My daughter Julissa was 8 years old when she was diagnosed Type1. We were at her brothers little league football game and noticed that she slept through the entire game in the stands, only to wake up to continually go to the bathroom & drink water. Attending a bbq after the game Julissa continued to sleep, the next morning I sent my son to call her for breakfast and she was still sleeping which was a surprise because she is the early bird of the family. When she finally came into the kitchen I immediately noticed there was something wrong with Julissa, her breathing was labored & she was very disoriented. We took her right away to our local hospital, she was taken into triage where they began to check her. I remember the nurse commenting that she was giving off a sweet odor and was going to check her blood sugar we sat quietly waiting for the doctor. Julissa was hooked up to IV fluids because she was so dehydrated, when the doctor finally came in the first thing he asked us was how long our daughter had been diabetic, I remember telling him she was not diabetic clearly realizing that we had no idea he sat down next to us apologized and explained our daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes and that she was in DKA her blood sugar was 868 and she was going to be transported to a hospital that good better handle her situation. Julissa was transported by ambulance and was in ICU for 4 days before being moved and later released.
Julissa has just turned 14 years old and will be entering high school this fall, she has her good days as well as her bad days. She continuously works at maintaining her blood sugars with a little push here and there, what can you expect from a teenager? She is very active in softball & volleyball and her diabetes does not deter her. We are very optimistic that Julissa will thrive in life!!
Indio, CA
