The EFC Life: Happy 5th Diaversary, Paul!

Hi, EFC Readers!

Today we celebrate my oldest son. Five years ago today his life changed, his normal changed, our normal changed.

A little over five years ago, we started noticing some changes in our son. He was becoming a bit moody and not as happy as he had been. (He was always a smiling, happy kid.) But he was 6 years old, so we didn’t think too much about it. Just before Christmas 2014, he had a double ear infection. Then the stomach bug hit our house, and shortly after Christmas Paul was throwing up and just not feeling well. When he went back to school after the new year, his school nurse called us and mentioned that he had been to her office quite a few times complaining of thirst, not feeling well, and having to go to the bathroom a lot. So I made an appointment with his pediatrician for the end of that week, but we never made it to that appointment.

The night before his appointment, Paul woke up, came downstairs, and begged us for juice. Begged. We offered him water, but he just wanted juice. He was so thirsty and shaking/shivering, and he just didn’t look good. We also noticed how skinny he looked. So we weighed him, and he had lost 10 pounds since his ear infection a few weeks before. There was no question about it, he had to go to the emergency room. So off my husband and son went while I stayed home with our other two children. Waiting to hear from my husband about what was going on was so hard. I can’t tell you how many thoughts were racing through my mind. Then the call came after midnight. My husband and Paul were going by ambulance to the children’s hospital.

My son–the one who was afraid of shots, the one who chose apples and carrots for snacks, the one who didn’t like chocolate or french fries–had Type 1 Diabetes. His blood sugar was well over 900, but we were told that we caught it early, that in another day or so he would have probably been in a diabetic ketoacidosis coma.

I took a deep breath and said to my husband, “This is our new normal.” We couldn’t change it, we couldn’t have prevented it, all we could do was move forward. We had to be there for Paul. It wasn’t his fault. It wasn’t our fault. Paul did nothing to cause this. And now he would have to live with this disease for the rest of his life. I wanted to make it as easy and normal for him as we could. This outlook was confirmed by the educators and doctors at the hospital. They told us to get him back to as normal a life and schedule as we could. And that’s what we did. We had a crash course in diabetes care and management over the next 4 days in the hospital. We learned about nutrition, carbohydrates, insulin, insulin injections, blood sugar ranges, highs and lows, and so many other things. And my son took it like a champ.

Paul went back to school the day after he was discharged from the hospital. I can’t tell you how wonderful his school nurse was. I knew he was in good hands, even though I worried about him constantly. She did a presentation for his class, and Paul helped explain everything. He learned so much over those few days in the hospital. He was able to demonstrate testing his blood sugar, and the nurse explained about his insulin and how his blood sugar levels affected the way he felt.

Over the last five years, he has pricked his finger countless times, has had many insulin injections, and has learned to manage his Type 1 Diabetes. We have also been managing his diabetes, taking him to doctor appointments, getting up every night to check his sugar, teaching him how to count carbs, calculate his insulin dose, and draw up the shots.

Today, he gives himself at least 6 insulin injections a day–some days it is more. He wears a continuous glucose monitor, which means no more finger pricks for the most part. Over the summer he made it to the top of the warped wall in his Ninja class. He plays guitar and saxophone. He loves to swim and bike and build LEGOs. He is living his best normal as a Type 1 Diabetic.

Tonight, we are going out to dinner to celebrate. Yes, we are celebrating the anniversary of his diabetes diagnosis. We are not celebrating the autoimmune disease. We are celebrating Paul’s strength, courage, perseverance, and resilience. We are celebrating him.

Happy Diaversary, Paul!

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** This post first appeared on Every Free Chance Books (everyfreechance.com) on January 9, 2020.