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Alexis' Story
Living with Diabetes has totally changed our lives, as I am sure it has done to many. It all started for us back in late summer early fall of 2006. We noticed our daughter Alexis became very thirsty and would be out of breath and going potty just as fast as she was drinking all the water. She started to get very lethargic and would fall asleep just doing the simplest things like eating dinner. My husband thought that it was possible she had diabetes, because he knew constant thirst was a good sign, Well not all moms think dads have a "clue". So I called our local Pediatrician and of course I talked to a nurse and it was just before Christmas, so she said to monitor it to see where things would go. So we did just that and barley made it through Christmas.
My Husbands parents watched Alexis and her sister Alivia while we went shopping with some of our Christmas gift certificates, we called his parents to let them know we were on our way back from Grand Rapids, my mother in law said that Alexis was very sick and she needed to be taken in,so I called the Dr.'s answering service. I got another Dr. that is practice with her local pediatrician, she said that we could go to our local hospital we could head to Devos because everything I said over the phone made her believe it was truly diabetes.
Skeptical parents that we were we decided to go to our local hospital thinking that she just had a yucky viral infection that would go away, They instantly started IV fluids and began the testing for Diabetes, sure enough about 10 minutes later they said she had diabetes and they were determine if it were type 1 or 2 but with her BG almost 600 they were sure it was Type 1. I instantly broke down and starting crying questioning what it was that I had done to cause her to get diabetes, after a little while Alexis woke up and asked me what was wrong, of course I knew nothing about diabetes so I could only explain so much. And besides how do you explain something so complicated to a 3 year old.
We stayed at our local hospital for a couple of hours before we were transferred to Devos ICU. We spent our New Year’s Eve and New Years day learning the in and out's of diabetes, We had a great diabetes educator that taught us how manage Alexis diabetes. we started on a sliding scale then we went to the intensive therapy, we just recently went on a pump, we as a family love the pump and the freedom that it has given to Alexis, as well as her school and daycare.
She has her days of asking a ton of questions about why she has diabetes and when she gets big she will no longer have it, so we still have to explain to her that she will live with this the rest of her life until they are able to find a cure.
This was our second year of participating in the JDRF Grand Rapids Diabetes Walk, we will continue to support the JDRF in hopes that they will find a cure before she is 20. I pray everyday that her life with someday be "normal" again.
Theron, Becky, Alexis, Alivia and Kohen Barlow
