First something you may want to know about The We CARA Lot Blog is that we are Canadian and therefore you may need to convert our BG #'s.
Canadian blood sugar (mmol) conversion: We are Canadian and our blood sugar numbers are measured in mmol's not mg/dl like the USA. So the blood sugar or BG numbers that I give must be X by 18.
for example: Cara's blood sugar when she was admitted into the hospital was 53.2 mmol which is 957.6 mg/dl
OUR STORY:
On February 13th 2009 we realized that diabetes was our new reality. After a month and a half of sickness, a few visits to the doctors office, a course of antibiotics and 4 hours in an E.R. waiting room our 3 year old daughter was diagnosed with type one diabetes.The first thing people say to me when they find out about Cara and diabetes is how did you know that she had diabetes?
The answer that I give is that I did not know!
It took about a month and a half to figure out that there was something really wrong. Maybe it was because she would get sick with the "flu" (so we thought) and then in four days or so she would begin to get better. Just as she was starting to seem better she would get the flu again. Every time that she would get sick a few of our other kids would seem to have the same thing. Cara started taking a little longer to get better and soon she was not getting any better and having very different symptoms then the other children.
The weekend before she was diagnosed she formed a red rash, it looked like a yeast infection. I was socked and a little embarrassed, thinking that it was something that I had done, not bathed her well or not made sure she wiped herself properly after going to the bathroom.
I'm not sure why mothers always seem to blame themselves.
A few days after the rash formed she began peeing A LOT. She was always in the bathroom about 2x's more then normal. So I thought a yest infection + constant urination = bladder infection. Then soon after she was extremely thirsty, always asking for anything to drink, juice, milk, water and Cara never asked for water. She would actually complain about having to drink water normally.
She also had lost a tremendous amount of weight in a very short period of time and that is what scared us the most. We made another doctors appointment for Cara. The doctor finally ordered blood work but told us not to worry and sent us home with a sucker. We had lunch and Cara went down for a nap because she was so tired. When she woke up from her nap she vomited for the third time in about two months. I thought to myself there is no way that she has the flu for the third time in 2 months.
This is when I brought her into the E.R. I was actually scared they were going to think I was crazy for bringing my daughter to the emergency room for a flu. I knew that something else was wrong. As I was getting ready to leave for the E.R., my husband said "it my be diabetes". Four hours later the doctor told me the same thing Cara had type one diabetes. Her blood sugar level was 53.2mmols when she was admitted to the pediatric floor and very sick.
