Diabetes Diagnosis: Know the Symptoms, Save a Life

“You have to take him to the emergency room immediately“. That’s what the doctor said when he came back into the room. I didn’t understand. Minutes ago, I had walked in with a healthy toddler, now we were being sent to the hospital. Nothing made sense to me. All I knew was I felt like I was going to be sick.

A couple of days ago, we were on our way home from Grandma and Grandpa’s house. While we were driving I couldn’t stop thinking about something my mother-in-law had said during our visit. She’d made a comment about how much our son had been drinking and suggested he might have diabetes.

I don’t know why, but I felt offended. I remember thinking, “how could she say that about our child? About us as parents?”

He wasn’t even 3 years old. How could he have diabetes? That’s a disease old people get.

I decided to mention it to my husband

“Do you think Jordan could really have diabetes?” I asked, “should we take him to the doctor to get checked out?”

He responded with, “it couldn’t hurt. It’s just a urine test.”

I thought they were both crazy. My son wasn’t drinking too much. He was acting normal. There was nothing wrong with my child. But we went to the doctor anyway because like my husband said, it couldn’t hurt.

When we told the doctor our concerns

He looked at Jordan and said he was likely just an active toddler and nine times out of ten it’s nothing to worry about. He took a urine sample just to be safe and stepped out of the room.

When he came back, I could see something was wrong. He told us Jordan’s urine had tested positive for sugar and that we had to take him to the emergency room immediately.

I felt sick and scared. I was looking for somewhere to throw up. I didn’t know the symptoms of T1D. I didn’t even know there were different types of diabetes. Unhealthy eating and not exercising enough causes diabetes. Don’t they?

My 2 year old can’t have diabetes!

We packed up the kids and headed to the hospital

They did a blood sugar test in the emergency room. Jordan’s blood sugar was off the charts. The machine they were using only went to 30 mmol/L (about 540 mg/dL). All they could tell was that he was higher than that. I was told 4-7 mmol/L is normal.

Even to someone like me, with no prior understanding of the disease, that sounded horrible!

My mind was racing. I was panicking, what were we going to do? Was this going to shorten his life? Had we done something wrong? I mean, sure we let him have treats sometimes but… DIABETES?!

They brought us to the back and gave him an injection of insulin

Since he had never had insulin before, the doctors were not sure how much to give him. They based it on his weight, but that’s a rough guess at best. It didn’t take long to see that it was too much. Within 20 minutes his skin went ghost white and he started shaking in the bed. I was beside myself.

Just standing there, holding our 7 week old baby girl and watching my little boy shake in that giant hospital bed. I felt so helpless, I had no idea what to do or what was happening.

The doctors were prepared and gave him some juice to drink. Once they got him sorted out a bit, we were moved up to the children’s ward. We met a pediatrician, an endocrinologist, a nutritionist, and many nurses. They were all very helpful but it was a whirlwind of information.

Nothing sank in

The first concern I had was that he wouldn’t live a long, healthy life. I could barely get the question out, afraid that somehow letting the words leave my mouth would make it true.

They assured us that when diabetes is managed properly, your life can be as long as someone without diabetes.

I realized that I knew nothing about the lifelong disease my son now had. It was incredibly overwhelming to want to do everything possible for my son but having no idea what to do or where to start.

Looking back, I realize I missed the signs and symptoms

He had started napping more leading up to the diagnosis. Toddlers should transition to fewer naps, not more. But it hadn’t occurred to me. Even when he fell asleep in odd places like in his high chair and on the floor in the middle of the living room.

He was constantly asking for a drink. He was using sippy cups back then. I didn’t notice how often I was giving him drinks. I was preoccupied with his new baby sister.

He was going through more diapers and pull-ups than he should have been. Again, he was my first child and we had a new baby. I simply didn’t notice. Thank goodness his Grandma did.

Because even if I had noticed, I didn’t know the signs and symptoms of T1D

I had never in my life heard about the difference between type 1 and type 2 diabetes. I had no clue what the symptoms were. Maybe if I had heard of the “4 Ts”, read The Babysitter’s Club, known someone who had T1D, maybe I would have noticed.

But maybe I wouldn’t have. So, so many people don’t notice.

Some until it’s too late.

If left undiagnosed, T1D will end in death. 100% of the time. And it still happens far too often.

Which is why it’s important for everyone to know the symptoms of T1D

The main signs and symptoms are the “4 Ts”:

But knowing the symptoms is only half the battle.

Remember how my doctor said it was probably nothing but did the test anyway? We got lucky.

We went in with an idea of what the diagnosis would be and the doctor still tried to brush it off.

All too often, I still see these stories from people.

Many medical professionals do not know the symptoms of T1D

Lots of people don’t ignore the signs and symptoms of T1D. People realize something is wrong and they go to the doctor. Unfortunately, they are often misdiagnosed.

The symptoms of T1D resemble symptoms of several other common things.

Peeing the bed? It’s probably just normal regression or a UTI.

Drinking a lot? Well, the weather is getting warmer, maybe they just need more this time of year because it’s warmer and they’re being more active.

Tired? Growth spurt.

But sometimes, it’s not those things. And a simple finger poke or urine test right in the doctor’s office can confirm it.

T1D is more common than you think. And it can be diagnosed in anyone, at any age. Thankfully, we live in a time with injectable insulin, instead of a time where diabetes meant certain death. But if someone starts exhibiting symptoms and it is not caught in time, they will still die.

We were very lucky that someone close to us knew the symptoms and said something.

💙 Know the symptoms, save a life. 💙

~ Leah