At the beginning of 2016, Liam had been sick for about a week and we were wondering why he didn't seem like he was getting better. We took him to the Emergency Room on Saturday January 2, 2016 and they did all the normal tests including blood, urine, swab, chest xray...the works. As we were waiting for results, they mentioned that they needed a finger poke, which they proceeded to get. At this point, we found out that his blood sugar was above 500. The normal range is 80-120. It was incredibly high and he was dealing with diabetic keto-acidosis. This is a very dangerous condition and therefore needed to be treated immediately. We were taken back into the hospital and Liam was hooked up to an IV in order to get fluids started. At that point we were informed that Liam has Type I Diabetes.
He was born with the gene, that is somewhere in our family, however we do not know where. It is not hereditary but it is passed in genes. Therefore, Liam was most likely going to develop the disease at some point in his life, it just so happened to be before he turned 2.
At about 10pm on that Saturday evening, Liam and I headed in an ambulance to Sutter in Sacramento in order to have the best endocrinology team take care of him. The next few days were a blur of doctors, social workers, dieticians, diabetic educators, needles, finger pokes, heel pokes, IV drips and hospital food. Liam was a total trooper. When we first got there and he was really sick, he was so lethargic and not himself at all. As the days wore on, he began to get more energy back and began to return to his normal self again.
This diagnosis totally came out of nowhere and caught us completely off guard, and although there is a moderate learning curve in terms of care for our baby, the transition has been smoother than we thought. We now have all the necessary tools to be able to regulate Liam's blood sugar on a daily basis. And even though no one enjoys finger pokes or belly injections of insulin, we have taken to the responsibilities as needed and Liam has made it even easier. He knows when he is getting boo boos on his fingers or his belly and although it is not enjoyable, he truly bounces back every single time.
Now, instead of pancakes right away in the morning, he has to wait just one more minute so we can take his blood sugar first. And instead of eating anytime he wants, we count his carbs. However, this has gotten our family into a really good routine of meal times, snack times, nap times etc. We were always organized before, however, now we have a chart for all his numbers and we have it down like clockwork. However, we still have to adapt to the numbers that he has each day.
This silver lining in all of this is that we still have our perfect Liam. This does not affect anything he wants to be or do in his life. We just take one more step in preparation or being aware so that he will feel good when participating in any part of his life. Now we are able to take the best possible care of him and know that as he grows up this is all that he will know. He will get used to all the appointments and pokes and soon enough he will be able to do it all himself from his I-phone. But let's now get ahead of ourselves.
Now, Liam is happy as every and he gets lots of kisses on any and all boo boos since there are a few more than there were before.
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