Ep. 2 - The Day That My Toddler Was Diagnosed With Type 1 Diabetes (Part 1)

The Day That My Toddler Was Diagnosed With Type 1 Diabetes (Part 1)

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
This is the FCB Radio Network,come of the best personalities, and we're
a real toilets online at FCB radiodot com. FCB Welcome to our podcast,

(00:23):
Talking Tallers with Type one Diabetes.I am your host, doctor Deanna
Hancock Johnson, and on today's episode, we are going to talk about my
reaction to when my taler was diagnosedwith type one diabetes at just three years
old. Okay, guys, Iwant to take you back to the day

(00:49):
my daughter was diagnosed with type onediabetes. It was just a regular day
at daycare where I picked her upand brought her home, and I saw
that she had possibly an infection downbelow. And I know it's hard to
really imagine a taller having an infectionor being inflamed down below without thinking the
worst. And because I am aperson who is a survivor of being molested

(01:14):
for six years by my uncle,I assumed the worst right away, and
I had to ask the daycare providerquestions that I knew was gonna be hard.
Even if they I knew in myheart that they possibly didn't have anything
to do with it, I stillhad to ask. And so when it's
hard to ask people that it istaking care of your kid questions. You

(01:34):
gotta do it in a certain wayto where it's not accusatory. It is
more of how do I say,like, just inform it. You're trying
to just get information. You wantthem to be informative and upfront with you.
And that was the case when itcame to my daughter. When she
was diagnosed. Guys, I justfelt like the world came tumbling down on

(01:57):
me because I knew this was somethingthat I had with my dad, and
I knew it was always a sensitivesubject for me, as you guys have
heard me say in several videos nowand several audio clips that this has just
been one of the hardest things forme to have to deal with it.
So anyway, I took her homethat night, and I took her to
the doctor's first thing the next morning, and I asked them, you know,

(02:19):
what could this possibly be? Didanyone touch her or anything like that?
And I knew for sure that mydaycare provider loved my baby. Guys,
I didn't have any question in mymind that they did not love her.
They just really took great care ofher as a baby, as a
toddler, and she had been withthem since she was six months old,
so I really didn't have nothing tobe concerned about, but I still had

(02:39):
to ask that hard question that nobodywanted to be, wanted to hear,
or no one wanted to really face, because this was my baby. And
when your baby is in some kindof situation noise and some kind of pain,
you know it pains you and youwant to do everything you can to
really make sure or that they arenot in any pain anymore, if it's

(03:05):
anything you can do. So basically, when I went to the doctor,
the it was an assistant nurse thatday, which to this day, I
don't even see that assistant nurse everagain because I just feel like the doctor
that my daughter and my son haveright now, they are always he is
always on point. Soon give ashout out to doctor Fairboards to take He
is always on point and has alwaysbeen on point about every single thing with

(03:29):
my kids. I cannot complain abouthis services or with him being my kids
pediatric doctor. So let me saythis. What else happened is that she
was there and she diagnosed my babyas having just a yeast infection. So
with that said, I just tookit as okay. She got a yeast

(03:49):
infection. That was more of arelief than what I was thinking before,
right, And she gave me somecream. She first arrived some cream.
We went and got the cream,and it was about three five days they
went by, and I had totake my son to the doctor that day,
and I happened to tell her whileI was there, oh, by
the way, whatever you gave medidn't work for my daughter, so we
need to do something else. Andso I think she prescribed me something else

(04:11):
then, so we're talking about overa week and a half of her going
through things that we didn't realize whatit was. And so she gave me
something else that didn't work. AndI remember coming back in and actually asking
the people what should we do next? And we came back in and they

(04:33):
actually told us that we need tocome back and do a P test.
And for me, I was thinking, Okay, she was so young,
why would I need to do aPA test? And I felt like just
giving her a P test was notgoing to be the answer to what we
felt was the problem, but yetI had to follow the doctor's or orders.
This time around, I saw doctor'stake and he was like, yeah,

(04:57):
let's just give her a P test, and I think this was a
that I remember, guys, Andwe did the P test and I was
so mad because she pete all overmy hand and I was like, this
is why you don't give a tallerP test out of a lit. I
was just just naive, guys,not really realizing what I'm about to go
through, how devastating this is aboutto be for me, my family,
for my baby. You know,all these things was just going through my

(05:21):
head. But yet, you knowhow when you're in a situation and you
feel like life is just what itis before you get hit with that bad
news, and so you feel likeyour nerves are in a different place before
you get the bad news versus whereit's going to be afterwards. That's just
how I felt, like, justin denial and naive, just being a

