It's been a month. And I took a picture of what a months worth of needles looks like, but it seemed too graphic to post. Graham gets 4-5 shots per day, multiplied by a month, and you can imagine what that would look like.
I haven't talked much about the specifics of type 1 diabetes because I am still in the soak-up-every-bit-of-information-possible stage. But I have been asked a lot about what the signs were in Graham and how we came to the diagnosis.
He had been acting weird for a month, becoming super whiny, tired all the time. Then about a week before he ended up at the hospital, he was going to the bathroom every 30 minutes, 24 hours a day. He hadn't slept for days, always coming in our room asking for water throughout the night. I was changing accident sheets all the time, and cleaning the floor when he didn't make it to the bathroom fast enough. The final straw to me calling his doctor was him vomiting a few times in one day. I immediately made a next day appointment thinking it was a stomach virus.
Before his next day appointment, we had him fast over night and skip breakfast so that he wouldn't throw up again. His doctor was able to do a quick finger prick in her office which revealed his blood sugar / glucose levels were sky high, which then lead us to the unexpected whirlwind to the ER. You can read the rest of the day of diagnosis here.
With that, here are some things to know...
Signs of Type 1 Diabetes (Graham showed all of these):
- tired all the time
- thirsty all the time
- bathroom all the time
- rosy / flushed cheeks
- irritable / irrational / whiny
- only ate / craved sugary things - his body was searching for a source of energy
- lost about 10 pounds in one month
Please read more about type 1 diabetes here. The article was written by a 60 year old woman who has lived with type 1 diabetes for 42 years. She details how those with type 1, and parents of children with type 1, are working around the clock to regulate normal blood sugars… how it is an all day all night, every day and every night, non stop battle. I have recommended this article to all my family and friends as it explains diabetes on a personal level, not a scientific one.
I've also been pinning recipes and articles on my pinterest board here. give me all the carb free recipes.
And my friend Lindsay posted on her blog here after Graham was diagnosed, sharing tips for parents with newly diagnosed children. I cried when I read it, as Jeff and I have been pricking our fingers each time with Graham.
