Waking up that next day was hard. I wasn’t sure what just happened here. Our lives spun on a dime. This was our new normal. We had spent 36 hours at the hospital the first day…surely this next day would be easier.
My thoughts are now racing – remember this was before all the information age and people sharing what they went through. Besides I hear from the hospital and our doctors and nurses that every case is different. Every person is different. Every family is different. Every dynamic is different.
The fact was my son was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes (T1D) and we were all spending a second day at the hospital learning what we needed to know from now on. I picked up my son and his father and headed to the hospital for 9 am. This was going to be a short day considering your first day was 36 hours.
I remember it was Easter weekend and most of the hospital was closed for the holiday. We didn’t have the crowds and the traffic of the first day. We were placed in a room i the renal section of the hospital, There was another mom and her 16 year old son and another father and his son. I started talking to the other mom – my son was diagnosed yesterday with T1D – Me too! We had a little chat of how our lives were going to about to change. There was a little comfort there…knowing we where not going through this alone.
We were still waiting for our nurse, so I turned and asked the other dad, What was his son and him doing there? The answer took me by surprise and put my sons diagnosis in some perspective…he replied, “My son has had his 25th operation. He finally has a new kidney”.
Suddenly what I was going through was pale in comparison Apparently his eight year old son had been given the new kidney from his mom’s new boyfriend…what a gift!
Just when you think you have it bad – you are reminded it could have been a lot worse. I think the other mom and I both shut up after that. Not to say being a mom of a newly diagnosed T1D kid wasn’t bad – right now it didn’t’ require surgery.