Emma's Story

I remember it was just before Christmas of 2022, Oliver had broken up from school but had started feeling under the weather. Oliver is autistic and non verbal so cannot communicate his needs to us - so we have to rely on our gut instinct and also his behaviour. He had what I thought was a common cold but had began pulling at his ears and sleeping a lot. As a parents were told if they’re sleeping their healing so I thought nothing of it. After a few days had past and no improvement we got Oliver in at the doctors. We were told his ears were a little bit red but not infected. I said were close to Christmas and I didn’t want him to suffer over this period so could we maybe start some treatment to prevent it getting worse instead of us having to try cure it when it did get infected. I was told No. So after monitoring Oliver further with no improvement we went to the urgent care. After waiting hours and hours to be seen the outcome was exactly the same. No treatment. Christmas Eve came and we always go to the snow dome every year! So anyone who knows Oliver knows he never naps.. like ever! Recently he was asleep at every opportunity he got and this wasn’t like him. This wasn’t my little boy! He screamed the whole time we were in the snow area that he usually loved. The whole experience was hell but I put it down to his ears hurting him and him not feeling up to it. Christmas Day - ruined. He had no interest in any of the day. Presents remained wrapped he just didn’t want to participate. It broke my heart. As parents we cannot wait for the magic and the excitement of Christmas and it just wasn’t there! My little boy wasn’t there. So a few days after Christmas was struggled on and managed to get Oliver in the doctors and was finally given some antibiotics for his ears… finally! (Looking back at pictures I don’t know how I didn’t know he was so I’ll as he looked terrible but even the doctors didn’t pick up on It!) Oliver started drinking lots and filling his nappies to the point they would leak but we’re always told as parents “plenty of fluids” and I thought to myself it’s gotta come out the other end so if he’s drinking lots he’s going to be filling his nappies. Oliver started to perk up and stopped grabbing his ears, the days began to become normal again…. 3rd January 2023 Oliver’s first day back at school, he was still recovering from him being unwell over Christmas but he was up dressed and ready for school. Although his school trousers no longer fitted him. I had to adjust the waist band as they just wouldn’t stay up… i thought with him being unwell and not eating alot it’s normal for him to have lost weight. Isn’t it? I took a picture of him at the kitchen table that haunts me to this day as it was the last picture I took of him before his diagnosis hours later. I collected Oliver from school and his 1-1 told me he had been really cuddly and had fallen asleep at school. This wasn’t like Oliver, normally he’s like 100 miles an hour running around…. I looked at him and he looked grey, weak and tired. We got home and he ate his tea and was back up on the bed trying to go to sleep. I thought to myself something is wrong here… this isn’t my little boy! I did what all mothers do - scare the shit out of ourselves by googling the symptoms he was showing. Tired, weight loss and peeing a lot - Diabetes came up on the search bar. I said to Tom Oliver has all the symptoms of having diabetes, he said “that’s what old people have he can’t have that… stop googling your going to make yourself mad!” I said “Tom I have a feeling something isn’t right and this is what it’s saying his symptoms are” Tom said “we’ll take him to the hospital but it’s just you being a hypercondriact and worrying yourself on the internet again.” We got to the urgent care desk and I said to the lady “I think my son has diabetes.” She looked at me like I had two heads or something… she said “okay take a seat and someone will be with you shortly.” We were called through to the triage nurse who took Oliver OBS. I said “I think he’s got diabetes.” I remember saying it like it was nothing… I hadn’t researched into it. It was just the answer for me as to why my little boy wasn’t himself. She also scowled at me like I was mad… I explained all this symptoms to her and she just said.. “it’s probably a urine infection.” I said “can you prick his finger please?” (I knew this due to my past in the health sector as we dealt with a lot of diabetes patients which is now worrying as I didn’t know half of it.) the nurse replied “No we need to get a urine sample so I can check it for an infection.” After a long 30 minutes we managed to get a sample which was very upsetting for Oliver as he doesn’t understand why and what we were asking of him. The nurse came out and took the sample… not even a minute had past and she called us back into the room. She said “I just want to prick his finger to check something.” I said “I asked you to check that when we first got here…” “One sharp scratch she said.” Oliver yelped in pain. Beep beep from the machine and our lives changer forever. I said “what is it?” ( I knew the normal range of 4-7) She replied with a panicked voice “30.” Tom looked at me and I looked at him as if to say “I TOLD YOU SO.” it was the one time I wished I hadn’t been right… the I told you so I never wanted to say…. The rush down to the children’s ward came and I think it hadn’t sunk it what was said or what was happening. I just had an answer for why my little boy wasn’t well. That felt like a win for a short short moment. We were taken into a side cubical and all these people came rushing in with needles, injections and IVs. It all became a blur until the male doctor came in and his words were “your son has type 1 diabetes” in that moment my world felt like it crumbled. We all used to get excited about our childs firsts…. This wasn’t the case here! That first injection, that first finger prick, that first ketone check…. This was hell! This was our life now. Let the greiving process begin for the care dress life that we all once had! I felt like Oliver’s childhood had been robbed from him! & that was the first day of the rest of our lives as a T1D family 💙