Sunday, September 19, 2010

When did it begin?

I know it's a moot point by now...Adam has T1 Diabetes, and it's not going to change. But I can't help but go over the last few months to try and figure out when/how this all began. I have a theory, and I'm curious to know if any of you had determined a "root event" as to where this all began for your child.

Back at Adam's well-check in April, I brought him in and had no idea he was sick. I mentioned in passing to our pediatrician that Adam had this rash on his back and belly. She took one look at it and said, "Um, that's strep rash."

Color me dumbfounded. I had no idea he was even sick! One rapid strep test later, and it was confirmed that he had a raging case of strep throat/scarlet fever.

So, we got our antibiotics and went on our merry way.

In early June, as I was clipping Adam's fingernails, I noticed that Adam had deep, horizontal ridges in his fingernails...like dents.

Of course, I consulted Dr. Google, and there were all kinds of possibilities - vitamin deficiency, illness, etc. I came across a picture of Beau's lines that looked exactly what Adam's nails looked like.

One of the items on the list of causes was scarlet fever.

Bingo! I breathed a sigh of relief and forgot about making an appointment to take Adam in to the ped's office.

Did y'all click on that link and see what I missed? What is number 1 on the list?

Yeah. Uncontrolled Diabetes.

Of course, at the time, I had no idea that Adam could possibly have that. He wasn't showing many symptoms at that point, if any.

And I know that the fact remains, that whether we had caught it back then vs. now...it just doesn't matter. Thankfully Adam's diabetes was caught before he ended up in the ICU with DKA.

But it certainly is interesting. This has likely been brewing for at least 6 months. It is fascinating to me that the body leaves these little, seemingly insignificant clues as to what is going on in deep inside.

8 comments:

  1. WOW. I did not know that on the Beau's lines. It is fascinating how the body leaves us clues. Looking back I did see some clues from Joe. His vision was changing. He used to go down the stairs to our basement so easily and readily (he was 3)...the all of a sudden he was clinging onto me for dear life and I had to carry him down. I honestly think his vision started to blur and it was making him uncomfortable with the descent.

    Otherwise, I had no clue...and even blew off the thirst and peeing for a couple of weeks. :(

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  2. Oh, how we beat ourselves up as moms! It's amazing, all the nit-picking, clue-hunting we do. I swear, we can find twenty different ways to blame ourselves for every little event in our child's lives!

    Stephanie, as tempting as it is to seek out reasons, we all ultimately have to come to the realization that our child was simply "meant" to have diabetes. I doubt we'll ever know the purpose or how having it will direct their paths in life, but the fact is that they have it and we can't change that fact. Hang in there! It's a bumpy ride for the first year, but it does get better. And just wait until you see the difference between your son just before diabetes and your son when he's feeling good after diagnosis! Those moments when the blood sugars are good are rare, but they are so worth the diagnosis!

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  3. When I look back I realized that she was much more irrational and her temper was very short. I see it now when her numbers are high or low or even when they are changing (high to low, low to high) very rapidly. As her pancreas was giving out she must have been on the same ride. I have a picture of her in her new pj's for christmas morning that just says it all, mad face, ready to kill me seemingly out of no where. Ellie was diagnosed 5 weeks later. My biggest OMG! moment is a couple of weeks after her diagnosis we realized that the night before she went to the doctor we were at a friends house and she was so thirsty and kept asking for water, anything. We let her have orange juice all night...she drank an entire container of orange juice that night!!! We are soooo lucky that didn't turn into what it should have!!! I saw a study a few months ago that was done in Italy. They are looking into 'foot and mouth' virus (don't know the technical name there are 50 different versions of it) being a trigger for Type 1. Ellie was diagnosed with it 4 months before she was diagnosed with Type 1. That is interesting to me. But that's the extent of my ability to "do anything". I would be interested to know why or what. But not for any reason other than to know more about my daughters disease really. My "why does she have it" phase has passed...I am now in "I've got to find a way to permanetly deal with this" phase. (at least I think!!!)

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  4. This was totally a question I was going to ask you... Interesting how the body is trying to tell us something, but we just don't know unless we know the signs.

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  5. Wow....did NOT know that about the fingernails!

    Sugar had a tummy bug in 3/05. She hadn't kept anything down for 48 hours, and her fasting glucose was 128.

    I was concerned.

    I got blown off.

    She was dx 4 months later.

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  6. I remember asking the doctors over and over again, when did this start? How did this happen? How long has this been going on and I didn't even know it? How can she NOT have diabetes one week and the next week she does? So hard to wrap my head around it.

    Other than the excessive thirst and urination, I didn't have any other signs. The day before her dx, her K teacher commented about her reading (she had previously been reading very well). I don't remember exactly what it was, but the jist was that maybe she wasn't as good of a reader as we thought...The next day I realized that it was her vision! :(

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  7. I have often wondered what the trigger was for Jack. To this day, I still have no clue.

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  8. Very interesting! Charlotte had a yeast diaper rash that took weeks (or more?) to finally get rid of when she was about 14 months old. She wasn't diagnosed until 23 months. But I wonder if her blood sugar was high even then, causing the stubborn yeast. Guess we'll never know.
    wherecandyismedicine.blogspot.com

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