Not on my bucket list

I guess diabetes looks like ear infections.  Back in March, my daughter wasn't feeling well after one of her dance competitions.  I was just thinking she's probably exhausted.  We haven't ever experienced dance competition life until this year although she's a solid dancer whose been dancing since she was 3 about 10 hours a week.  So maybe competitions just took more out of here.  I didn't know!  Then by day 3 she still wasn't feeling better and this girl of mine does not slow down like this.  So in to see the doctor we go, tra la la.  The doctor says she has a bilateral ear infection.  Great, we get her medicine and she's on the mend, kind of.  

She goes back to school the next week, barely able to do what she normally does.  At dance, she cried because she has zero energy after taking a week off and they sent her home.  Now she's tired and embarrassed and very confused as to why she doesn't feel normal still.  At the track (yes, she was doing this too) her coach had mentioned how worried he was about her because she just looked gassed after doing a few run-throughs for the high jump.  Later on that week she had a track meet but was feeling a little better and my little track star one her event with her feeling like she was just barely getting by on empty.  Then she was almost better.

A few weeks go by, and she's still tired but can manage all that she was doing with school, dance, and track.  Then another competition comes up.  This time we have to travel to Boise for it which we were looking forward to because we get a girls' road trip!  We have the best time, I just love spending this quality time with her and spoiling her a little bit.  She wanted to go to Goodwill haha.  For dinner, we ate out at the Cheesecake Factory because we don't have one where we live so it's extra special when we go to Boise for it.  The next day she had her dance competition, which is so fun!  We bought Dutch Bros to get some energy for a long day.  I'm so proud of her and her team and all their hard work.  But, my daughter had mentioned that she just can't seem to produce the energy she needed on stage.  After awards and everything we left and she just kept telling me how tired she was.  I said it's been a long competition season and this one was a 5-hour trip to travel and she should feel better once we get home.  I mean, logically this all makes sense, right?!  

On the drive home, we had to stop every hour because she had to pee all the time.  I got after her and told her not to drink any more water but she said she was just so thirsty.  It was taking forever to get home.  Relaxed on Sunday and bam, Monday hits and she can't get out of bed.  She's walking around the house like an old woman and just saying how light and tired she is.  I schedule a doctor's appointment.  They said they could see her that day, yay!  So I take a half day from work and get her in only to be told the appointment wasn't that day but the next day.  I admit I was not proud of how I handled this so I was really rude and short with that poor lady, but dammit my kid hasn't been well for weeks!  I asked if anyone else could see her...no they said.  My blood is boiling and I know I have to leave.  My daughter starts crying as we walk back to the car, she's so done with feeling sick and just wanted to feel better.  The next day, we see the doctor who checks her out and says it's still a bilateral ear infection.  What?  Still?  The doctor said she should perk right up by Thursday.  I could only hope.

We get her meds and wait...That week she asked if I would make her some rice krispie treats because she's been craving them.  Of course, I made them for her!  I made two batches, and she ate almost one whole pan by herself.  All week long, she didn't feel like eating much, except for those rice krispie treats, and shuffled around the house, no improvement.  Her dance studio was calling asking what was going on and all we could say was that she was still sick.  Thursday came and she hadn't perked up at all.  Over the weekend I watched her just feel like crap and think something is wrong, she should be better.  By the next Monday, her Dad took her to urgent care because I knew something else was going on, and I went to work.  They take her blood to run tests and told them to go home.  A couple hours later they tell us to take her to the ER because her glucose levels are at 360.  When my husband told me this over the phone I was so unaware of glucose levels and I said in disbelief "what is that, diabetes?"  Once they get her all checked in at the ER they do more blood tests and her levels are in the 700s.  At that point, they were going to life-flight her to Scared Heart in Spokane since our little ER in town wasn't equipped to manage that.

I left work to get my other kids from their activities to make sure they get home ok.  Once I get home my carbon monoxide meter was beeping and I tried to fix it by changing the batteries.  It was still beeping!  I called the fire department to see what I needed to do and they said they'd come over and check it out.  So we all get out of the house while we wait for the fire department to show up with our dog on a leash.  This whole time I'm just getting so stressed that I'm not at the ER right now with my daughter and they're going to leave without me.  The fire truck shows up, firefighters check out my messy house and they change the batteries even though I told them I already did that.  Turns out, I have to replace it.  Ok, will do!  I said my goodbyes to my other kids and leave for the ER with Ritz crackers and canned cheese because I'm starving and that was the quickest thing to grab that I could shove in my mouth.

I only sat in the ER for about 10 minutes before the life flight crew came in to get my daughter all ready to go in the helicopter.  My husband gets motion sickness so I knew I'd be the one flying the helicopter and I'm glad I was, I wasn't going to let her out of my sight.  We are religious people so we had someone come and give my daughter a blessing before we were escorted onto the helicopter.  I was truly stunned with everything going on all at the same time so I am grateful for the prayer at the time.  It all happened so fast before I knew it we were flying over the clearwater river and over the Palouse.  It was beautiful and at the same time frightening and stressful.

Once we landed we were whisked into the ER at Sacred Heart and more bloodwork was done.  My parents live close to the hospital and were there right after we got there.  It was a relief to have them there.  Then all the questions were blasted at me: "does anyone in your family have type 1 diabetes", "did you notice any symptoms", "how old, weight, height, etc".  It was clear by now that my daughter has Type 1 diabetes instead of ear infections that was making her feel tired all the time.  The next few days were filled with classes like a crash course on how to give her insulin, what to eat, and the math of carbs ratios to the insulin she needs.  I sat there in the hospital dazed and thinking I really didn't want to deal with this right now or ever but knew I had to.  I also started to feel guilty!  Oh those rice krispie treats, those were so bad for her!  This also was a relief as now we have answers to why she was so tired all the time.  Her levels were so high for so long.  For a while my daughter couldn't even raise her head up for her hospital bed she was so tired.  After the amazing staff watching over and getting her levels down she was looking much better.  They also brought in a therapy dog to lift my girls' spirits.  That worked really well, she sat right up and snuggle with this cute dog.

Somehow we left the hospital with a bag full of supplies for my diabetic.  I didn't feel ready even though the staff showed me everything.  All my daughter wanted to do was eat a salad at Cafe Rio after eating hospital food for a few days.  So we looked up the carbs online and I've got to say THANK YOU to all the businesses who do that because it makes counting the carbs so much easier.  Then we did our little math of 1:8 ratio and checked if she was low or high of her range for correction.  See, look at me, I kind of know what I'm talking about.  Gave her the insulin and bought that much-desired salad.  Oh, she was so happy!  Now we are on this new journey and boy do I have a million questions and many stories to tell.