A New Way to Live
A week ago, we had a scary moment that, unknown to us at the time, would change how we live forever.
After talking to our 13-year-old son Lucas, who is a twin, we learned that he had been using the bathroom several times a night. We could see that he had lost a dramatic amount of weight over the previous week and a half, and he had been extremely thirsty.
He eats for three grown men, so some of these symptoms can be confusing when you have a teenage boy who is growing like a weed and is now taller than his father. Irritability? I attributed that to being a teenager.
We had just returned from church and decided to Google the symptoms. My husband and I looked at each other with that look parents give each other when something suddenly feels very wrong.
We were supposed to leave for Hawaii that following Tuesday.
I immediately took Lucas to our nearest urgent care. After a quick prick on his fingertip, I was told, “His blood sugar levels are over 500.”
I humbly admit that I didn't know what a “normal” blood sugar reading was at that point. She explained that a typical blood sugar level is much lower, and then calmly told me, “You need to take him to the hospital now.”
She offered to call an ambulance.
That freaked me out.
I told her I could drive, and we rushed out of there.
I am very grateful for Sundays and empty streets in Gilbert because I sped directly to our nearest hospital. My husband came quickly to meet us, and by the time Lucas was admitted, his blood sugar was over 600.
Lucas seemed completely normal.
That was the scariest part.
Earlier, before we went to urgent care, he had slurred a couple of phrases, which made me question what exactly was happening. But otherwise, he was just Lucas.
At the hospital, they immediately started him on fluids and took blood for several tests. They explained that once he was a little more stable, he would need to be transferred to a children's hospital.
They ordered an ambulance because Lucas needed to remain on those fluids. Banner Children's was just a few miles west of us, and I followed the ambulance closely.
When we arrived, they weighed him—49.5 kilos—and measured his height at 1.83 meters. His blood sugar was around 453 at that point.
Once he was in his room, they took more blood and continued checking his blood sugar every hour, even throughout the night.
Lucas was in good spirits.
And we were so incredibly grateful.
I keep thinking about the divine intervention that happened that day. We really don't know what would have happened if we had been on our trip to Hawaii like we were supposed to be.
I am just so grateful that we were home. That we noticed. That we took him in.
This blog isn't really about yoga, but if sharing this can help ONE mom or dad out there recognize these symptoms, then that is enough of a reason for me to write it.
Please talk to your children.
Pay attention to changes.
Lucas is now living with Type 1 diabetes. Type 1 can happen to anyone, at any age. It is an autoimmune condition and is not caused by eating unhealthy food or not exercising.
Lucas is one of the healthiest kids I know. He has an incredible amount of self-motivation. He gets up at 5 a.m. to work out. He rides his bike in the Arizona heat. He eats well. He is active and strong.
And somehow, this still happened to him.
This happened without it being my fault.
It is not my fault.
It is not my husband's fault.
That has probably been one of the hardest things for me to understand because, as a mother, my instinct is to look for something I could have done differently.
Lucas was breastfed. He was a baby who rarely got sick. Actually, he almost never gets sick. In his 13 years, I can count the times he has been sick on one hand.
There were occasional headaches, but nothing that made us think something like this was happening inside his body.
We now know that Type 1 diabetes can develop silently for a long time before diagnosis. His doctors believe the process had likely been going on for at least several months, even though we had absolutely no idea.
And now we are learning.
We are learning all there is to learn about Type 1 diabetes. For now, we have all of the manual supplies, and we hope that in the very near future we can move toward some of the technology that will make managing this a little easier.
I am still learning the language.
The abbreviations.
The numbers.
The terminology.
The devices.
The carb counting.
The highs and the lows.
There is so much to learn.
Yesterday, I played my last day of my pickleball league.
It felt more like therapy than exercise.
At one point, tears were almost rolling down my face—not because I wasn't playing as well as I normally do, but because I was taking in the entirety of this past week.
And praising God.
I have done a lot of that lately.
I am just so grateful.
Things could have been so different if we had been traveling like we were supposed to.
Then I looked at the back of the arm of one of our beautiful players. I had actually been complimenting her because she looked so “model-like” in the tank top from the place where we were playing, PICKLR.
My partner pointed to her arm, and we asked, “Are you a diabetic?”
I told her what had happened with Lucas.
Her eyes immediately started to tear up—for me, for Lucas.
She knows the intensity of this.
I didn't really get to teach much this week. All of my classes had been covered because of our planned trip. So many friends and students reached out. Friends from church helped with our two dinners right after we came home from the hospital.
I am so grateful for the support.
It really does take a village.
And then there is yoga.
I understand that this isn't your typical “cookie-cutter” yoga blog post.
But I will say this:
Because of yoga, I was able to stay calm when I needed to.
I was able to breathe through it.
I was able to come back to the present moment when my mind wanted to run a million miles ahead.
Yoga didn't make this situation easier.
But it gave me tools to move through it.
And right now, I am incredibly grateful for those tools.
There is so much more to this story.
And yes…
there's so much more to come.
