First thing in the morning when I am hoping to go home with our son but we were whisked off to a room called ‘Diabetes Daycare’ with a room number within the hospital. We were introduced to my sons nurse and my new partner in Diabetes. And by partner I mean lifeline! This brilliant and incredibly patient woman would be the person I would call for advise for months…that turned into years.
Our nurse informed us that Connor was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes (T1D). It was explained as his pancreas was no longer working at full capacity that needles would replace his insulin. ‘Wait! What?’
Remember I had worked the previous day and I had a head cold as well. We had just been up all night worrying about what is going on…and with no sleep our day begins with his diabetes diagnosis and a full 8 hour day of instructions on how to take care of our son.
It is hard to concentrate with their first words being T1D. I couldn’t really hear anything after that for a while. They go through what type 1 is…
The honeymoon phase – occurs when the pancreas is still spewing out its own insulin but has to be supplemented with artificial insulin. They teach you about long term and short term insulins. Long term insulin keeps his blood sugar stable through a 12 hour period. The short term insulin was for when he eats something and needs the extra insulin to process the sugars so it doesn’t take from his body any longer.
There are instructions on how to mix the insulin (long term and short term) within one needle so it minimizes the number of needles required in a day…at some point we had lunch.
We were introduced to a counselor, a new diabetes doctor (endocrinologist) and a nutritionist who we would all become very familiar with over the next 8 years…every three months for clinic appointments and further instructions. We became a team around my son. As his mom, I also had access to these resources 24/7.
It was hard to absorb it all at the time. There was so much information coming our way. My ex was extremely emotional fighting with our new nurse about subsequent appointments that were mandatory to attend.
I didn’t say much. I was still in shock and denial. It was hard to stay strong for my son and my ex…and still listen to what we were being told. My ex eventually broke down in my arms confessing to me that he wanted to just bolt and drop us both in it by ourselves. We were both scared.
I remember looking him straight in the eye and telling him, ‘If you want to bold – GO!’ He quickly realized the severity of the situation was and calmed down. He became very supportive after that.
We got a break at some point in the afternoon where I had met with the counselor who asked if I was OK. I was not! I remember breaking at that point – tired – confused- overwhelmed and we still had to return to our classroom. You could not have had a more supportive, empathetic team of people looking after our entire family.
Funny when you think you cannot do anymore – when it is your child- the one you carried, the one you love you do what you have to. We finally finished our first days lessons at 5 pm and were finally allowed to go home only to have to come back tomorrow for more instructions.
At the end of the first day we were given a list of medical supplies I had to round up for the next days instructions otherwise we could not take our son home. Connor returned to his fathers home to be with his sister.
I took the list to my local drug store. My pharmacists was amazing! She understood that I needed all of the equipment for the next day and I couldn’t really leave until I had it all. I was exhausted and in shock. Our pharmacist looked at me and said, ‘he is going to be fine.’ To which I broke down again completely distraught at what just happened here. It was just what I needed to hear at this point. She empathetically came around the counter to hug me for a minute and assured me it was going to be OK.
I remembered her telling me that they didn’t have the needles I needed for a day or so but she had taken the time to phone a competitor drug store in the area. They were on hold for me there. Angles come in all sorts!
I finally got to go home and cry myself to sleep.