Concerned about diabetes in 12 year old and on holiday

[Brigittebidet]

We are away on holiday (UK) and I have suddenly put two and two together with my son and become concerned. He has been tired for about a week and started drinking and peeing a lot more than usual and his breath smells terribly acidic all the time and he’s getting intermittent stomach pains. Can this wait until we get home (next Monday) or what can I do whilst away? He’s not feeling unwell in himself and is feeling OK.

I may of course be over thinking this and it’s just a bug.

Glad you're getting home op. I can remember being absolutely terrified when we were discharged but it does get easier.
You'll find you'll just get the hang of working things out then the team will change things but it honestly does become second nature.

My DC who was 13 when diagnosed has the libre 2 and the Omnipod pump now. They were on injections for about 10 months. They could have got the pump earlier but they were happy enough doing the injections. Now they love the pump, it has literally been life changing.
There's no denying it's a shitty disease, made worse by all the wrong advice you'll get from folk, eg I got told that my DC didn't look like they had diabetes as they weren't fat and was asked if they got it by eating rubbish!! But you will get there op.
If you have any questions please ask,

Thanks all. Worried about going home - it feels like going home with a newborn all over again but we’ll get there. He’s already making plans for a sport club on Monday night so our nurse is coming for a home visit on Monday to suggest how to do the insulin for that and then he’s arranged to meet a friend on Tuesday. It’s terrifying but I guess I have to let him go. He was invited to a friend’s birthday meal out on Saturday and having reassured him that we wouldn’t stop him doing things I suggested it might be better if he didn’t go out for a meal until we’d got the hang of all the calculations etc. Poor boy. He took it well.

We’ll get there.

My son has type 1. I would let him go for the meal. If you know where he is going you can roughly work out the carbs in the meal. I would under estimate in your situation (early diagnosed) and give a correction dose once he is home.

Join the groups on Facebook. There is always someone online to offer advice.

Reading this post gave me serious flashbacks
My brother was diagnosed in very similar circumstances aged 11.
My mum figured it out and took him to the hospital, once they were finally home I think she cried every night (after he was in bed- I’m 8 years older than him) for weeks. She was so overwhelmed and said it felt like a newborn again. It felt like such a massive blow/shock to the family and everything changed. Mealtimes were stressful and hard for a while, watch out for stuff like McDonald’s as a lot of take out is slow releasing. You’ll find lots of info and advice online.

Fwiw my brother is now a strapping, sports mad early 20’s and his type 1 hasn’t stopped him living a normal life xx

DD is 12, diagnosed 3 years ago. She informs me that one of the very best things about T1 is that you get to eat sweets in class and the teacher can't tell you off.

It's a big old learning curve, and you will settle into it. I can still remember just how stressful those first weeks (and longer) were; how I was very concerned about eating exactly the right number of minutes after insulin, how DD going to friends' houses seemed so tricky.

Biggest tip from me? Preparation! Make sure you take snacks and juice and all the rest wherever you go. We've been caught out (and still are sometimes, despite this). We take extra food on long journeys in case there's nowhere to stop. Juice boxes and sweets all over the place.

You can get great little kit bags for the paraphernalia that T1 kids (and adults) have to cart around. Might be worth looking for one when things have settled down a bit that will appeal to your DS? Just makes things a bit less crap!

Please don't stop him going out and doing the normal things he would do.
My DC struggled so much adjusting to the fact that they had diabetes, if I had stopped their normal activities I dread to think what would have happened.

It's probably worse for us parents to begin with but there is a lot of support out there. Having other parents with type 1 children that I could talk to helped me so much.

It's going to be a long learning journey but you will get the hang of it.

The poor guy has just had a massive sob about how horrible this all is and how he finds it so overwhelming the thought that it is with him for life. I feel so so sad for him. He’s physically, emotionally and mentally exhausted. He has taken on board everything he has been told and is just at capacity I think. I hope he can relax a bit when he gets home.

Awww op, it's awful for him.
It's good that he's not bottling it up, all you can do is be there for him, tell him it's ok to be angry and scared.
Going forward it may be that he wants to join teenage support groups to help him deal with it.
If you think he's really struggling your diabetic team should be there to help

Although it's horrible to watch it's pretty normal for him to feel that way. There were a lot of tears shed in this house from all of us as life changes so much literally overnight. We found help with the psychologist from the diabetes team, she had some 1:1 appointments with her and now she pops in for a chat during her three monthly appointments at the hospital. She still gets the rage every now and then but she's really settled into it. As a pp said she likes that she can have her phone out at school and eat in class if she needs to.

I would let him go. Agree what sort of thing he is going to have and think about a sensible dose. Tell him not to have a sugary drink. Test after two hours and take corrective if high. Control doesn’t have to be absolutely perfect all the time - and sending message he can’t do stuff is probably a lot more harmful!

Aw, OP I promise you, you will be ok. There's so much to take onboard at the moment that it can feel a bit like you're drowning. You get bombarded with information and it's hard to sort out what the most important thing to concentrate on is, but after a while, it all becomes second nature.

I've already mentioned it, but I can't recommend the libre 2 enough. When you meet the diabetes team at home, ask them about it. You can link it to your phone, so you'll get an alert when his BS is dropping or going high and it takes some of the worry out of them going out on their own. It can also be monitored by the hospital so they can make any changes to his insulin, week by week if needs be and it can be scanned with a mobile which is great if your teenager is self conscious.

Life has changed for you all, there's no denying that, but as I said in a previous post, I'm hopeful for the future with all the technology they're developing.