It's Been 5 Years Since My Son was Diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes

This summer my son hit a milestone. It’s been 5 years since he was in DKA (Diabetic Keto Acidosis) and diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes (T1D). And guess what, he’s doing wonderfully now.It honestly wasn’t always this way. This has been a hard disease to manage. Once we got the hang of everything, my son went into puberty, which threw everything out of whack. There were so many days and nights that things went wrong. I would wake up to check his blood sugar at 1 AM or 3AM just about every night. There were so many nights where I would check his blood sugar and see that it was going down — and I’d have to literally open a juice box and shove the tiny straw into his mouth. Nights I would have to prick his finger to take his blood sugar. There were very scary nights when I couldn’t keep his blood sugar up. There were nights where we’d have to change medical devices. There were nights where I had to interrupt his sleep.
I tried to handle most of it myself, while letting him sleep. He’d have no clue the battles I would fight for him at night, but taking care of a child with a chronic disease is often without thanks. My health suffered. My sleep suffered, but my son suffered much more than I did. I was glad to do anything to help him. It’s Been 5 Years Since My Son was Diagnosed with T1D.

Diabetes Tech is Great, but Expensive!

My son wears a Dexcom Continuous Glucose Monitor, which has absolutely helped to keep him alive. We can know what his blood sugar is at any time and it helps us to know if he needs to treat a low blood sugar or give him insulin to bring down a high blood sugar. Frankly, I don’t know what we would have done without his Dexcom. Even though we spent a lot of money on diabetes tech and supplies that isn’t covered by insurance, we consider it worth it.

Turning Point:

After the great fight during the pandemic, when I finally got burned out, things did get better. But I was still the default judgement maker. However, things really got better this year. My son really grew up this past school year. As he approaches 17 at the end of September, a lot has changed. He changed schools last September and started really succeeding. He gained more confidence and was so much happier. He did much better in school. He matured. It’s been wonderful to see. Along with that, he started managing his Type 1 Diabetes more. For once, I wasn’t on first name basis with the school nurse. I didn’t have to call the school and ask that they have him treat his low or high blood sugar. He did an off-site internship one day a week (in 3 different locations). And then this summer, he went off to 6 weeks of summer camp and then took a 7 day trip with my in-laws to Cape Cod. He did beautifully. I was able to relax. I still followed along watching his blood sugar on the Dexcom app, but except for a couple of times, I didn’t call the camp or text him. I needed to see if he could manage his Type 1 Diabetes without me and he did!

What That Means
What this means is that he could go away to college in two years and thrive. Before this past school year, okay, I admit before this past June, I was so worried about him going away for sleepaway camp and college. We switched to a new version of the Omnipod Insulin Pump that he uses and this version is so much better. When it’s in automatic mode, it doesn’t let him go as low as the manual version did. Also, it will give him insulin when his blood sugar gets too high. While it’s not perfect, except for a handful of times, my son hasn’t dipped as dangerously low or high. I know my son will never worry about his blood sugar levels like I do (I got a little obsessed), but he takes pretty good care of himself now. And yes, the fact that I did give him a small financial incentive to keep in a good range this summer helped. But the fact is, he’s come a long way. I can’t believe it’s been 5 years since my son was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. It’s Been 5 Years Since My Son was Diagnosed with T1D. It’s Been 5 Years Since My Son was Diagnosed with T1D.

If your child or relative has been diagnosed recently with Type 1 Diabetes, this post may help. My emails are always open to families with a child with Type 1 Diabetes — please get in touch – themamamaven AT Gmail.com