Type1 Superstar ✨Oliver✨

Our little man Oliver was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes on 5th October 2022 at the young age of 2 years 9 months. It was the October long weekend and for a couple of consecutive days we had noticed he was drinking a lot more water and constantly leaking through his nappies but we didn’t really think anything of it.

On Tuesday 4th October he was at my mother-in-laws for the day as he is every Tuesday and when I picked him up in the afternoon after work my mother-in-law mentioned the same thing. At first she suggested he could possibly have a UTI so I made a mental note to google UTI symptoms and book a doctors appointment later that evening after dinner. On my drive home, my mother-in-law rang me and said “actually I just had a thought and I don’t want to alarm you but they are the same symptoms Dom had when he was diagnosed with diabetes” (my brother-in-law, my husbands brother, also has Type One diabetes, diagnosed 10+ years ago when he was 12). She said she would send Dom out to our house after dinner with his tester and said to finger prick Ollie just for peace of mind.

Again I wasn’t overly concerned and didn’t put too much thought into it. Dom came out to our house after dinner and we finger pricked Ollie, the tester read 32 twice and in those exact moments I just froze, we knew immediately what was coming! By this time it was after 8pm, we rang our local hospital and they told us to not panic but to head up to the hospital as soon as we were able too. Because Ollie was physically well and was not showing any signs of sickness we hurried around cleaning up after dinner, my husband and Ollie had a quick shower, we packed a quick bag and headed to the hospital as we live 20 minutes out of town.

Upon arrival to ED they done another finger prick which was in the 30’s again and checked his ketones which were 2.3. When we presented to the ED they checked Ollie’s obs and he actually had a slight temperature so we had to go in an isolation room and be COVID tested. It was after 11pm when we got the COVID results back and finally saw a doctor. It was the next hour that followed when the doctors and nurses were trying to get blood out of him that will be forever etched in my memory and not for good reasons. Our little man was wrapped in a hospital sheet like a mummy and a doctor, two nurses, my husband and myself had to keep him pinned down all whilst he was crying and screaming “I want to go home”, it was absolutely heartbreaking, something I will never forget! We were kept in ED for the night and weren’t allowed to be taken to the children’s ward until his BSL got below 10.

We finally got to the children’s ward about 6am the next day and that’s where we spent the next week, learning all about diabetes, insulin injections, finger pricks, carb counting … the list goes on. The doctors were amazed that we had picked up on his symptoms and told us another couple of days and he would have been in a very bad state. I thank our lucky stars everyday that Ollie didn’t end up in DKA like so many others, I have my beautiful mother-in-law to thank for this, it breaks my heart to think what could have happened if we had overlooked his symptoms even just for a couple more days.

We had such wonderful nurses looking after us all who made our hospital stay bearable. On the Monday we got access to a Dexcom CGM and within the next couple of days we were released from hospital and sent home to navigate this journey all on our own. Due to T1D running in my husbands side of the family, we feel so fortunate to have that extra support and knowledge which has been a massive help.

In March 2023 Ollie was set up on the Omnipod which has been absolutely life-changing. Although it does require changing every 3 days and is an additional device permanently attached to this little body, we believe the pro’s with this system far outweigh the cons and it has made all our lives a heck of a lot easier, let’s just say insulin injections were not a fun time for anyone involved or witnessing! We are now 15+ months into our journey and are unbelievably proud of our little man.

We try our hardest not to let it interfere with this life too much and let him live a normal children’s life (lollies, cake, chocolate, icecream - on special occasions, in moderation and with lots of boluses of course).

We are still learning and adapting every day and I’m sure there will be numerous more challenges to overcome over the years but for now we are so incredibly proud of how far our little T1D super star has come and wish him nothing but health, happiness and success despite this life-long, relentless, exhausting and unfair illness!