(05:41):
like la mom, like I gotthings to dude, can we herd ever
get out of here? You knowthat kind of thing. And so we
took that test that Thursday, andthey called me back in on Monday and
they said, look, we needyou to come back in here because we
think that the test that she tookis faulty and we want to just be
sure that there's nothing else going on, so we need her to come back

(06:02):
to take the test. And Iremember talking to him again, guys,
what that mom said, and like, I'm busy, she busy. I'll
bring her back when I can.They're like, no, you need to
get her in here right away.And I said, well, she's at
daycare to day, so I'll lether finish daycare today and I'll bring her
in the morning. So they wereokay with that. Ciga took her in
that next day, which was Tuesday, and I'll never forget this because that's

(06:23):
the day that we ended up atthe emergency room, and that day is
forever sketched in my brain. Sobasically, we I took her in and
I remember that day. My husbanddidn't have to be to work till one
o'clock, so I remember him beingat home and me taking her in and
not thinking nothing of it. Tookanother p test and we waited some time,

(06:45):
and then they called us back inthe room and the doctor said to
me, actually, we were alreadygoing back to our room out that the
tests, just waiting, and thenthe doctor came in and he said to
me, he said, up,excuse me, guys, taitness he said
to me, I think you're gonnahave to rush her to Children's hospital.

(07:06):
And mind you, guys, welive about an hour and some change away
from Children's. And so he said, either you take her or you take
her to a local hospital and they'regoing to rush her there via helicopter.
So I'm thinking, Okay, whatthe heck could this be? How serious
is this? And as he's talkingto me and tell many things. He's
not beating around the bush, buthe's saying things that I really couldn't hear.

(07:28):
It was like going in one earand coming out of the other.
And I remember just hearing him sayshe might have diabetes, and I'm like,
juvenile diabetes. He said something likethat, and I knew diabetes for
me was like a hold up,stop the press. I don't want to
go any further because I knew thatwas a sensitive subject for me, knowing

(07:50):
that my dad had passed away fromit. So it was one of those
things where I felt was hard toreally deal just with my dad alone.
But to hear him saying that outof his mouth, I'm like, want,
won't want want? What are yousaying? Like? I'm just really
like stuck in time but my baby, she's acting so normal that I'm thinking,

(08:13):
he don't even know what he's talkingabout, right, And come to
find out her sugar was at fivehundred in her yurin, which they say
that is a walking death sentence.There's so many babies guys out here that
had no idea that they were diagnosedas juvenile diabetes, type one diabetes,
other things that has come about,and they end up losing their life.

(08:37):
And I was so thankful to eventuallyhave found out this. At the time,
it may not have seemed like it, but I was very thankful that
I started to think things through andthinking that, okay, well, whatever
she needs to be gonna get herto where she gotta go. And still
not sure how things about to goahead into the hospital, not sure what's

(08:58):
gonna happen when I get there.Still are really nervous about what's the head.
But I'm trying to move on adrenalineand not so much on emotion.
And I remember calling my husband andI'm saying, you know, you actually
have to take off of the day. They're saying, whatever it's going on
with her, we have to rushher to Children's And I don't even remember
if I told him right down andthere it was possibly diabetes. I remember

(09:20):
on my way home, I talkedto my mama and I was telling her
that there is a possibility of this, But I don't remember communicating that to
my husband because I didn't want toscare him. But I think when I
got home and walked through the doorwith her, I immediately told him and
I said, you need to goand pack your bags. And this is
what they think it is. Inmy head, I'm still thinking that the
diagnosis is going to be wrong,because that's just what you think as a

(09:41):
mom. It has to be wrong, right, like, come on,
like there's so many other things outhere that's going on, and things like
that, there's so many things goingon and things like that, sorry guys,
something coming through on my email,but things that as going through going
on in it's the world that youknow. You could either be thankful that

(10:01):
it's just type one diabetian. AndI'm not saying just type one diabetes,
because that's a huge diagnosis that wehad to deal with that has not been
always easy or ever been easy todeal with even to this day. The
struggles, I mean, you seein the our first episode how my baby
talked about her experiences of it.We have more episodes coming on that as
well, so stay tuned for thatas well as I'm going to bring my

(10:24):
husband onto the podcast and my sonto talk about their experiences of what the
diagnosis look like for them and whatthey felt during that day. But anyway,
let's get back in suiting this episode. And so we come home,
we pack bags, and my husband, I think in his head he was
still kind of like not sure thathe only packed a few things. And

(10:46):
I don't know if this is justa man's thing or what, but he
wasn't really thinking he was going toneed to stay long here. I am
packing up the house, I'm thinkingand I did ask the doctor be far
left, how long do you thinkI'm gonna be there? He said probably
two to three days? And I'mlike, oh, are you me?
I have a son at home andI don't want to leave him home,
but I know I need my husbandwith me in this process because this is

