[prydey]

So.... earlier on i mentioned about my 16yr old daughter being T1D. I have 2 daughters, the other being 8.

Long story short, both my girls are now Type 1 Diabetic. What a lovely xmas present for the 8yr old.

Wed 21st dec, I'm at work and got a call from the wife to say she just checked Chels (the 8 yr old) BGL and her level was up slightly. waited a couple more hours to make sure it wasn't being influenced by anything recently eaten and checked again and it was quite high so straight to hospital. i was home by this stage. Docs did some tests but everyone pretty much knew what we were dealing with.

Often we are told that onset is abrupt, which is kind of true, but to people like us who have been paranoid about any symptoms ever since our eldest got it, there are little pointers that can be picked up and help with early diagnosis. Chels had been a bit thirstier than normal over the last few days (but it was hotter as well, so pretty normal to drink more) and getting up every night to go to the toilet, which again, wasn't uncommon, but it was becoming every night, rather than just every now and then. Her behaviour had also deteriorated, becoming quite short tempered and unruly and rude, esp when tired. The morning of the 21st was the first time she complained of feeling nauseous and combined with all these other little signs, and the fact that she was extra unruly my wife, on instinct, decided to check her blood sugar. due to already having a T1D person in the house, we have all the stuff necessary to check.

i would just like to say at this point, to all parents out there, trust your instincts. they are almost always right. as parents, you know your kids better than anyone, and you just know when something isn't right.

So, Chels still needed to spend a day with a drip in both arms to sort out her levels. even though we picked it up pretty early her blood had started to go acidic (ketoacidosis) and that had to be sorted first. By friday lunchtime we were back home. being experienced at dealing with it, the docs were all happy to send her home after only a day of observing her new regime. Currently she is on 4 injections a day, 1 for each main meal of one type of insulin, and 1 long lasting insulin each night. Poor kid starting to look like a pin cushion. hopefully within a month or 2 she will be on a pump. that should make things much easier for her.

so, there you go. at least it is very manageable these days, and as her older sister has proven, it doesn't have to hold you back at all. (she's straight A's, yr 10! yes i'm a proud dad!)