... Here is some background on how this all came to be.

In June 2014, I was about 6/7 months pregnant and my husband Olivier was concerned about some symptoms that Jackson was having. Drinking a lot, like abnormally a lot of liquids. He was waking up soaked in urine from head to toe night after night and signs of dry mouth even after drinking lots of water.

Olivier was at a baseball game and a buddy asked him how Jackson was doing he said he was great but Olivier was concerned about these symptoms. A guy on the bench next to my husband said "sorry but I overheard the symptoms you mentioned and just so you know, diabetes runs in my family you might wanna have your boy checked out."

So of course my husband starts looking up and reading about diabetes. Well he starts getting concerned and he discussed it with me but I was like "no way he's no diabetic" I thought my husband was going crazy with reading stuff online. A week later, June 24, 2014, Jackson had a medical appointment with our family doctor and my husband took him to discuss the symptoms he was having as well as other small things I had noted. Once at the doctors, Olivier was discussing my list of things with the doctor and our doctor kept coming back to the bedwetting and she was concerned about that. So to get results as soon as possible she sent my Husband and Jackson to CHEO (children's hospital of eastern Ontario) to have tests done.

Once at the hospital they did a urine test and blood test on Jackson and then sent them home. They were leaving and were in the hospital parking lot and getting ready to leave, our family doctor called my husband on his cell phone and said bring Jackson back into the hospital right away. CHEO had called our doctor and said that Jackson was in fact diabetic and they found sugar in Jackson's urine (a clear sign a diabetes).

My husband immediately called me,  it was 3:30 and I was leaving work walking to my car in poring rain. I will never forget that call. I was soaking wet getting in my car. Olivier said "you have to come meet me at CHEO.... Jackson has diabetes". My heart stopped.... As a mom I can't even put in words what I was feeling a cocktail of sadness, scared, guilt, confusion.... I was awful. I was driving to the hospital crying and not really understand what diabetes meant really.... Was my son going to die? Will he live a normal life? Is this my fault? It was the longest drive of my life. I remember also calling my parents on my way. I was crying so hard....

Once at the hospital, all I did was hold my 2 year old son in my arms and cry. Poor little guy, he had no idea what was going on, he was in a good mood just tired since he had not had his afternoon nap. the nurses came in and took more blood work and also put an intravenous in his arm. Jackson was so good took all the needles and then looked at the nurse and would say "merci".

I would start crying again, thats the kind of sweet child my husband and I are blessed with. We stayed at the hospital that day till about 9 pm. His blood sugar level at the hospital was 32 meant nothing to me at the time but so you understand a normal kid his age blood sugar should be between 6 and 10 so 32 was very high! They gave Jackson some insulin and told us to go eat and come back.... So we did then they said we could go home but had to come back to the diabetes clinic the next morning they told us we had a few days of learning ahead of us so go home and rest. So at this point we are going home with little and almost no information but we have our son at home with us and that's all that mattered to me.

Over the next week we spent 4 half days at CHEO with the amazing diabetes team there, learning about our sons Type 1 diabetes: the injections and how to administer the needles, the signs to look for for hypoglycaemia (low blood sugar) and hyperglycaemia (high blood sugar) , his new"diet", when he's sick, checking his blood sugar levels and so on.... It was so much to take in lots of informations for sure but we did pretty good took it all in and it was hard. Hardest week of my life. I was so scared, scared of the unknown and petrified at the idea of giving needles to my son.... But at some point I remember looking at him (jackson) and thinking.... He is the brave one! The one that needs to get needles everyday, the one that needs to live with diabetes. So I decided to be brave for him.... He is just amazing.

My Husband and I do the best we can and try to do everything we can to give Jackson the most normal life possible. Through this blog I will try to shed some light on the decease, on raising a diabetic and the challenges we face day to day. I decided to do this as a form of therapy for myself but I hope others may be interested. If not that's ok too. :)

Hope you enjoy my blog on being on mom and raising a Type 1 diabetic.

xoxo


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