He was drinking a lot more water than usual and he was urinating more frequently. And one of the teachers said that for a couple days in a row at reading time on the quiet floor in school, he fell asleep for a couple of minutes.
Father
She was acting really thirsty
I had been diagnosed with diabetes around three years prior to when Allie was diagnosed. Her mother first noticed it. She was acting really thirsty and she had spilled some water on our kitchen floor, and she was crawling around and was licking the water off the floor. So I came home from work one night and we tested her with my meter and her glucose levels were very, very high. So we just knew right away that it was probably a problem. We took her in to see the pediatrician that same night.
Father
The longest flight of my life
Our daughter was actually all the way across the country visiting relatives when she developed diabetic ketoacidosis and was rushed to the emergency room. The flight to go be with her was the longest of my life. While we weren’t aware of the significance at the time, our daughter clearly had been drinking a lot more water and needing to urinate frequently during the night. Recognition of these as symptoms was complicated by the fact that it was in the middle of summer and she was participating in very active camps. So we attributed the extra water intake to the high level of physical activity in the heat.
Mother
He wasn’t eating at all
He stopped eating his baby food. He just wanted his bottle, and if I put the baby food in the bottle, he would take it. Then it got to the point where he was just not eating at all. He just didn’t want to eat. I remember the night before we brought him to the hospital, he threw up. I don’t know if it was because he was cold, but his lips were a little blue. So I called the doctor and they were like, “Oh, it’s probably just a bug. Give him clear fluids.” So I’m giving him grape juice, which is not a very good thing to give a diabetic, and the next morning he threw up again. I called the doctor again; they were like, “Well, just give him clear fluids. It’s probably just a bug.”
I had to go to work that day, so that afternoon his dad called me and said, “Immanuel is really sick. We need to bring him to the hospital.” So I left work early and I went home. From the time I left in the morning to the time that I came home, his whole skin tone had changed. He’s Hispanic, so he turns kind of yellow and his eyes turned really dark. I picked him up and he was limp and kind of lethargic. It was really scary. I just recently finished school, and I wrote a report about it and I had to read it in front of the class and I cried…it was definitely the worst experience of my life.
Mother
It was kind of strange
He was three and a half years old. It was kind of strange he woke up in the middle of the night and he said that he needed to go the bathroom. Then all of a sudden, I told my wife that that it was something weird so I told her to keep a closer eye on him next day. And then the next day he went to the bathroom 14 times. After that he was diagnosed with diabetes Type I.
Father
He was very sick, and then you look at him he’s like normal. I mean, he’s happy and laughing. He had to go to the hospital in an ambulance. I said, “Ambulance for what? He’s ok.” He’s playing like regular every single day. I mean, nothing strange besides going to the bathroom nothing.
Mother
I thought he might have a urinary tract infection
Billy was wetting his bed. He also had a tremendous thirst, but he didn’t look particularly sick. There were no other signs. He was just very thirsty. I guess he was peeing a lot, but he was especially peeing at night in his bed and he had been toilet trained for years. So I thought he might have a urinary tract infection. We went over to the doctor and then over to the lab and we got the test done. Then when we went away for the weekend and our doctor actually tracked us down by calling my parents and then getting our phone number to call us up while we were away to say that Billy had high sugar levels in his urine.
Mother
Something’s not right
He had just turned two. It was totally a weird day… Probably a month before he was diagnosed, he had had rotavirus and was in the hospital for about a week. When we brought him home, I remember thinking this isn’t the same kid I brought into the hospital. He was drinking all the time, he was wetting, he was throwing up randomly, all of which I just attributed to his body just catching up. I didn’t know any better.
On that day, we went down to the playground and I had become accustomed at that point to carrying extra water with us. He drank all of my water, all of our friend’s water, and he was asking strangers for water. So at that point I said, “I’m leaving. Something’s not right,” and, as I’m collecting Olivia and getting all of our things together, I turned and looked at him. He was in fetal position under a tree just laying there. I ran and got him, put him in the car, and drove back up to the house. He threw up all over himself again.
Mother
Waiting for the next show to drop
My mother in law is a type I diabetic, and her sister is a type I diabetic. The general rule of thumb, from what I understood, was that diabetes is not common in siblings, and they say that when that happens, then my girls have a higher risk of developing type I diabetes. So I watch my two girls, always waiting for the other shoe to drop. Poor things, they can’t throw up without me checking their blood sugar. So we figure if that ever happens, they’re going to be okay because we’ve taught them how to eat, we’ve taught them how to be active, and they’ve watched Brady try to balance everything.
Mother