It's been 8 years...

This was originally posted on my old blog on May 31, 2009.

In April of 2001, I noticed that Brittany hadn't been looking as healthy as she once did.  Her face was pale and she developed circles under her eyes.  I thought she needed more iron, more protein, more vitamins.  Nothing helped.  She was 7 and had 2 younger sisters so I hadn't helped her with a bath or shower for at least a year already.  The first warm day we met my mom for dinner.  Brittany accidentally caught her arm in the van when we were getting out.  My mom and I checked for injuries and we both noticed how thin her arm was.  There was very little muscle.  Brittany had never been a skinny child, so this was unusual.  I told my mom I thought she needed more iron/protein/vitamins and she agreed.

In mid-May, Shayna (almost 1) caught a flu bug.  I ended up having to take her to the hospital for IV fluids overnight because she'd become so dehydrated.

On May 26th, I had taken all three of the girls to the zoo.  By the time we left I was more than a little annoyed with Brittany because she had been dragging her feet through the entire visit and I kept having to wait for her to catch up.  At one point I yelled at her for it.

On Memorial Day May 28th, my mom and I were planning on driving all the girls to Columbus to drop Morgan and Shayna off with their dad.  On the way back, my mom and I thought it would be find to just take the scenic drive and stop to eat in a little town, get ice cream somewhere, etc.  However, that morning Brittany could barely get off the couch.  Her eyes were droopy, breathing was fast and shallow, her heart was racing.  Instead of a nice spring drive, we got to go to the hospital.  I took her to the one closest to my house because I figured she'd only be there for a few hours, maybe overnight.

I kept thinking maybe she had some kind of flu thing that was just affecting her differently than it had affected Shayna.  They got her in a room at the ER, after the usual wait in the waiting room.  Took a bunch of blood and did a chest x-ray.  Are chest x-rays protocol?  I think every single time that I've taken any of my kids to the ER they've gotten a chest x-ray, unless they needed something else x-rayed.

After an eternity, the doctor comes back with the blood work results.  I don't even remember how he told me or what my reaction was.  But she had Type 1 Diabetes, her blood sugar was over 500.  They had already called the pediatric endocrinologist that was on call and an ambulance to come to transfer her to another hospital.  The hospital that we were at didn't have a Peds facility.  My head started spinning, probably why I don't remember exactly what exactly he'd said.

I called my mom and Brittany's father.  Brittany's dad and his mom came up to the hospital.  They brought Brittany a tray of food for lunch and we all waited for the ambulance.  I really wanted to ride with her, but my van was there and her dad was going to go with her.  (He'd only recently been regularly involved in her life.)

So, we all transfered to the other hospital.  They admitted her to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) and started getting her set up with an IV.  Needless to say she was not happy.

That was the first day of our lives with Diabetes.  It's been a rough road, but finally I think we are gaining the upper hand on this disease.  If you are interested, the rest of the story is here.

Memorial Day has since had a whole new meaning for me.