Fruity breath. Frequent need to urinate. Constant thirst. Before my son was diagnosed I didn’t know the signs of diabetes. I vividly remember the day when I learned what they were.
I was sitting in the doctor’s office. It was a room that I had sat in many times before but this time was different. My son was laying lifelessly in my arms. I was terrified.
We had been to the hospital for bloodwork and x-rays. He hadn’t stirred. I looked across the room and saw a poster that had probably been there for the past 10 years or more, but I had never noticed it.
It showed all of the signs of diabetes. I have never paid attention before. It was a disease that happened to other people…until it didn’t.
As I waited I read that the signs of diabetes included….
Frequent need to urinate
While he was too young and weak to tell me, he was definitely peeing a lot.
My son had been soaking his diapers for weeks. We were going through Pampers in record time and I had blankets on my couch because accidents were happening so frequently.
Constant thirst
We had been to the emergency room in the days before and they said that it was a good sign that he was drinking. Under normal circumstances perhaps, but nothing about our situation was normal.
No matter how weak my son was, he could walk to the fridge and drink a carton of apple juice. The hospital assured me that this was a positive thing when I questioned his behaviour.
Blurred vision
My son was 2 years old. He spent most of his time in my arms. I had no idea if his vision was blurred. He had no way to tell me either.
As he aged however, we learned that it was a waste of time to have his eyes checked if his blood sugar was high. There were many appointments where he couldn’t see the letters…until he was back in range.
Fatigue
My son slept all of the time. He was sick. I knew that much. I assumed that sleep was a good thing for a little boy who wasn’t feeling well.
After a bit, that sleep became scary however. He slept all of the time. He was cold and in a deep sleep. Things weren’t normal at all.
Unexplained Weight-loss
My son had always been tiny. He hadn’t been eating a lot. He was my slimmer baby. I had a lot of reason for him being the size he was.
When I looked back on old pictures, I didn’t just see a thin boy. His eyes were hallow. When he was given insulin and was able to toddle to the washroom on his own, I saw just how skeletal he had become in a matter of days. It broke my heart.
Fruity breath
My son had sweet little boy breath. I didn’t know that there was anything else that could possibly be going on.
Vomiting or sore stomach
My son had thrown up, but that was all part of the flu wasn’t it? That is what the emergency room physician had said. The nausea was simply part of the bug that he had. As long as he was drinking there was no issue.
Thrush or other yeast infections
This was another of the warning signs of diabetes. Why did a two-year-old have thrush? The emergency room doctor didn’t offer any explanation. He simply gave us antibiotics.
I didn’t know the symptoms. I didn’t know that warning signs and neither did the ER doctor. It almost cost my son his life.
Know the signs. Share them with others. Together we can save lives.
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Please also remind folks that hypoglycemic unawareness is real and more common than originally thought in people with type 1 diabetes. Diabetic unawareness means without a blood test (finger stick) or cgms graph line that drops below 4.0 (72), the person with type 1 diabetes cannot tell that they are going low. My husband has never been able to tell that his blood glucose level is going low by physiological signs. I used to be able to tell that he was low, but I often can’t any more. He certainly has never been able to treat himself without the cgms telling him his bg is low. Thank goodness our insurance has always funded at 100% our cgms since the cgms was introduced to Canada about 2008.