My 15 year old son had been sick for a few
weeks. We initially thought he had food
poisoning because he had eaten something and then got sick - vomiting, couldn't
eat or drink anything without it coming right back up. He started feeling better in a few days.
Then maybe a week later, he got sick
again. We figured it was a stomach bug
or he was milking being sick, because that's what Cooper does sometimes. I knew
for sure he wasn't feeling well when we went to my aunt's house for my mom's
annual breakfast of biscuits & chocolate gravy. Normally, Cooper eats between 6 - 8; he only
ate 2. He wasn't eating much, especially
for Cooper, vomiting occasionally, and sleeping like crazy. When he was awake,
he was really thirsty, which I figured was because he was dehydrated from throwing
up so much.
Sunday night when we were fixing dinner,
Cooper walked in the kitchen to fix his plate.
Typically, he didn't have a shirt on.
As he walked away, I could see all of the vertebrae in his back. It was obvious he had lost a lot of weight. I said something to Kevin, his dad, who was
of the mindset that Cooper was milking being sick. He agreed with me that
something was wrong with him. As we set
down to eat, Cooper told me he wanted me to take him to the hospital. I asked him if he was sure, as I had plans on
taking him to the doctor in the morning.
He said that was fine, as long as I took him first thing.
I called & got him an appointment the
next morning. Cooper was thirsty, so I
stopped & got him 2 containers of apple juice. He drank the first one very quickly on the
way to the doctor's office. While we
were waiting to be called back, he went to throw up about 6 times.
Finally, we were called back. As normal, they weighed & measured
him. He was 5'9" and weighed 116
pounds. I was shocked at his weight -
just the previous summer when I brought him in for his sports physical, he was
158 pounds & in February, he was 148. I knew he had lost weight, but I had
attributed it to him playing football & walking at least 2 miles a day to
catch the bus to & from school.
When Dr. Collins came in, she had asked the
typical questions on why we were there & how he felt. She also called the nurse in to do a blood
sugar check on him. After she examined
Cooper, she checked the blood sugar levels & told me it was 225, which was
too high & she suspected he had diabetes.
She wanted me to take him to the emergency room at Phoenix Children's
Hospital (PCH) right away.
I immediately started crying. I shave a really good friend whose twin
sister had Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) and had just died about 1 1/2 years
earlier. She had always told me how her
sister hadn't taken care of herself when she was younger, which caused all
kinds of problems. She ended up having a
kidney & pancreas transplant, which 'cured' her of T1D, but the damage had
been done & ultimately led to her death.
I did not want to lose my son.
Dr. Collins asked me if I was OK to drive,
or did I want her to call for an ambulance. I told her I'd be OK to drive. She reassured me that Cooper would be OK,
that we just need to get it under control.
She called ahead to PCH so we wouldn't have to wait long in the ER
waiting room.
I called Cooper’s dad & told him what
was going on & asked him to meet us at the hospital. I then called my mom to let her know too.
Once we got to the ER, the longest we had
to wait was in line to get in. It was
probably only about 10 minutes, but it seemed like forever. Cooper felt like he was going to pass out
& get sick all at the same time.
Once we got to see the nurse to check in, they immediately took him to
get his vitals while I was giving them the insurance info. The hospital weighed
him at 114 pounds. He basically had lost
22 pounds in about 2 weeks!! They then
took us back to a room, where they started giving him an IV and took his blood
sugar again. It took a few tries to get the IV in, as he was very dehydrated;
one of his veins blew because of it.
They ended up giving him 2 IVs, one in each arm, which was pretty
painful from what Cooper said. They gave
him something for the nausea, as he had vomited again and kept feeling sick. They were going to admit Cooper to the hospital;
they were just waiting for a bed to open up in the PICU.
After a few hours, they transferred him up
to the PICU on the 9th floor. Every
hour, they would come take his blood sugar to see if it was going down. I remember one reading about 4pm was 275
& the nurse said it was going down. I told her that was higher than this
morning; she informed me it had spiked to over 400 while in the ER.
Cooper was getting really hungry, as he
hadn't eaten since dinner the night before.
Because they hadn't got his sugars under control, and it was shift
change, they hadn’t let him eat. Finally, about 10pm, they let him eat. He had a turkey sandwich, milk, an apple
& an orange, Jell-O and Oreo cookies.
I was shocked about the cookies.
After he ate, I told him I needed to take his dad & sister
home. He was very scared & I asked
him if he wanted me to come back and stay with him. He said yes right away. (I don't know if he
realized I was coming back no matter what.)
It was the longest hour of my life. Kevin talked me into taking a shower before I
went back to the hospital, which probably helped me to relax a little bit. I don't think I've ever seen Cooper more
relieved as when I walked back into his room in the PICU. I slept in the reclining chair next to
Cooper's bed, holding his hand all night.
Neither of us got much sleep - every hour, the nurses came in to check
his blood sugar.
Once his blood sugars came down to a
reasonable level (205 about 8am), they took the one IV out & started giving
him shots of insulin. One nurse taught
him how to check his blood sugar.
