For this first ‘Daily Diabetes’ post, I want to introduce you to our brave young son, Noah. He’s six at the moment, full of energy, loves spending time with his friends, loves dressing up in Super Hero, Spy or pirate costumes and loves to tell jokes. Life for Noah is much like any other child his age, except for having to contend with diabetes, every day.
Noah was diagnosed with diabetes just after he turned 4, two weeks before Christmas 2008. It was a complete shock to us. Noah had been a really healthy active child who ate a healthy well balance diet.
A few months before he was diagnosed, he had quiet an appetite. At first I just put it down to a growth spurt, but then I thought perhaps he had worms and so the entire Cheney family was dewormed. This seemed to have done the trick but then hungry Noah gave way to thirsty Noah.
Noah was thirsty all the time. I thought that maybe he was going through a phase as kids do, or maybe he was JUST thirsty, after all it was summer. But then he was also peeing an awful lot too. Well, it just didnt seem right and after calling the health line one weekend when it seemed all that more excessive, the drinking and peeing, we took him to the Emergency Department. He had a blood test and we were then told that he had diabetes. It was a crazy thing to digest, your child has been diagnosed with a disorder we knew very little about.
Noah was then admitted to PMH (Princess Margaret Hospital) for one tough week of learning, learning about how to manage and cope with diabetes. Dad slept on an old recliner couch at the hospital. Mum stayed about a block away with baby Isaiah at a friend’s apartment which was an absolute blessing. And our poor four year old was subjected to two houly finger pricks and at least two daily injections of insulin. He screamed and kicked a lot in that week. Our consolation was that it would get better, that diabetes is manageable and that he didn’t have a terminal illness.
We prayed a lot in that week and questioned God plenty too. We were thankful for the special friends and family that were there for us in that tough week, we were thankful for the great diabetes team at PMH, for our blessed country where we have access to medicine and we were reminded of our human fragility and need for the miraculous. We pray daily for Noah’s healing and for the cure for diabetes.
