God made our sweet CJ ...

a little too sweet

late last night CJ was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes.

She had been battling a yeast rash/infection and thrush so I wasn't all too concerned about her discomfort/irritability Saturday. We had given her some tylenol the night before, her first dose ever and of course we awoke to a recall! Went hiking, more like a short walk to check out the stream and fish hatchery, in Manor. The poor baby was just so overtired and miserable on the way home we stopped at a convenience store to pick up some tylenol to get her through the ride home. It was promptly thrown up but I was unsure weather it was from the crying or possibly the tylenol. She threw up three times total that day.

Sunday Morning. Those of you that know CJ are aware that she has not stopped moving/wiggling since conception so you can imagine my alarm when she listlessly lay around showing little interest in her favorite toys/activities. Did however get her to eat some blackberries which coupled with vomiting led to the destruction of my brand new bed set. At this point I was getting concerned and called the pediatrician. We discussed the homeopathic ways we had been treating her rash and agreed that if her condition was the same/worse by tomorrow we would bring her in to be seen. As the day wore on she became more and more lethargic barely able to pick up her head. Now I'm away a sick baby is often a lethargic one but this was so far from the norn I couldn't help but be alarmed. Called the pedi back and was sent to the ER assuming she was dehydrated and in need of some fluids. This is where I was baffled because she was urinating and nursing fine considering. I couldn't give a very accurate comparison of her wet diapers to those she usually has since we had picked up a few disposables to use while i stripped the yeast out of our cloth. We figured there might be an underlying infection and some fluids and antibiotics and we would be on our way ...

Arrived at Hackensack Hospital around 7:30 and were placed in a room withing 15 minutes ... then it was another 2 hours before a doctor made their way over to see us. Was not a fan of the doctor she was distracted and brash ... made us feel as if we were wasting her time... perfect personality to be employed in a pediatric ER huh? Blood tests were ordered and IV's administered. The test results proved CJ's blood glucose levels to be above 400 and she was spilling keotones into her urine. We were told this was possibly cause by the stress of a virus/illness. Well God certainly placed his hand into the mix and sent the cold doctor on her merry way due to a family emergency and replaced her with a wonderful and kindhearted doctor. The minute she walked into our room and sat beside me on the bed my heart began racing ... doctors do NOT sit down and level with you like this over mild dehydration. At this point the possibility of diabetes was mentioned but not given much serious thought. Then the three letters that changed our lives came into play ... DKA. CJ's sugar levels once retested were 580, she was spilling large amounts of keotones into her urine and headed into severe dehydration. Insert 5 million question and overwhelming guilt. We were transferred to the PICU and personally escorted by the "nice" doctor. Here we met with our wonderful nurse Danielle and Dr. P the intensivist. We were told that CJ indeed has Type 1 Diabetes.



I will follow up with all the thoughts and feelings at a later time but right now I have not been able to sort through them myself. I am still numb and counting on God to carry me through this until I am strong enough to stand on my own two feet. After a day spent trying to stabilize her sugars we will be send to the peds floor tomorrow for the schooling of our lifetimes. With that I need to get a little sleep and will edit this for typos in the morning