Otherwise known as Samuels diabetic birthday. Samuel is like the queen, he has two birthdays. One is in October, which celebrates e day of his birth, and the other, the one you could live without is 15th March. This is the day, two years ago that diabetes decided to knock on our door, and enter our lives, the most unwelcome houseguest to ever arrive. For once diabetes has come through the door, it lays down it's roots and never leaves.
I remember the day he was diagnosed as if it were yesterday. It was a Sunday, and in the afternoon Samuel had been hounding me for a drink. This was more apparent after we had had our Sunday roast, he hadn't even finished his drink and he was asking for another one. As my husband (Scott) has type 1 diabetes I knew that excessive thirst was a symptom, so I mentioned it to Scott and he said that he hadn't really noticed.
As the evening went on I became more bothered by it so Scott said to check, we had the urine sticks and it would put my mind at rest. So the next time Samuel went to the toilet I got him to wee on a stick. The result was instant, and I knew straight away. I showed it to Scott, the reading was in the 20s. We then got out the blood glucose monitor and tested Samuels blood, the machine was flashing HI, this meant that it was in the 30s and was too high for the machine to read. We both knew what this meant, our four year old son was diabetic.
As we have three other children and at this time the youngest was only seven months old, we needed to find a babysitter whilst we took Samuel to the hospital. That was a mission in itself. We had no house phone so had to use our mobiles but the orange network was down. So I was running round the neighbours to try and find someone who was in, with a phone that I could borrow.
I called my dad, and he came over and took charge. Scott and I were initially going to drive Samuel to the hospital ourselves, but my dad called an ambulance. The first response car came out, and once again tested Samuels blood, by this time though, Samuel was having none of it!! He was screaming and crying, it was heartbreaking. Again, the machine was reading HI so an ambulance was called.
Scott went with Samuel whilst I followed in the car with the baby. Throughout the drive all I could think of was my poor boy, I felt physically sick and thought why did my boy have to get it. Anyway, we arrived, and the time we were there (6 hours) went SLOWLY. We went up to a ward, and they ran some blood tests. We were eventually told to go home, and return at 8:00 am so that they could see what his levels were on waking, before eating breakfast.
On the Monday morning that's what we did. I arranged for my friend to take the children to school, and my mum was going to collect them. We spent another 4 hours at the hospital, and after we were again sent home. This time we were given a monitor and told to test before each meal, two hours after each meal and before bed. We were told to return on Wednesday. I remember feeling quite upset at the hospital, as once they knew that Scott was diabetic they ignored me and only talked to him. One nurse said to me that it must be reassuring to already have a diabetic in the house. I remember looking at her straight in the eyes and informing her that Scott was the worst diabetic you would ever meet, as he doesn't look after himself at all!!
Wednesday arrived and we were back at the hospital and we finally found out what insulin samuel was going to be on.
We went back on the Thursday for our training, and the diabetic nurse came out to the house on the Friday. By the end of the day my head was spinning with all the information, and I already had an understanding of the condition.
In the early days it was all to easy to feel sad and upset. Scott, I know blames himself for Samuels diabetes, that it is his fault, that he somehow gave it to him.
However, we celebrate Samuels diabetic birthday. This year Samuel told his teacher, the dinner ladies, actually anyone that would listen. He wanted to take sweets in for his class, so he did. Well it was his birthday!!! We went to McDonalds for tea, Samuels choice, and the children had ice cream with chocolate I. It!
The way I see it, and I know that not everyone thinks like me, I won't allow diabetes to beat us, or to bring us down. I won't let it consume my every waking hour, for one I have three other children to look after, and two, it takes up too much energy and negative emotion to dwell on it.
Obviously I have bad days, and so does Samuel. There are days when he asks why he has to be diabetic, and if I could take it away from him, I would, I would do it in a heartbeat. But I can't, and so embrace diabetes and all that it brings, and we accept that this is what our life is now. However, along with the acceptance there is a warning.......
Diabetes..... You will NEVER win, you are NOT a welcome visitor, which actually is the wrong word, visitors leave! We WILL tolerate you, and we CAN live side by side. You will NOT take him from me. All I ask is that you please play nice, and play by the rules, at least MOST of the time, as I know it will never play nice ALL of the time.
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