All of June was filled with summer days of disneyland, knotts, beach days, birthday parties. I was looking forward to Ewan finally being out of school and getting to fill our days with fun. It was these days that Graham started to show signs of what I thought was the "terrible threes". He had just turned three in March, and all of a sudden he flipped a switch and started throwing tantrums in public, begging me to carrying him everywhere, never talking anymore just whining all day, having potty accidents because he didn't make it to the bathroom on time… I was completely losing my funny, loving, smart, baby boy. I would be with friends, family, neighbors, church, and would make light of his behavior by joking that age three is difficult. I was constantly confused and would talk to Jeff about it every night, going over the daily struggles and not understanding what was going on.
On Wednesday, July 2nd, I had plans to head to the beach with my best friend and her kids but had to call and cancel because graham had vomited that morning. He vomited again later that day, and that was when I called his doctor to make a next day appointment. I thought he had a stomach virus. Days prior to this, Jeff and I had discussed scheduling a checkup with his doctor due to his unexplainable behavior, mainly including his need to use the restroom every 30 minutes, 24 hours a day. He hadn't slept in days, as he was up all night coming in our room asking for more and more water. And then came the day of vomiting which I saw as a sign that he really was sick or just extremely exhausted by this point.
The next morning, July 3rd, 2014, Jeff took Graham to his doctors appointment while i stayed home with Ewan. Graham hadn't eaten in 12 hours, so his doctor tested his fasting blood sugar levels with a finger prick in her office… they were off the charts high. She immediately sent him and Jeff to the ER. It was then that Jeff called me to tell me to meet him at the hospital.
I packed an overnight bag for Ewan and had Jeff's dad pick him. I gave that boy a big kiss and knew I wasn't going to see him for a few days while we were going to stay with Graham.
Fast forward 6 hours, in the tiny curtained off corner of the ER where Graham was sleeping peacefully as his body was being replenished with fluids through an IV, and a drip of insulin. It was the ER doctor that came and sat down with us to officially explain that Graham was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. There was a feeling of needing to be shocked from the news, but we weren't. Jeff and I knew something was wrong for weeks and this just explained everything we had been going through with Graham. Almost a sense of relief finally knowing what was wrong.
The rest of the day was spent waiting for an ambulance transfer to the pediatrics ICU at a hospital nearby. And Jeff and I quietly collecting our thoughts on what was ahead.
// details of our five day stay journey continued here
