It hasn't been long since my last post in February when we found out Maggie, the youngest (by 4 minutes of course since she's a twin) was positive for all 5 antibodies you typically see with Type 1 Diabetes.  But the reality of diabetes entering our lives again has hit! She was officially diagnosed on Wednesday, March 25th, 2015. Only 5 short years, 1 month and 2 days after her brother was diagnosed.

When Clifford was diagnosed I was currently carrying her and her twin sister, they were 8 months away from entering the world. She hasn't really known a life without 'Diabetes' so to say. It's always been there in the background. When she could talk, walk, understand the things around her it was there. Her brother always testing, always giving insulin, and always counting carbs.

Her diagnosis story is one that I would take a million times over her brothers and so many others that I hear about. She wasn't unconscious like he was, she wasn't so sick she could barely move, and she wasn't on the verge of us losing her. Instead, she was smiles, giggles and laughs throughout the entire process. With our 'heads up' in February we were able to monitor her more closely than we would have prior to knowing. I mean, yes, because we already have a Type 1 in the house we knew the symptoms, and believe me when anyone started peeing or drinking more, I was on it. But this was more of a heads up than just knowing the symptoms. I knew it would happen, and I knew when to look for any unusual things in her.

On Monday, March 23, she woke up complaining that her stomach, and legs hurt so much so she asked me to carry her downstairs. She had some breakfast, peaches, but she continued to lay there for over an hour not moving, not wanting to play, nothing. So I thought to test her, just to see you know? She couldn't pee just yet so she said, so I tested her ketones with our blood ketone meter. Her blood sugar was pretty good for just having ate breakfast, 124, but that little sigh of relief soon changed when I saw the ketone meter, 3.0.  This is not when I got entirely worried, but I did start making calls, just to give a 'heads up' to others that we may be heading to the hospital.

After the calls were made, 10 minutes later I checked again she was complaining even more now. 130 (Great number), but ketones jumped to 3.5.  It was at this point when I got a call back from our TrialNet nurse, and the doctor had asked that I get a pee stick tested to see if she was spilling glucose in her urine. Finally a short while later I was able to do this, she was in fact spilling 1/2 glucose and the ketones turned dark immediately.

We tested a short while again, after she ate an apple, as she was hungry. This time the meter read 216. Not something I'd typically like to see, but still I know not unusual, for someone pre 2 hour mark after eating. It wasn't until an hour later while waiting to hear from the doctors that I tested once more, our little table beside the couch was beginning to look like a crime scene from all the testing. This time her blood sugar was well over 300, 368 to be exact. I tested again for good measure just hoping, praying it was a fluke, that somehow, even though I cleaned her finger something was on it to mess up the number, but unfortunately it was 364. I spoke with the TrialNet once more, this time breaking down on the phone and apologizing for crying, but she directed us to take her into the ER.

By the time we were finally seen, her blood sugar had gone down to 178. Her cute little pancreas was still working! Thank god! Still I was hoping, praying that somehow I just messed up, that the meter was wrong, that she didn't have ketones that she didn't spill glucose. But we were admitted for 'monitoring' to watch her blood sugar overnight to see how it does. She spiked during the night over 200 to 211, without food, and her fasting number in the morning was 121, for 'technical' purposes, diabetes is considered a fasting of 126 or higher, but she already exhibited numbers over 200 which also meant 'diabetes'. She is in the honeymoon phase, we caught it super early, she still has functioning beta cells, god love them. So she is only on one injection a day of Lantus, the long acting insulin, to try to take some stress off of her pancreas and those beta cells, to get a little more life out of them, extend her honeymoon. We don't know when but eventually they too will die off, and she will be reliant solely on insulin, both long acting and short acting to survive. We are blessed for the 'warning' that it would hit, for the heads up. I tried so hard to soak in all the 'pre diabetes' moments of no testing, no bolusing, no shots, no concern with counting carbs, as short as it was, I enjoyed it all.

But now, we monitor and test with every meal, her once clear little fingers are now starting to fill up with small marks from frequent tests, her little legs dotted from her shots. While my mind has accepted her new normal, and while I know deep down this was truly a blessing to receive this warning, to catch it so early, my heart is having a hard time following suit. I never wanted diabetes to enter our lives, let alone the lives of two of my children.

She is so brave, and strong, and is taking it all like a champ. I've already heard the infamous, but at least she's so young she will never remember anything else. My heart will heal, it did with her brother, but the feeling is still all too raw. She's younger than he was by 2 years, she's the baby, and now the baby is being forced to grow up way too fast because of this disease.

It was truly a blessing to find out so soon, we can still enjoy some 'before' diabetes moments like the lack of multiple daily injections. For now we will help her to understand the new normal, and take on the brunt of her care to ensure she stays as healthy as possible.