Sydney's 2nd Diaversary

     I wanted to start this blog on Sydney's 2nd diaversary today January 4th, 2015. I begin this journey due to an overwhelming feeling that I need to share our story to hopefully encourage, support, and raise awareness of juvenile diabetes. Sydney was diagnosed at the age of 6 and in kindergarten. I put symptoms together and helped diagnose my daughter before she was in DKA or a coma. Please read Sydney's Diagnosis for complete details. It has been an extremely different two years, the first year was full of insulin shots and strict carb counting, an admittance to the hospital due to stomach bug and not having a clue how to give insulin when she could not keep anything down. The second year we moved to an insulin pump and sadly do not keep her on such strict carb ratio, and no hospital trips. We have had our good days and bad days, our highest hi's and lowest lows (42) and each time she hits a new high or low number we are thankful that she doesn't have a side effect. She is still my little trooper and takes it with more strength than I ever thought she could. My hope for this coming year is to convince her to get a CGM considering that she has no feeling of when she is low or high. Plus I want it to be able to get a better idea of what her sugar does throughout the day.   

     I learned that after Sydney was diagnosed we would be able to yearly Trialnet test her sister. Trialnet is a test that checks blood for autoantibodies that are predictive of the development of Type 1 diabetes. Sydney's sister, Bree, has been Trailnet tested twice (negative both times) and will continue to be tested yearly. My husband have been tested once as that is all that parents are allowed to be tested. It never occurred to me to get my nephew tested even though Trailnet will test cousins too. Now I wish that I had at least tried to get my brother and sister in law to test him because about a month and a half ago I helped diagnose my nephew Austin on November 15, 2014 with a simple blood sugar check on my daughters meter. Please read Austin's Diagnosis for complete details.

     A week prior to diagnosing my nephew, a 3rd grade student at school was diagnosed. I reached out to his mother for support like had been given to me when Sydney was diagnosed. I let her know that I knew she was overwhelmed, but I was there when she was ready to talk, vent, or question. I told her Sydney's diagnosis story and waited for her to be ready for me. At that time it began bothering me that I am not a big enough advocate for my daughter and Type 1 diabetics. I had wanted to do a write up about what T1D is and the symptoms to be aware of to go on our school's newsletter in November since it was Diabetes Awareness month, but I had talked myself out of it. I reached out to a friend Amy whose blog Naturally Sweet Sisters, I follow and ask questions about diabetic stuff frequently. I asked for guidance in how I could become a better advocate. She told me I could get in touch with my local JDRF and become an advocate. She also gave me the opportunity to tell Sydney's story on her blog. I told her I would love the chance to tell our story, because I truly believe that sharing our stories will help educate the public and get support from others. Considering Austin's diagnosis was less than a week later, I am just now getting the opportunity to write that post for her and that helped give me the idea to create this blog. 

     On National Diabetes Awareness day, I wrote a Facebook post about how when you know someone dealing with an issue and you have personal experience with the same issue that you should reach out to offer support and guidance. I shared that when Sydney was diagnosed a complete stranger heard about her diagnosis and reached out to offer me support. I have since offered my support to two others upon finding our news that their little boys were diagnosed. Little did I know that the next day, I would eat those words and have to reach to my support group whom helped me and I have helped due to my nephew being diagnosed.  Even though I knew everything going on, it was a different situation because he was terrified of needles and had never been hospitalized and I didn't know how to help prepare my brother and Jodi for him to go back to school. I work where Sydney goes to school, so I am always at the school with her. I spent the first day or two in the nurses clinic when Sydney returned to school to be happy with the nurse giving my child her needed insulin. But I was scared to send him back to school when he would go, because I honestly don't know how parents adapt to barely learning to take care of their child then trusting a school nurse who is a stranger to take care of him/her. My support group was quickly able to give support to me and were ready and waiting for my brother and Jodi to join the group to help and encourage them as well. I don't talk to them much, but I try to touch base every now and then to check in. I continue to look to my support group for guidance and strength and I feel that the more people who share their stories can help those newly diagnosed families who have no one to understand exactly what they are going through. We have been lucky to have a pretty immediate support group, but I know that others are not as fortunate.

I have asked Jodi to join me on this journey, so that you all can get not one families perspective, but two. They are still new to this journey. Sydney is on the pump and Austin is on shots and still in the honeymoon phase. So we have multiple options of posts, concerns, and randomness to hopefully make this blog a success. So my main purpose of this blog will be to share our stories about Sydney's journey, Austin's journey, our families journey as we take care of two Type 1 Diabetic cousins.

~Heather