written by his mother, Jessica
photographed by Captured by Courtney Photography
Cameron is an amazing, spunky, energetic 4 year old boy! He is also a Type 1 Diabetic. He was diagnosed in April of this year (2016).
I was 8 months pregnant with Cameron's little brother when we got the confirmation. My heart broke, but I was somewhat relieved to learn that there was a reason my baby wasn't feeling his normal self.
Cameron has always been a quick learner. It never took him more that 2-3 times to try something, and he would have it down. This includes potty training. He was 1 and half when he was fully potty trained, even during the night. So, when he started peeing his bed 3-4 times a night, every night, we started to get really frustrated. Of course, our first thought was, new baby......he's just acting out. Then we started noticing how thirsty he was.
At first, we didn't think anything of it because he's always loved his water. He'd prefer it over juice! But then he started downing it. Obviously with his constant thirst, there was the frequent urination. I would keep an eye on the color of the urine to make sure he was hydrated, not knowing that with Diabetes, the urine can be completely clear, but your body is still dehydrated. Come to find out, his body was urinating out all the sugar in his system.
I was venting one day to a best friend of mine, and she said she knew someone, who like Cameron, had the same symptoms and was diagnosed with Diabetes. When I heard that, I did some research.
Cameron had every single symptom.
I immediately called and made an appointment with his doctor for an evaluation. The earliest we could get him in was 3 weeks away.
One day, a Saturday morning, we (my husband and I), wanted to surprise Cameron by taking him to the movies. We were all dressed and ready to go, when we decided to stop at Walgreens and get a Glucose Testing Kit.
Cameron had a really bad night Friday. We didn't really expect anything to come out of it, but decided to get one just in case. The awesome Pharmacist there did Cameron's test, because we had no idea what we were doing. When she took his glucose, the meter just said "Hi", which means his glucose was so high, it exceeded the reading the meter could give.
We were advised to call the ER, and were told to immediately go in. Instead of a fun-filled day at the movies, we were in a hospital room trying to find out what was wrong with our son.
Cameron was admitted from Saturday morning to Monday evening. He had Ketoacidosis, which is a life-threatening condition that leads to diabetic coma, and even possibly death.
The amount of stuff you have to learn to keep your baby healthy is overwhelming. Cameron endures at least 4 finger pokes a day, and between 4-6 insulin shots a day...every single day. His carbs are measured out and accounted for at every snack and meal.
Some days are "better" than others. It kills me when he asks, "Mommy, why do I have Diabetes, what did I do wrong to get it?"
Nothing my Bug, you did absolutely nothing wrong at all. I choke back tears every time he asks me that.
Unfortunately, Type 1 Diabetes is brought on by a viral or bacterial infection. Cameron had some kind of virus, which was like a normal virus. It ran its course and he was fine, until about 2-3 weeks later when we started to notice his symptoms. He will have this his entire life.
He is so brave. He is my Warrior ❤️
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