Our youngest child, Katerina Zahra, was born on January 6, 2001. When she was only 3 years old she was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. From September 9 to September 16, 2004 she spent a week at Huntsville Women & Children's Hospital, including the first day in the PICU.
That first day was a blur. I remember her sleeping all day long and she had signs of a stomach bug, so I just let her sleep. She had been extremely thirsty for the last two months, bu I thought nothing of that either because it was summer and we had just moved in August from a dry Texas climate to a humid Alabama climate. Everyone was extremely thirsty. By 4pm that afternoon I felt like she had been sleeping too hard for too long and so I went against my husbands wishes and drove her to my aunt's house, because I knew she had a blood sugar meter I could use. Why did I think of diabetes? Because my mom is Type 1 Diabetic. So is her sister and so was their mother, Irene Winchester. The name means nothing to many, but she was the cornerstone for Type 1 Diabetic research and education in the Huntsville, Alabama area in the 1970's. I remember being 11 when she said that my 4th child would be diabetic. She was a bit of a psychic.
The number on my aunts Accuchek was 589. I remember scoffing at the little white and blue meter saying "that can't be right." But every symptom she had made it right. I drove her to the ER, again making my husband angry. He was determined to believe that I was making drama out of nothing - that she was just sick with the flu.
Kat was in DKA (diabetic keto acidosis) and her A1c was 13.0, her blood sugar at the hospital was 389. They started her on an insulin drip right away and she was admitted to the PICU. I learned later on that if we had waited a day or two more she would have died. She had been diabetic for a while, and no one had any idea. That hurt me so much. I blame myself for not recognizing the signs that I had literally been raised to notice. I could always notice it in other people, but when it came to my own children, I didn't want to see it.
As Katerina started to stabilize in the hospital she started to "wake up" and her whole personality changed. She became full of energy, and I realized just how long it had been since I had seen her that full of life. It had been at least two months. I was worried she would pull out her IV because she kept crawling and climbing all over everything in her room. On the third day I took her to the playroom on the pediatric floor. She had a ball on the baby carousel and all of the toys there. The fourth day we had a surprise visitor - a hospital working dog. The owner brought her in and let Katerina pet it. Katerina enjoyed that dog so much! By the fourth day we also had many visitors come from the diabetic floor of the adjacent hospital (Huntsville Hospital Main) because word had gotten around that the great-grandchild of Irene Winchester had been diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. By that time my mother had flown from Virginia to help me. I was so lost. I'm forever thankful for her help.
We passed Katerina's 6th diabetic anniversary last month. She's going to remember being diabetic all her life when she grows up. Already, its all she has ever known. She doesn't remember life before D. I think that's a sick joke God played on her. Three years old is the "age of amnesia" in child development. Everything before then get erased somehow as the brain ages. I would have loved for her to remember something about life prior to diabetes. My only hope for her to be able to have memories of life without diabetes, is to make sure that the cure comes in her lifetime. I'm dedicated to furthering my grandmothers work by helping Dr. Faustman in Boston, Massachusetts further hers. Dr. Faustman is a scientist at Massachusetts General Hospital who is working on a cure using the BCG found in the tuberculosis vaccine. This vaccine has been around for 80 years and is not controversial, unlike the more popular research being done with stem cells. You'll see updates on my blog about Dr. Faustman's work and about Katerinas appointments to see her. She's seen her twice already during Phase I of the human trials. Phase II is when the real excitement begins, but for that we have to wait on funding. Blessings.
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