Mum to newly-diagnosed 7 year old. ARGHHH!!

[Sam_mumtoT1son]

Hi there, I’m Sam 🙂

I took my 7 yr old son to the docs on 5/2/19, his blood sugars were 18, got sent straight to the hospital and came home 3 days later with a diagnosis of type 1 diabetes...

My mind is totally blown!! I’m trying to settle into some sort of new routine, but he can’t go back to school yet (the teachers had a 45 min training session yesterday but aren’t confident to help with blood tests and give insulin - don’t blame them, they haven’t even watched it yet!). And while he seems totally fine with no symptoms at all, his bloods have been down to 3.3 and up as far as 26.6 since we came home (no ketones to speak of). And here I am, trying to make sense of it all when I didn’t even know what a ketone was 10 days ago!! #terrified
Sorry for such a rant for my first post but I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed, supposed to be trying to get back to work too! :-/
Arghh!

 

[SB2015]

Hi Sam, and welcome to the forum that no one wants to need to join. I am glad you have found us, and please feel welcome to rant, moan, scream on here. Plenty of us need that at times.

As well as that there is plenty of help and support for you and your son as you find your way through to your new ‘normal’ life. It is a lot to take on board from the start whatever age you are when diagnosed (I was a late starter at 53), and I am pleased to hear that your son seems fine, which is exactly how he will be once you get sorted with the correct amounts of insuiln for his background and for his meals.

Which insulin’s have they started him on? There are lots of different options and your specialist team will gradually help you both work out what suits him. His insulin needs are likely to be a bit all over the place to start with as his glucose levels settle down. So be patient.

There is a separate part on this forum for parents, and you will find plenty of people there with experience of what you are giong through, and they can direct you to other sources of support. In particular @Bronco Billy and @Sally71 have both helped their children make sense of it all and come to a routine that works, including the return to school.

I have done talks in schools where a pupil has T1 and seen children as young as six managing their own Injections and tests, with a lot of support available if needed. This may seem a long way off but it really will become normal. Children with T1 are able to do all that others do, it just takes a bit more organisation and planning, as it does for any of us with T1.

One book that I found very useful is Type I Diabetes in Children Adolescents and Young Adults by Ragnar Hanas. It explains things very clearly, is a good book for reference that is well indexed. It is regularly updated with the latest technologies, which are developing fast, so well worth getting the latest edition.

Finally remember that there is help available on here. Don’t worry about any questions you have, just ask, and as I said at the start feel free to have a rant too. Keep in touch and let us know how you both get on.

 

[Docb]

Your son is a lucky lad - not for developing T1 diabetes, that's a bummer - but because he has a mum who decides to rant rather than hide and looks like she is going to find out how to deal with it and help him to get back to a new normal ASAP. You will find this place a top resource to get the info to make that happen.

 

[Bronco Billy]

Hi Sam. Welcome to the forum and the 30,000 club. Approximately that many children in the UK have type 1, so you are far from alone. When I read your post, it didn’t sound like a rant to me, just a parent dealing with a massive shock! If you think that’s a rant, you should hear me when I get going. :-o

Today is a day I’ll never forget. Nine years ago this very eve, I sat with my son in the children’s unit at the local hospital waiting for the inevitable diagnosis. I knew what was coming as his sister had been diagnosed a few months earlier. I wasn’t scared as I already had a few months of experience of dealing with it. That’s where I want to start here. Now is the hardest time. Everything is new, your son and you have a totally different lifestyle to get used to and new routines to incorporate into your daily lives. Give it time, and the lifestyle and routines will become second nature to the point where you don’t even notice anymore. I once watched a video that a parent had made detailing what they and their child had to do every day in relation to diabetes. It was a dose of reality for me because it made me realise just how much we do without noticing we are doing it. It had just become normal life.

You son is a similar age to my daughter when she was diagnosed, she was 6. She was in DKA at the time (I bet you hadn’t heard of that 10 days ago either 🙂) She spent just under a week in hospital, including a night in the high dependency unit. She was so ill, we nearly lost her. Now, nearly 10 years later, she’s expected to smash her GCSEs in a couple of months and has already been offered a place at a local college for her A Levels. I’m not saying this to show off (honest guv’) but to show you that your son can still look forward to life and it will be what he makes it. I don’t know if you follow rugby, but there is a chap named Henry Slade who has scored three tries in the last two England matches in the six nations – he has type 1 as well! My son and daughter both swim, my daughter has swum competitively for the local club, and my son is starting taekwondo on Monday. People with type 1 can do everything everyone else does, it just takes a bit more thought and planning.

Bloods being all over the place is quite normal at this stage. He may be in the ‘honeymoon’ period, where his pancreas is still producing a bit of insulin, this will probably be happening at night, which is when the pancreas tends to ‘wake up’ and produce insulin. This is what leads to the lows, as the injection induced insulin is also working. Are you noting his blood glucose levels when you test? If you do this, it will help you and the hospital team see any patterns and you will be able to adjust doses accordingly.

I, too, had the work thing to cope with. When my son was diagnosed, it wasn’t a problem. When my daughter was diagnosed, life was crazy for a few days, but I got through it. Looking back, I’m not sure how, to be honest, but I did. If I can do it, I have no doubt you can.

When your son does return to school, communication between you and the staff will be vital. You will know what is best for him and they should be encouraged to contact you when they are unsure what to do and the care plan doesn’t provide the answers. The link below is a post I made in the ‘Diabetes in School’ section of the forum with some hints and tips about school life. If you have any other questions, please don’t be afraid to ask. No question is too silly.

Good luck, both of you will be fine.

https://forum.diabetes.org.uk/boards/threads/useful-information.75117/