David’s daughter Chloe was diagnosed earlier this year. He writes about his experiences here today.
Friday the 13th of September is a day I will never forget.
My daughter Chloe had been sick for about a week with what seemed to be a sore throat and a cough. She was losing weight as well and we decided to seek medical attention. On Thursday the 12th of September, we took her to the doctors where she was diagnosed with an upper respiratory infection.
We kept her home from school on Friday the 13th, and noticed that she was very uneasy and fidgety during the day, as well as drinking and going to the bathroom more.
It wasn’t long before she couldn’t breathe properly, with her eyes rolling to the back of her head, and we called 000. When the ambulance arrived, they worked on Chloe for half an hour as she was having a seizure, and told us that their machine couldn’t read her blood sugars because it was so high.
When Chloe was finally stabilised at the local hospital, they transferred us to the Royal Children’s Hospital in Brisbane where she stayed in ICU for a few days.
To see our daughter in hospital looking so ill was very difficult – a part of me was afraid that we were going to lose her. We were scared – and if there is such a thing as hell, I can tell you that my wife and I have been there. It’s frightening to think about how a perfectly healthy child can go downhill so quickly.
We ask ourselves – Have we done something wrong? Why us? Why her? Why our Chloe?
We are learning about type 1 diabetes quickly. While I had a phobia of needles, I’ve learnt to put that aside for my child – if she can have the needles four times a day, then I can learn to give them to her. Chloe is now fit and healthy and full of beans. She’s learning to take her “Diabetes bag” with her wherever she goes. I can’t thank the staff at the hospital enough for what they did for Chloe.
We have already started encouraging everyone we know to give to JDRF, to help find a cure so that no other parents have to experience the shock of type 1 diabetes diagnosis the way we did. With JDRF’s help, we hope to cure type 1 diabetes and remove it from Chloe’s life.