Melissas Kays Story
As told by her mother:
The week before my beautiful, 8 year old, blue-eyed daughter, Melissa Kay, was diagnosed, my husbands 2 year old grand daughter was staying with us. One night, Melissa came into our room and told me Logan had wet the bed. I went to change her and found Logan was dry. My 8 year old daughter who never even wet the bed when going through potty training, had wet the bed! She had been so thirsty lately and drinking so much. No wonder she had wet the bed!
A thought that entered my mind several times during the week prior to diagnoses was "this is a sign of diabetes". (I don't even know how I knew what the signs were!) It never really entered my mind that something was REALLY wrong until the night before diagnoses.
It was Melissa's friends birthday. She had came home from school with her and I had made birthday cup cakes. Melissa ate two.
That night for dinner, we went to my sister's house for dinner. Yumm, our favorite! Brownies with ice cream and hot fudge for dessert!
No sleep was to be found that night. If she was not drinking, she was urinating! If she wasn't urinating, she was drinking. If she wasn't doing either one, she was crying because she had to! I knew then, something is wrong!
The next day, my sister-in-law recommended a family doctor to us, as we were new in town. I called for an appointment and was told no appointments were available. I told them that if I could not get in today, I was taking her to the emergency quick care center. They offered for the nurse practioner to see her. So, we went to our 3:00 appointment, 3 1/2 hours after lunch.
The nurse practioner noted our symptoms, took a urine sample and a blood reading on a sugar monitor and then left the room, only to shortly return and tell us the doctor had a cancellation and would see us in a moment. That was when I knew that something was indeed wrong. There hadn't been a cancellation, she just didn't want to tell us the bad news.
So, our new doctor entered the room. With Melissa on my lap, he told us. "Melissa is an insulin dependent diabetic. Her blood sugar is 480. We need to get her addmitted to the hospital as soon as possible so we may get her started on insulin immediately."
Melissa and I had discussed the possiblity of diabetes the night before. She was concerned about having to take shots if she was. I told her not to worry. Her Grandma Ruby had diabetes for many years before she ever had to start taking shots. If she did have diabetes, they would just give her pills like they did her Grandma. (What did I know!)
Melissa's initial reaction to the news that she had diabetes was that I had lied to her. She cried that I told her she wouldn't have to have shots and she did!
We left the doctor's office to go home and pack our bag. Her dad was at home when we got there and did not at first believe or rather didn't want to believe what I was telling him. His way to handle the news was denial. "The doctors are wrong."
When we arrived at the hospital, the addmission office was ready for us and said her doctor was all ready there asking for her. So began our crash coarse in diabetes!
Now, going on two years later, we are pretty much experts on the subject (or are striving to be). We have come to realize that diabetes is not the end of the world. We CAN handle it. We WILL survive it.
Debbies story,
Hello
I am a type one diabetic for over 37 years now. I have had this condition since age 10.
I read some of the stories on your web site and wanted to ad mine.
I too have had reactions, wrecked cars while driving and even been picked up by the police because of insulin reactions.
In all these years of being diabetic I have learned to handle it.
The thing that bothers me the most about it is that when I became a diabetic over 37 years ago. I was told a cure was "just around the corner." I sit and wonder the corner of what??? It appears as though the world puts all their time and effort into the care of diabetes. Not the cure for it. This is very frustrating to me.
about 5 years ago I became legally blind because of this condition. I am working age and have been unemployed ever since.
I am now single and live alone and insulin reactions scare me to death. I try to keep my blood sugar high at night so that I won't have one because there is no one here to help me if I do. So far it's worked out pretty good.
The stories I read on your sight are great. I enjoyed them. Diabetes needs a cure, not more care.
