The death of a Pancreas....Part 1

March 21st, 2012

My son hadn't been "right" for at least a month or two. He came down with a virus, was sick for about a week but then got better. Seems after this virus, he just wasn't quite the same. He didn't have as much energy as he always once had. Seemed to tire more easily. I chalked it up to him having that virus and was still getting over it. He plays soccer and at this time was playing a lot of double header games. He would play 2 games back to back. We would get home and he would just want to lay on the couch. He had a lot of headaches back then and lost his appetite. Still wasn't thinking anything was truly wrong. I had taken spring break off work and spent the week with my son, we just did a "staycation" and mostly hung around the house. I remember sitting in the rocking chair playing a baseball game with him on the Wii. I watched my son run to the bathroom numerous times. I remember him taking a shower one day and yelling for me to come to the bathroom. I open the door, and while my son was in the shower, he's crying that he is so thirsty. I go and get him some water and take it to him. Still, not thinking to much of it. He had a Dr. Appt with his Urologist, just his routine 6 month check up. While seeing this Dr. she looked at my son and says to me "he looks dehydrated" "his eyes and cheeks are a little sunken in". I was enraged. My son is NOT dehydrated I think to myself. All this boy does is drink water, how dare you say something like that to me. I remember being so angry with her for saying something so ridiculous to me. Not my son, no way is he dehydrated, where did you get your training, out of a cracker jack box?
Still nothing is too much of a concern to me at this point. I'm still thinking, "Virus" he is still just getting over this "Virus". We go home, try to get him to eat something, all I get is "mom, I'm not hungry". Okay, well lets get you some rest. Off to bed he goes, off to bed I go. The next morning, he is up before me and I hear him in the living room playing his Wii. I get up, go to the kitchen and notice a brand new bottle of Cranberry Juice sitting on the counter....EMPTY. Michael, I call out, did you just drink this entire bottle of juice this morning? "I was thirsty Mom and it tasted good!" Michael, you know you cant drink that much juice honey. What would you like for breakfast? "Not hungry mom". Uggghhhh.... Well evening time comes and I think I have a trick up my sleeve to make my child eat. "Michael, how about we go get you a McDonalds for dinner? Double Cheeseburger and some fries". "No, not really hungry mom". Well THAT did it. MY SON refusing Mc Donalds, something surely must be wrong. "That's it Michael, we are going to the Dr in the morning". I called his Dr first thing in the morning and got him in at 10:00 am.
Here we sit, at Dr. Cannon's office in the little room with blue walls and baseball bat bordering the walls. Here comes the nurse. "So what are we seeing you for today". So I begin to tell her. Well, he just isn't "right". He's not hungry, he's tired all the time, drinks continuously, is soaking the bed at night, and I mean soaking the bed. Something just seems off, I tell her, I think he has that Virus again. I tell her, "yesterday the boy drank an entire bottle of cranberry juice before I even got up!". She looks at me and my son and says "I'm going to get a urine sample, so Michael can you go and pee in a cup for me and leave it in the bathroom?" She then looks at me and says " I just want to see if there is any sugar in his urine". I started to laugh and said to her "Oh, your going to see lots of sugar in his urine, he drank a huge bottle of juice yesterday morning". I had not clue why she would be checking for sugar.
So off to the bathroom my son goes, pees in a cup, and comes back to the room. We wait about 5 minutes, if that and the nurse returns. She says, "okay, so he has some sugar in his urine so I want to test his blood for sugar as well". Again, I say to her, of course there was sugar in his urine, I told you he drank a huge bottle of juice". Iam still not registering anything that she is doing or why she is testing his urine and blood for sugar.
So here is the nurse, she pokes my babies finger, put the blood on (what I now know is a test strip and meter), looks at the meter and immediately walks out of the room. Less than 1 minute later Dr. Cannon walks in. He looks at me and my son and says those horrifying words. "I believe you have Diabetes".