(11:07):
just too much. And we haveno family here where we live in California,
so everybody was on the East Coast, and I feel like during that
time God was really in our lives, testing us as a family, as
a couple, as parents, andwe needed to do all that we could
to pull together, just to bereally strong as a family, as strong

(11:31):
as a unit, because we neverknew what was about to hit us,
and what we were hearing didn't soundlike it was the truth. So we
get We're on our way to Children'sand I remember telling Siana, you know,
don't go to sleep, because Iknow that she's used to taking a
nap, so I'm watching her andmaking sure don't go to sleep. I
don't know what I thought was goingto happen if she went to sleep,
but the news that they were tellingme, I felt like was just in

(11:52):
a place of I need her tostay awake as long as she could,
and that's what she did. Ikept her awake, my husband setting the
back I drove and I kept tellinghim to keep her up, keep her
up. And I remember having tomake some errands because I knew I was
going to be gone for a coupleof days to get money for the Vendom
machine, things like that, andso I went and got cash out from
the bank and just made things happenas much as I could. And I

(12:18):
also got to the hospital and packedeverything we had in the car that normally
makes us comfortable so that we cantake it upstairs to the room. We
had like a wagon at the timewhere we packed everything up that we possibly
could use or have or whatever.So we packed up the car, pack
up the wagon, and we gotto the ear and the ear had us

(12:41):
waiting for hours, you guys,hours, And it was so hard because
I'm trying to figure out how inthe world is it that they they're gonna
have us, you know, thisis an emergency, and they tell me
we got to rush her here.But yeah, at the same time,
they have us waiting for hours,like it just didn't make any sense to
me. And so again I'm stillthink it ends and out like they just

(13:01):
wrong. They don't know what they'retalking about. It's no way that my
baby has this situation going on.If so, they would have put us
in the room. I believe itwas there about four hours before we even
got into a room. Then wegot in the room and they did so
many testing and the first thing theysaid, by the time, my baby's
hungry, and whoever knows me knowswhere and whenever I go somewhere, I'm

(13:22):
packing tons and tons of snacks,and so I had stuff for her to
eat, but I'm not knowing thather possibly being diabetics, she can't eat
certain things or this and that.And technically they said she can eat whatever
she wants, she just needed inslingfor it. But the fact that they
took so long to come to helpus, I feel like I need to
keep giving her snacks. So Igave her whatever it's gonna take from her

(13:43):
to stop crying because she was hungry. And so, guys, this is
also a learning moment too, whenyou think about what you're about to face
and your kid is in a situationand you just don't know how to comfort
them, and sometimes we confort themwith food. And that's exactly what I
didn't that moment, not knowing thatit could also hurt her body because she

(14:03):
needed some insulin forward and in thebeginning, you go through that, they
said, the insulin goes through thathoneymoon stage where it looks like you're not
diabetic, but you are, andat some point you whatever insulin is left
in your body it ends up leavingand then you become prone to needing insulin
twenty four seven. If I'm sayingthat right, I believe. So anyone

(14:28):
else is listening and have you knowbetter terminology or want to come on and
share their experiences, please do letus know because we can. We welcome
to everybody who has a similar story, who has better terminology as any doctors.
I'm going to have people on herethat other parents, as well as
the chief of endocrinologists at Children's.So we got a lot to pack in

(14:52):
this first season. But anyway,I think that's exactly what the term is.
And once the first doctor came in, so they ran all these tests,
then we had to wait another thirtyforty minutes to see this and I
think they were running her blood sugarto determine where she was, and they
were saying, just don't feed heranything. And I'm thinking, when we've
been here forever, who even wewere hungry? What do you mean don't

(15:13):
feed her anything? So I stillgave her snacks because of the fact that
she was the taller guys, andshe just cried so much that I didn't
know what else I was gonna do, but I would give her a minimum
portion of it just so she wouldchill out and relax. Now, once
they started doing the first set oftests. We had to wait. They

(15:33):
came in, then they did moretests, and they did more tests,
and then they started talking to us. You had the first doctor that came
in, and I really really likedthis guy. I cannot I think things,
doctor Chen at Children's LA and hewas so amazing at helping me understand
and he confirmed them my baby hadtype one diabetes. Okay, guys,

(15:54):
that is a rap on episode two. This is part one of my series
talking about my reaction of when mydaughter was just diagnosed at three years old
with type one diabetes. I lookforward to seeing you guys in the next
episode where we would discuss part twoof this series. And I am your
host, doctor Diana Hancock Johnson,and I am out thank you for listening.

(16:26):
The FCB Radio Network, first classbroadcasting worldwide