Carter's story (Part 1)

I'll never forget the day my little boy was diagnosed with diabetes. Not only because that day radically changed my world, but also because it was exactly one day before I turned 27. Some birthday gift, right?

During the early morning of February 17, 2011 Carter started having breathing problems and was very fussy. I thought he had a very bad cold, so even though it was the middle of the night, I took him to the emergency room. The doctors told me he had a cold and flu and I should take him home and rotate Tylenol and Motrin.
So we went home. He couldn't sleep. His breathing was so deep, as if he a lot of phlegm in his throat and chest, but I couldn't hear an echo of anything being in his chest. I tried to get some sleep on my couch with my helpless little 6 month old on my chest. We would doze off for a couple of minutes, then he would let out a little whine. This continued for several hours.

Finally around noon, my mom came over to see Carter. When she saw him, her eyes filled with tears and she begged me to take him back to emergency room. I told her that they would just send us home again. She insisted we go. I asked her to come with me because at this point, Carter was not doing well. He was very weak and pale. His lips were shriveled up and purple. He couldn't hold his head up, drink a bottle, cry or sleep.

We went back to Kaiser and this time, they thought it was a respiratory infection. They ordered breathing treatments for him. They put us in an ER triage and a nurse came by every fifteen minutes to give Carter air from an oxygen machine. I sat on the bed holding my baby, crying as my son became increasingly lethargic.

My husband arrived at the hospital at 6 pm. A nurse came in and quizzed us on our families' history of health disorders. Asthma? No. Diabetes? My husband was diagnosed with type 1 when he was three years old. Was Carter eating a lot? From the day he was born, he ate a lot. Did he have a lot of wet diapers? Yes. Lately, Carter's diapers were so wet, if I was holding him, the pee would run down my legs. I would change his diaper every two hours or so.

At this point, I needed to step out of the hospital room. I needed some fresh air to collect my thoughts. As I left, the nurse said she wanted to check his sugar. I was only gone for ten minutes, but in that short time, everything would change.