The endocrinologist, Dr. McClellan, came in
& confirmed that Cooper has Type 1 Diabetes. He explained they can determine what his
average blood glucose levels (BGL) had been over the last 3 months; it averaged
in the 400s. Cooper had been in Diabetic Ketoacidosis, DKA, which can be deadly (it can lead to diabetic coma). The doctor said if we had waited any longer,
Cooper could have died. He explained
that Cooper would have to check his blood sugars multiple times a day and give
himself shots of insulin to keep his blood sugar under control.
A diabetes educator came in to talk to
Cooper. She explained what happens when
a person has Type 1 diabetes & how to live with it. She made it very clear to Cooper that this
disease will NOT prevent him from doing anything he wants to. She also provided him a list of very famous
people living with Type 1 Diabetes, which includes professional athletes,
musicians and actors. I was impressed
that he knew some of the people on the list; I only knew of one before looking
at the list: Bret Michaels (I’m a huge Poison fan).
After about 1 1/2 days in the PICU, Cooper
was moved to room on the diabetes floor.
Here is where our education began on how to calculate how much insulin
Cooper had to have to correct for his blood sugar & how many carbohydrates
he eats. He needs to check his blood
sugar at least 4 times a day: once when waking, before meals and at
bedtime. He can check more than that,
but he must do at least 4 times. If his blood sugar is high, he has to correct
for it using a formula and injecting the fast acting insulin. Each time he eats carbs, he has to calculate
how many carbs he eats and use a formula to figure out how much of the fast
acting insulin he has to take to cover the carbs. He also has to take a long acting insulin,
which helps regulate his BGL throughout the day.
After we learned the calculations, it was
time to learn how to do the injections.
I think we were all nervous; Kevin said he wasn't, but I could tell he
was. I was very nervous about giving Cooper
a shot - I had never done something like that before to anyone and I was afraid
of hurting him. The hospital gave Cooper
a backpack from JDRF, which included a teddy bear so we could practice giving
injections. They also gave us saline
solution & needles, so we could learn how to draw up the insulin
correctly. I was so proud of Cooper the
first time he gave himself insulin. The
nurse then had Kevin and I give him injections of saline so we knew what we
were doing before we went home. Cooper's
sister, Jolene, was and still is very nervous about the injections &
refuses to learn how to give him a shot.
During this time, my oldest son, Tyler, who
is in the Army & was stationed in Kansas, called me very upset and worried
about his little brother. He accused me
of making Cooper sick because I "let him eat junk food" & told me
he was going to call CPS on me. I told him he didn't get T1D from what he ate,
which Tyler promptly told me I was wrong. I told him he needed to get his facts
straight & when he could talk to me
without yelling and threatening me, he could call me back. Unfortunately, Cooper overheard the
conversation & was very mad at his brother for talking to me the way he
had.
The second night in the hospital, Cooper
said he was OK to stay by himself. I
felt so guilty leaving him & I kept telling him if he wanted me to come
back, I would and that I'd be there first thing in the morning. He called me, but didn't ask me to come
back. He, however, wanted me to get
there right away the next morning, and called me pretty early asking where I
was.
The third day, we went over more education
information & we received a handbook that has a lot of good information in
it. All of us had to know how to adjust
for his BGL and carb intake and answer basic questions before the hospital
would allow me to take Cooper home. I
was trying to learn all this very important information while my mom & a
friend were visiting Cooper & telling him he can't eat carbs, which is
completely wrong. More on that later....
Well, they finally discharged Cooper around
6pm on the third day & I got to take him home. His dad had gone to get pizza & wings for
dinner. Needless to say, I was very
nervous about getting the carb intake correct & the BGLs corrected. Cooper figured it out & I double checked
him. It worked out OK. We survived the first night.
I wish to God I would have known the
symptoms of Type 1 Diabetes before Cooper got sick. Dr. Collins & Dr. McClellan both told me
there was nothing I could have done to prevent Cooper from getting Type 1 and
there was no way for me to know this is what he had, since the symptoms are
common with other illnesses. As with
Cooper, it can go undiagnosed early on because the symptoms can be mistaken for
other illnesses, like the flu. However,
the more research I've done, the more I want people to know what the symptoms
are so they can be pro-active if their children (or themselves) have the
symptoms. Knowing the warning signs of
type 1 diabetes can help save lives.
- Extreme
thirst
- Frequent
urination
- Drowsiness
and lethargy
- Sugar
in urine
- Sudden
vision changes
- Increased
appetite
- Sudden
weight loss
- Fruity,
sweet, or wine-like odor on breath
- Heavy,
labored breathing
- Stupor
or unconsciousness
If you notice one or more of these
symptoms, call your doctor immediately. Have
your doctor let you know what's going on, but make sure you go to the doctor
right away - it could save a life.
For more information, on Type 1 Diabetes,
please visit JDFR or the American Diabetes Association websites. They have great information.
