our sweetie's younger brother

 

April 1, 2013, just almost two weeks ago, our sweetie's 3 year old brother, almost exactly the age that our sweetie was when she was diagnosed, our little guy was diagnosed with the same disease. 

 

People ask, how did we know?  We watched how thirsty he was.  But he had a cough.  He was thirsty from his cough.  but two weeks later, he was thirstier and his cough was almost gone.  On the day after Easter, I decided to check his blood sugar levels.  The meter read "high glucose".  I began to feel panicked.  I checked him one more time, and it read the same.  I decided to call our sweetie's doctor. 

 

 As I was on the phone with her, my little guy laid down on the kitchen floor and fell asleep,  Then he suddenly sat up and threw up.  Our doctor said that I needed to get him to the hospital right away.  That night, after we were admitted, his diagnosis was confirmed.  TYPE 1 DIABETES. again. 

 

We are relearning.  Our sweetie is on a pump now and doing well.  Our little guy is receiving many shots a day and hates it.  He runs and hides.  He receives stickers each time to earn towards a prize but he doesn't understand why he needs shots everytime he eats a meal now.  The first few days, he was so angry.  He wanted to eat and eat and eat and got angry when he couldn't.  He stood in the kitchen one day and kicked a cereal box over and over. 

 

Some have said "well, at least, you are familiar with type 1 diabetes."  As if this is consoling or saves us time.  Unfortunately, whether I know about it or not, my child is still now diagnosed with a permanent disease.  His life is forever changed.  Our lives are forever changed.  We do know the burden we already carry with our sweetie and are not consoled with his new diagnosis because we are familiar with this disease.

 

We knew that our risk was higher that in our family, someone else could be diagnosed, since this is a genetic disease.  But we are always warned about things and we know that a lot of times this doesn't come true.  But unfortunately our odds were against us in this. 

 

Our sweetie has a twin brother that now feels displaced.  Our sweetie was so excited when her little brother was diagnosed because she will not longer suffer alone in the family.  But her loving twin brother, now feels left out. 

 

We are so new in this new reality and wish to convey our heaviness rather than acceptance at this time.  But ultimately, we know that God fore knew this and is providing along the way. 

 

 

 We have hope and know that we don't walk this new path alone, yet we were already so very busy...