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Newly diagnosed siblings

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Stacey02

New Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Parent of person with diabetes
Hello,

My 15yo son was diagnosed on April 4th with Type 1. He was on a school ski trip to Austria at the time, and had gone into DKA- lost 6 kilos overnight and was very poorly. My husband flew out within 24 hours to be with him, as he wasn't able to travel back with school. They returned 3 days later than planned with a medical escort.

I had actually been observing my younger son, who is nearly 8, as I'd noticed he was drinking and urinating an excessive amount. I wasn't initially too worried about the 15yo's diagnosis, as ironically I work with diabetic children. The main concern was how ill he was, and that he was in another country.

The day they were due back, I took youngest to the GP with my concerns. He was tested- 26.2! We went straight to the local children's ward, and were there to greet my eldest and husband when they returned. We were the marvel of the ward- none of the staff could believe brothers had been diagnosed in the same week, even the consultant had never come across it!


We also have a daughter aged 12 who was tested the same day but is thankfully fine.

We're now a month in and coping- I think. Small has been having loads of hypos at school, but today has for the first time had a day with none. He's awaiting assessment for ASD, so I was really worried about his ability to cope with the injections due to his sensory issues. He's been amazing and proved us all wrong. Eldest I was never worried about- he is super clever and going to be a doctor. They are both clearly very tough and brave, and I couldn't be prouder of them.

It's been a difficult month, there have been times I thought I was losing my mind. I've likened the constant carb counting/insulin/testing routine to having newborn twins. You've just done it and then it's time to start again! Last week we were told we no longer needed to test throughout the night, so we're starting to feel a bit more human with more sleep.

Anyway just wanted to say hi and maybe chat to others who've experienced similar. I'm getting through it all with some very black humour!
 
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Hello @Stacey02 welcome to the forum, Wow your family has sure been on a roller coaster ride, you must have been beside yourself with worry having your two boys dx in the same week with the eldest so far away from you.
Feel free to ask questions we’ll do our best to help. We have quite a few parents who have youngsters with T1 so your in good company here they really understand what you go through.
 
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Good grief @Stacey02 !! That is some story! Welcome to the forum, lots of people on here with experience and knowledge of diabetes. It sounds like you are managing so well already. It must have been such a shock when you eldest was diagnosed in Austria, then to have your youngest diagnosed in the same week, Wow! Lucky that you work with diabetic children so have experience, that must have helped you to cope in this first month.

You are in the right place if you have any questions, and plenty of people here whenever you just want a chat x
 
Welcome to the forum, wow what a shock for you to have both diagnosed in the space of a week. I can't imagine how scary it was to receive the news of your child being so ill in Austria. You will get loads of support from type 1 and parents of type 1 on here.
 
What a shocker hope your boys are doing well. Sounds like they have fantastic support from you both. The forum is great support and give fantastic advice so ask away no question to big or small. Or just rant let off steam. Always someone listening and ready to help.
 
Hello and welcome @Stacey02 , glad you found us so soon 🙂

I'm sorry to hear about the diagnosis of both your boys in the same week, what an awful lot to cope with. I hope things are starting to settle down for you all.

There is an excellent book we recommend on here, Ragnar Hanas 'Type 1 diabetes in Children, Adolescents and Young Adults' it is well worth the money for a reference book whatever your age and covers so much about living with T1. It is updated from time to time so if you order make sure you get the most recent edition.

There are some excellent pages on the Diabetes UK site for children and teenagers https://www.diabetes.org.uk/Guide-to-diabetes/Your-child-and-diabetes and also on the JDRF site https://jdrf.org.uk/information-support/

Carbs and Cals is a really useful app or book to work out carb contenets of meals.

It is a very steep learning curve but the technology around now is excellent for managing things and getting good control. Things do start to fall into place and make sense with time and practice.

Please let us know of any questions you have or if you just need to let off some steam about the situation. There is a wealth of experience and great support on here and we all 'get' diabetes.

I wish you all well 🙂
 
Wow - what a month you have had! You must be exhausted. Glad you are all beginning to have some sleep! Welcome to the forum 🙂
 
Hi and welcome to the forum 🙂
Wow! Talk about it never rains it pours! I hope your boys are doing OK, you sound like you're all doing well and working in the field you will have good knowledge 🙂
 
Thank you everyone for the very supportive welcome. I'm feeling more positive about it every day. With my 15yo I was almost a bit complacent when I got the news because I thought oh I know how to deal with diabetes. It is COMPLETELY different dealing with it 24/7 from diagnosis to seeing well children at school twice a day! I'm learning a lot. Happily my older boy had just been on another school trip to Iceland, which went really well. He so needed that experience after the horror of becoming ill on the other trip.

Quick question- what is a libre? Is it a pump? None of my kids at school have one. Thanks in advance and lovely to "meet" you all 🙂
 
Welcome Stacey. What a week.
I use a libre which is small sensor I wear on arm. It reads my glucose level every minute and stores an average over 15 min. Eight hours of data are held in the sensor. I can get this data by using my reader which then shows me my current reading, the direction in which my glucose is going (rising or falling) and how quickly. Finally it also shows a graph of the levels over the last eight hours. Magic for checking overnight, and for everything really. Not a CGM but a good cheaper alternative (£50/month) and in some areas available on NHS!!
 
Oh my.. what a situation.
Tiny bit of help I can give, the Libre isn't a pump.. it is an indicator of blood glucose, you scan a sensor with a reader and it gives an instant result without finger jabs. It doesn't read actual bg levels though.
Pluses and minuses to the system, personally, the pluses go a lot further than the minuses.
 
The tiny bit of help I can give..
Wasn't supposed to read like Yoda.. sorry!
 
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