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Wednesday, March 16, 2011

G.I Joe Said it best..."Knowing is half the battle"

I think back to the days before diabetes was in our lives and I have bittersweet feelings.  Yes we were an almost picture perfect family (who isn't) but I look back and wonder if I had of known more about Diabetes would he have gotten as sick as he did?  I know that's crazy to even think but sometimes I go there.  You know the place where us D-Moms go and wonder if our babies are this way because of something I did, or didn't do, or did wrong.  The blathering in my brain goes on and on in my head like this sometimes; even though I know that this is just something in his genetic makeup that I could never have seen coming or stopped.

Colin was sick for a while before his diagnosis at 5 years old and I thought I was being paranoid  taking him to the pediatrician all the time and nothing was getting better.  He lost so much weight and I just brushed it off as him losing baby fat and being really active over the summer.  Same goes for his appetite and his extreme thirst, I just figured it was because it was so hot and we were out at the park and pool all the time.
I remember him having episodes where it seemed like my little angel was possessed by a demon, crazy mood swings and his breath smelled horrible.  I will NEVER forget that smell, I always give him a little sniff if his sugars are really high cause that's my early warning system lol.  His breath smelled like a sweet metallic smell, that's a bad smell it means we need to be at the hospital.

I was 2 words into this paragraph and Diabetes came a knocking...





Anything below 4 is a low and I hate to even see the 4's to tell you the truth because he feels shaky and sick when he is in the 4's.  But the upside is seeing this face 20 minutes later as he eats his peanut butter toast and relaxes so his sugar up for bedtime.


There he is pointing to this rubber worm hanging from the ceiling lol He looks like he's feeling better but he is just starting to come around, he's a champ.




Bwahahahaha!! So now that I'm completely off track here, you can see how diabetes does that to your life...ALL THE TIME.  But we roll with it :)

Bottom line here folks here are the signs and symptoms of Type 1 Diabetes, please read them and share with other Moms, Dad's, Grand parents and Aunties and Uncles.

Knowing the warning signs for type 1 diabetes (juvenile diabetes) could save a life.

Warning signs of type 1 diabetes (these may occur suddenly):
  • Extreme thirst
  • Frequent urination
  • Sudden vision changes
  • Sugar in urine
  • Fruity, sweet, or wine-like odor on breath
  • Headache
  • Bed wetting (thanks Jonah I forgot this one)
  • Increased appetite
  • Sudden weight loss
  • Drowsiness, lethargy
  • Heavy, labored breathing
  • Stupor, unconsciousness
  • Pain in the abdomen
If you or someone you love exhibits one or more of these symptoms, call a doctor immediately.
Colin exhibited ALL of these symptoms except bed wetting and we just made it to the emergency room in time that they were able to save his life.  If someone hadn't said "diabetes" to me that night as he went to bed I don't know if  would have made it to the hospital on time.  I am so glad that I had heard that and looked up diabetes and realized that he was experiencing 6 of the symptoms and we got him to the ER.

I don't want to hear about another child going undiagnosed and dieing, it breaks my heart and I think everyone should know what to look for.  Please share this information with all of your loved ones.

You could save a life.

xoxoxo

If you still feel like reading here is the beginning of Colin's story. I can't bring myself to write the second part yet.

5 comments:

Jonah said...

If you're going to send the symptom checklist out, let me add a few things:

For children diagnosed under the of 10 or so, the most commonly reported symptom that the parents first really noticed was bedwetting after having had dry nights for a while.
In fact, even though I was 17 (and had been dry for about 8 years), I started wetting the bed again a few months before diagnosis.

I also think that it's important to stress that diabetes can begin at any age (babies to centarians) and that symptoms can take any length of time- days, months, years- before crisis, and the earlier the diagnosis, the better.

Kerry said...

Excellent point Jonah thank you, my son did not and has never in his life wet the bed so I forget about that one. I did get that list of symptoms from the JDRF site and they also don't have bed wetting down so maybe we should bring that to their attention as well. Have a great day :)

Unknown said...

Kerry...I love the pic of Colin pointing to his worm as his BG came up and he was feeling better. Too funny.

Great list of s/s. Thanks for getting this out there. Hopefully the more aware people are...a few more lives do not need to be lost due to lack of knowledge.

P.S...Jonah is really smart. He always makes me think so hard my brain hurts - LOL.

Kerry said...

It amazes me what he is actually capable of when his body is feeling like poop, he rarely let's diabetes get the better of him. Those silly worms were all over the ceiling today randomly falling on our heads too funny.

sky0138 said...

I love how in the middle of writing this you all dealt with a low...and picked right up where you left off. You are one amazing Momma and Colin is an awesome kiddo!