Day of Diagnosis

Tuesday, November 22, 2011, our entire life changed.  That sounds so dramatic but right now, whenever I think of something it is either before or after that day.  I still don't know why I decided to call our pediatrician.  Maybe it was mother's intuition or maybe it was comments from my family but I decided to call and I left a message.  The only sign I had was that Levi was drinking a TON and his diaper was leaking during the day.  That never really happened.  I left a message saying maybe it was a growth spurt but something seemed wrong.  An hour later I was standing outside my kinder's classroom, waiting for him to get out for the day, and the nurse called me.  They wanted to see me right away with the alternate pediatrician.  I wanted to wait for mine but they said he wasn't available until end of day and they needed to see me right away.  I dropped my two older ones off at my aunts house and off we went. 

They put a bag on Levi and within a few minutes, he had pee'd enough to get a sample.  I had convinced myself nothing was wrong.  My regular  pediatrician has a booming voice and I heard the nurse knock on the door of the room next to me.  They said they needed to see him.  A few minutes later I heard him say "Get Stanford on the line and tell Dr. M that I will handle this".  I knew right then that Levi had diabetes.  Dr. C walked into my room and I just immediately started crying.  I think this really threw him for a loop :)  He told me that yes, Levi had diabetes but that he was going to be ok.  He told me to call my husband and he needed to come home from work.  I moved into another room while Dr. C tried to get ahold of Stanford.  We were told we needed to head to Stanford (Lucille Packard's Childrens Hospital) and go straight to the emergency room where they would be expecting us.  In addition to worrying about Levi, I had two other children to consider.  Sometimes the older ones get a bit lost which is just as worrying to me.

We raced to Stanford and we were admitted immediately to a room in the ER.  We saw numerous nurses, three doctors, and of course the billing person.  $250 for the visit.  Ouch.  I was definitely impressed with Stanford but there's no changing the fact that Levi screamed during the visit.  They needed to take blood which was a complete nightmare and then administer his first dose of insulin - right into his tummy.  We had to told him down and it was just awful.  Stanford confirmed his diagnosis and basically sent us home.  We needed to return the next day for a marathon learning day. 

I couldn't stop crying.  I cried driving there, I cried through admissions and every time a doctor/nurse talked to me, I cried.  Maybe others can be more stoic, but for me, I just cried.  I cried for Levi, I cried out of fear and I cried out of sheer exhaustion.  Just contemplating his disease was overwhelming to me.