Malaika

We had a lovely day playing outside, had just eaten dinner and were sitting on the couch after bath time

Malaika climbed on my lap for a cuddle as she always did and was busy chattering away non stop

Then she stopped suddenly, I thought something on the TV had caught her attention, I looked down at her and saw something wasn't right

She was staring blankly at nothing, her eyes were glazed over. I started saying her name over and over

And then her eyes rolled back into her head and she began to shake
I lay her on the floor and watched as her tiny body began convulsing, her mouth foaming.
I grabbed my phone and dialled 999

I was placed in a holding system, Malaika slowly stopped shaking, her beautiful olive skin was pale and clammy

She began to convulse again as a call handler answered the call after 7 minutes.
It was the longest 7 minutes in my life, I have never felt so helpless

Malaika hadn't regained consciousness at this point but her colour had returned and she was breathing heavily but regularly

I think in the 7 minutes I waited for my call to be answered, every thought was filled with pain and loss.
I was lost.
I questioned what I could have changed, chastised myself for not playing more, for getting cross about things that clearly didn't matter

The paramedics arrived minutes after I'd given my address and I carried my little girls limp body into the back of the ambulance

She was boiling hot I hadn't noticed this before now.
She had another small seizure and then we arrived at the hospital.

A+E are a blur and we soon ended up on the children's ward
She was diagnosed with a viral infection and the seizure was a result of her temperature rising too quickly and it was nothing to be too concerned about

A number of tests had been done upon admission except for urine, so before we left Malaika's urine was dipstick tested and it showed a trace of glucose.
Again, I was told at this point there was nothing to be concerned about, but a finger prick glucose test was done to be sure.
Malaika's sugar was 16, normal is 4 to 5.
I inmediately asked it was type 1, I was told not necessarily, that her little body had gone through so much and she was still feeling poorly, so they would retest in an hour.

A long hours wait passed and Malaika's sugar was tested - it was 4
I breathed  an audible sigh of relief, it wasn't diabetes and we were discharged

Life went on for the following four weeks. Malaika seemed to be more thirsty than normal but I assumed I was being paranoid
She was wetting through her nappy at least once a night in bed, I brushed it off - it was because she was drinking more in the day. Nothing to worry about.

On the 21st of September 2015 Malaika and her friend Chloe did a sponsored walk for an African children's charity.
They walked 6 miles every mile the had a gift with some sweets to keep the energy and motivation up.

The following day Malaika had wet through 3 nappies in the night.
I decided to start a little notebook to see if she was drinking a lot or if I just thought she was.

After a big Sunday lunch Malaika asked for a drink and didn't breathe as she frantically tried to drink it all.
Before she reached the end she said she was thirsty and asked for another drink.

It hit me like a lightning bolt, I remembered the  unquenchable thirst before my diagnosis and let her have as many drinks as she wanted and then did the inevitable blood test using my meter.

Her blood glucose was HI, that reading means her glucose was too high for the machine to read, which meant it was over 33

We went back to hospital and the diagnosis was confirmed.

My beautiful princess was diagnosed type 1 diabetic aged two and a half years on the 22nd of the September 26th 2015

Symptoms of undiagnosed diabetes are:
feeling very thirsty
urinating more frequently than usual, particularly at night
feeling very tired
unexplained weight loss