There was something wrong

What started as a nagging suspicion over a few weeks took a turn for the worse. In reality, we can't complain. To be a parent is to worry (and love, and laugh, and many other things, but worrying is certainly a big part of the game), and we have an answer to our suspicions. Some parents find their concerns confirmed with even worse news, and some just never really know if they are being paranoid or if there is something that they should worry about.

Our little sweet and silly 16 month old hadn't been herself lately. Cranky, upset, just needed to be held. This is okay, Dad and Mom are both softies and don't complain about extra hugs when they can get them. But this was troublesome from this normally very energetic little girl. She had been very thirsty, and diapers were wet to the point that they would leak. We didn't think much of it, Florida gets dry in the winter, and we were happy that she was drinking more water, but the moods were concerning.

My incredible wife, ever the great mother, mentioned these concerns at Mia's 16 month checkup with her pediatrician. After a few tests, it became apparent that these concerns were legitimate - Mia had a blood sugar reading of 550 (a normal toddler should be between 100-200). Type 1 Diabetes.

After coming home to grab me, we spent the afternoon in the doctors office at the local childrens hospital, trying to learn all we could, and how our daily routine had changed. Two days later we're still learning.

There have been ups and downs, both in blood glucose levels and in moods (mostly the parent's moods). Mia's levels have ranged from 67 to 540 since then, while we try to work with our doctors to balance the insulin dose with the right amount of carbohydrates. There's no cheating on this diet...

Marisa's brother Corey as been our life-line during the last 48 hours. He's been living with Type 1 diabetes for 10 years now. He's been on speed dial the last couple of days, has been calling to check in on us, and has given us such great advice and is such a great calming influence. I honestly do not know how we could have gotten through this adjustment without him, and I know we're going to continue to rely on his strength, expertise, and love for Mia to geth through this.

Insurance has been another interesting adventure. Even with very good coverage, we anticipate our costs to be over $300/month at this point for all of her supplies. The doctors gave us a prescription for a lancer/tester combination that was not covered by our insurance company, leaving good old Dad making phone calls from the Walgreens parking lot to figure out what is covered. It's heartbreaking to think of families without insurance who have to go through this, even to think of those with insurance that have to navigate this maze. No offense to our doctors, but in the information age we live in, how hard would it be to give a prescription that is actually covered by the provider? Unbelievable.

Mia's low readings generally come in the middle of the night or early in the morning - 64 to 67. Last night was a doozy, at 3:00 AM, we got up to check her levels again since they were 180 (a great level) when she went to sleep at 9:00 (the new schedule is a little hectic right now while we try to balance meals out - poor kid was happy to be up at 9:30 but she's got be exhausted). Her levels hit 67 when we checked at 3:00, we gave her some juice, checked again, back to 170....so we were going to head back to sleep for a few hours. Unfortunately our dog had thrown up in our bed.

Sometimes, you just can't win ;-)

So today....we woke up this morning grouchy, I was snapping that I had to get to work, poor Marisa just wanted a shower to try and wake up, just looking like a very bad day. We got into Mia's room, woke the sleepy head up to get her test, low again, so we gave her another 4 oz of juice. Then it happened. In the middle of my grumbling, my wife just doing the best she can to keep everything together and ignore her husband's rotten mood, and our daughter in my arms sipping her OJ to bring her levels back up.

She flashed this smile, had a little giggle. The smiles kept coming. The points objects in the room and the identification of those objects, a mixture of real words and Mia-nese, filled the room. The OJ was apparently delicious. And both her parents were here. It was morning. It was a beautiful day. And the smiles just kept coming.

And then I realized something incredibly powerful - it's going to be a great day today. A beautiful day. My little 16 month old daughter, with everything that she is going through, pointed it out this morning with something so simple as a few laughs, a lot of grins, and some singing and dancing when the dishwasher went on this morning.. These bumps in the road don't change where we are or where we're going - just how we're going to get there. It's a beautiful day because I have her, I have my my wife, we all have eachother, we are starting to understand what we are facing, and we're going to face it together.

Who would have thought this little person that I love so much could already teach her Dad how we're going to get through all this?

That's it for now - in the coming weeks look for new acronyms, terminology, calculations, and so on. We've got a lot to figure out, and as you can tell I'm still an amatuer, but hey, we're only 48 hours into this right now. We'll get there.