And Away We Go

Well this is me and my family. I've tried the whole blogging thing before but I think this time it will stick. I am dedicating this blog to the daily annoyances that having a child with Type 1 Diabetes brings. Ok so not just the bad stuff; the good stuff too.

So a little about me and the family.

Our family started in 1999 when I married my best friend, Bryan. In March of 2003, we had our daughter Shannyn. She has always been a "girly" girl who loves princesses, Barbies and pretty much anything pink. Leo joined our clan in March of 2006. I know...two March babies! They weren't even planned that way and their birthday's are only 4 days apart. In November of 2006, I was unexpectedly and very rudely introduced into the  world of single parenting when Bryan was killed in a motorcycle accident on his way home from work. Since then, I have been what I call an "only" parent. We have had ups and downs, as most families do, but I have to be the nurturer and disciplinarian all at the same time. It's rough, yes, but I know that there are others out there with far more difficult struggles.

Things were going as best as can be expected until January of 2010. Actually, things started going awry in September of 2009, but we didn't know what was going on until the following January. My little Leo, who was 3 at the time, started getting sick. It started with excess urination. This kid peed all the time! I didn't think much of it because I figured he was just a boy enjoying the whole "standing up to go" thing. Then the thirst started. It got to the point that when I would limit his drinks, he would cry and cry. Finally one day in January, he was throwing up just about everything he ate. All of a sudden, he looked 10 pounds thinner and had these dark circles under his eyes. That night I was terrified of going to bed not knowing if I would find him alive or not in the morning. We raced to the ER and got the diagnosis I was avoiding for the last 4 months.

When Leo was diagnosed with Type 1, he was extremely dehydrated, his blood sugar was nearing 900 and he was in diabetic ketoacidosis, a very dangerous condition in which the body breaks down fat and uses it for fuel instead of sugar. The fat breakdown causes acids to build up in the blood which can be fatal. But I'll get more into all this diabetic talk in later posts. We spent 3 days in the hospital and then were sent to the Barbara Davis Center in Denver for training and specialized care.

Every 3 months, we still travel the hour or so to Denver and the wonderful medical professionals at the Barbara Davis Center. Leo has testing done, is checked over by the doctors there, and I usually am given new dosages for insulin injections. Which again, I will get into that later. No sense in overwhelming you at the very beginning, right?

So there's a bit of back story. Every day we do 4-8 finger pokes to test Leo's blood sugar and he gets 4-5 insulin injections. And we argue about what to eat and what not to eat. And we argue about drinking water. And we fight over when, where, and how to do injections. And then there's school and all the other normal "kid stuff" to deal with.

I hope that eventually other parents of diabetic kids and/or Type 1's will find their way to this blog and realize that they are not alone. We all have our struggles and strengths and I hope that one of my struggles will be lessened by what I feel is one of my strengths; writing and sharing my experiences.