When it rains, it's a freaking hurricane

I think it's safe to say we've had our share of trials this year, but this last week takes the cake. Caidence has had diarrhea for the last three months, not all the time, but pretty frequently. We've had her tested, but they couldn't figure out the problem. Then she had her molar episode. She finally got over that for about a week, but was never quite herself. Extra moody, clingy, basically I figured she's two. And has a new sister.

Last Sunday she started getting extra wet diapers. I didn't think much of it. Then Monday. She'd need to be changed every few hours and be extremely full. A lot of the time she'd soak thru her pants. At first I didn't think it was weird. She was drinking more and her body was probably just playing catch-up from not drinking enough during the molar episode. I woke up in the middle of the night to a puddle. She was in our bed (as usual) and had peed so much that her diaper was soaked, her pajamas, the pillow, the mattress all soaked. My first thought was My daughter has diabetes. I'm not sure why I thought that. I must have heard that somewhere but I can not think of why that crossed my mind. I stripped her down, changed her, put a towel down over the wet spot, and tried to go back to sleep. But then I couldn't sleep with my mind racing. Diabetes doesn't run in our family. It can't be that. What did she drink today? Was it enough to compensate for these wet diapers? She's two! It can't be diabetes! Maybe I should go check the internet. Go back to sleep. You're worrying over nothing. As soon as I was up Tuesday morning I sort of laughed at myself for my middle of the night irrational thoughts. I checked every website just to confirm that I was being crazy. And every website said the same thing. Frequent urination can be a sign of diabetes. But it also said other viruses or infections...We had playgroup Tuesday morning and I talked to the other moms about it. They eased my mind and said that their kids go thru spurts of sudden wet diapers all the time. I grew up with a friend with diabetes and her sister is in my playgroup. She said whenever her kids suddenly pee a lot she worries, checks their blood sugar, and its always nothing. But Caidence wasn't playing this whole time. She just wanted to be held. Finally she asked me to just take her home. More wet diapers all day and night. Wednesday my sister Jami and her family came from Seattle to play for a week. I paid more attention to what she drank. She was constantly asking for a drink. That night I cut off her drinking a few hours before bed to see if she stayed dry thru the night. But I still woke up to a soaked bed. I knew it was not normal, we were leaving for Lake Powell for a week, and at least to ease my mind, I should call the dr. so that we can confirm that she is fine and not have any problems on vacation.

I called her pediatrician first thing Thursday morning and got a recording saying he was on vacation so I could speak to the triage nurse. I told her what was going on and she told me my Dr. was in for a few hours and could see her that morning. I ran and dropped Jordyn off with Zach's mom and went to the dr. We had just been there a week before for immunizations so she was immediately thinking pain. I had to sit her on the toilet and convince a two year old to pee on command. Not happening. But I also knew the catheter was the next step. We sat in that bathroom for a half hour. I sang songs. I turned on the water. She wouldn't pee. I took her back to the room to giver her a break and she peed on the carpet. So I pick her up, run her back to the bathroom, and she sits there and cries and still won't pee. So we sit. And sit. And sit. And eventually she pees! She looked as shocked as I was because she was trying to be stubborn and hold it in and apparently couldn't anymore. We went back to the room to wait while the nurse tested it. She brought her a Popsicle for going to the bathroom, but she was still crying and hadn't eaten it yet when the nurse came back and took it away. She said they found sugar in her urine but they were testing it on another machine, but just to be safe she didn't want to be giving her more sugar. Finally the dr. came in and said they had tested it on three different machines and they all showed sugar in her urine. He wanted us to go straight to Primary Children's for a blood test and to be prepared that if the blood showed the same levels as the urine, be prepared to be hospitalized. At this point I'm crying, the dr. is somber as I've ever seen, the nurse is trying to comfort me. Caidence is asking why mommy's sad. That makes me cry more. I get in the car and try and call Zach but he was on the courts and didn't hear his phone. I called Jami since I was supposed to meet up with her and Jodi to play and tell her I'm on my way to the hospital. She's in nursing school and says she'll have Alex run her up and meet me there since she knows more about it than I do and can help ask the questions I won't think of. Zach calls me while I'm on my way and says he'll meet me there. We get her blood drawn and then wait. And wait. It really wasn't that long but it felt like it. Normal levels are 60-115. She was at 330. I asked the lab what we were supposed to do and they said we could go home until our pediatrician called and told us what he wanted us to do. I stayed there and called him with the results, but by this point he was gone on vacation. I told the triage nurse I was in earlier and he sent us to the hospital and she said she had a note from him. I told her they were trying to send us home so she got us one of his partners. I told the dr. our levels and he told us we were staying. He'd call the endocrinologist and get us a room. Within the hour they admitted her.

When we got to the room, her levels were up to 441. They wanted to run a hemoglobin A1c which shows where her levels have been over the last three months and confirms that it was diabetes and not something else. They held off on insulin that night while they were waiting for the results, but in the middle of the night she was up to 483. They started on insulin that morning. We got the results back later that day and it was confirmed that she had diabetes but we caught it early. The next few days were spent with lots of shots, training for us on what is diabetes? how do we take care of her? and basically an overwhelming amount of information. But as soon as they started on the insulin, Caidence was back. She had her energy and personality and liveliness back. She HATED the needles, the blood pressure cuff, anyone touching her, but who can blame her. As bad as we felt for ourselves for being in that situation, we soon got over it when we walked around the hospital and saw so many other kids in wheelchairs or with IV's and here is our little girl running around and able to eat whatever she wants, as long as we just give her a shot. It will be a huge lifestyle change, but we'll have to learn to manage. They sent in some blood work to see if she also has celiac, but we won't find out until later this week. That poor girl won't be able to eat a thing!

We later found out that diabetes is on Zach's side of the family. Next time I get married, I'm asking for a full family history. (JK Zach. Your dad already told me you're non-returnable.)