I was diagnosed with T1D when I was 8 years old and in 3rd grade. The day after Christmas, my mom took me to the pediatrician’s office because I was complaining that I wasn’t feeling good all week and keep in mind, up until this day I have been to countless doctors’ appointments; counselors for anxiety, eye doctors who gave me glasses, ENT, cardiologist who checked my heart, neurologist to check for bigger issues because of the dizziness, I had an MRI, and we spoke to the pediatrician a few months before diagnosis because I always felt “off”. I’ve done this since I was young because every day I felt like crud. I felt awful every day. I would wake up green, dizzy and nauseated. My mom asked multiple doctors if this could be type one diabetes, and so did my dad…. they all said we would see different signs. I had every sign, and my mom went over the headaches and nausea with all of them.
The doctor I saw that morning after Christmas had checked my urine and found out my sugar in my urine was 1,000. My finger prick was 558 for my blood sugar. They sent me to the emergency room saying that I would have an IV and be treated within 20 min. Guess what? Yup, that’s right. 2 HOURS LATER, I’m still sitting in the Emergency room, no IV, and no doctors came in to check on me. My dad went and got someone and was telling them this was supposed to be urgent, and then came in and did an IV and drew my blood. Then, after about another hour of being in there, they come to us and said, “Sorry, we don’t treat children.”, my blood sugar is now down to 333 but not low enough, she needs to go to the Children’s hospital. which made my parents FURIOUS. Everyone was exhausted, starving, and we just wanted to go home. Seriously, think about it; the only thing we’ve had to eat all day was breakfast-which for me was a bagel in the car to the pediatrician’s office-and all we’ve had to eat other than that were ice chips the hospital gave out. So, after they tell us we need to leave, we could either take an ambulance or drive. My mom chose to drive me so I wouldn’t be more scared. We signed a waver and the doctors did a wrap on my arm to keep the IV clean and in place, and we leave for the Children’s Hospital. They bring me in, and it’s like an hour wait. Which again, was not supposed to be a wait. Which I am sitting there with an IV in my arm, I’m in a hospital gown, tired and feel awful….yet again. I still can’t eat and I am bored on top of all the nerves.
I finally get in a room in the ER, not a room designated room on a floor like we thought. They turn on the TV and bring in a nurse to flush out the IV and to to draw my blood. When they drew my blood, they had to flush it first and push it back into my body, right after they did that they drew it, making ME angry as it was cold and kinda hurt, and I started screaming and kicking away the nurses that were holding down my feet, like I did when the previous hospital had to restrain me to get the IV in. I was horrible with needles, hated them! After they finished running all the tests, they said they were waiting on the A1C… well, that is another story….
They gave us the option of spending the night in the hospital, but I opted to go home. But before they sent me home, they tried to give me insulin. My dad, being a diabetic, said no because my blood sugar was in range, and if they did give me 3 units of inulin my blood sugar would crash and possibly knock me out. I go home, sleep, wake up constantly throughout the night because I had to agree to do finger pricks every two hours in order to be released. One of the worst parts was the next day when I had to wake up 5 AM, and I had an all-day-long “School” at the Hospital because I needed to learn about my diabetes.
