To think this is the start of type 1 diabetes

[NeuroSpicyCat]

Hand hold please.

My 13 year old son informed me tonight that he wet the bed last night.

This has never happened before.

His late father had Type 1 diabetes which started around this age.

My son also has a sore tummy (that comes and goes) and sore calves (that come and go).

He seems to have low mood also.

He's always been really thin.

My husband (his stepdad) is driving to A&E with him right now. I’m staying home with the other 4 children. (I can’t drive).

I’m autistic and scared. I’m so worried for him. AI said he is highly likely to be diagnosed given his symptoms and family history, and he’s likely to be urgently admitted to hospital.

Has anyone been in a similar situation?

Clearly not. Like many onthis thread I

Yep. DH is type 2. SiL is type 1. All the advice needed to look for signs and manage them is available through diabetic services and online from organisations like Diabetes UK. And ALL advocate for the lay person to call for appropriate help before doing anything else.

I'm comfortable with my decision. The cost isn't the point, so no thanks to @Lioncub2020 for insinuating that I value £30 more than my child's life!

The reason I don't have various testing kit at home is that the results wouldn't affect my actions. If my child is ill enough that I think they might have low blood oxygen or weird blood sugar levels then I want them to be seen by a doctor anyway. Mucking about doing tests that (a) I might do wrong and (b) I wouldn't be able to interpret the results of anyway won't change that.

The best case scenario is that testing at home delays medical assistance and gives me a number that the medics won't use anyway. They'll do their own tests. The worst case scenario is that testing at home gives me false reassurance and I keep my child at home when they had something entirely unrelated which potentially needed urgent medical assessment and treatment.

Purely on costs, though, it would certainly also have been more expensive to keep the blood sugar testing stuff at home than to drive to hospital as needed.

By choosing to go to hospital if I suspect an issue with my child's blood sugar levels, I incur a fuel cost of about £0.54, but even if I chose to take a taxi it wouldn't make a difference. So far I've made the journey 0 times (we've been to A&E, but never had blood sugar checked there). Total expenditure £0.00.

In the alternative scenario where I'd bought my own testing kit, based on this example buying the monitor itself would cost £15.99 including an initial batch of strips. The strips have a shelf life (unopened) of 24 months* so in the 13 years I've been a parent I'd have needed six packs at £11.30 each. Even though I haven't used any of this gear I'd have spent £83.79. And if I had needed to use it, I'd probably be going to A&E anyway. The whole thing would be an utterly pointless waste of money and an environmentally harmful misuse of the world's resources.

*If stored below 30°C. So I suppose I might also need to replace them after a heatwave too!

You'll never get away from the of posters here who are of the view that if your child looks like they are going sneeze you should take them to A&E right away.

That's fine. You can be comfortable with your decision and I'm comfortable with mine. We are all different.

Maybe you should stick to not commenting.

I hope your DS has made a full recovery. You won't feel any less protective when he's older & if you suspect he's seriously unwell you too will be straight down to A&E.

It’s unbelievable. Posters were actually advising OP to discharge her son and leave, rather than waiting to see a doctor. The repercussions of discharging against medical advice can be quite significant and the hospital wouldn’t have followed up with the GP on any further testing had they done this. I was berated by one poster who said the only reason they were asked to stay is that a triage nurse can’t discharge them without them seeing a doctor, which is utter nonsense. So clearly the point of triage isn’t understood either !!

It seems that way!

Why should @icallshade not make her perfectly reasonable comment?

She is correct that the OP has over reacted to what she has described and I can understand @icallshade's anger given wha happened with her genuinely unwell child.

I'm sick to death of people that don't understand diabetes is a serious, life threatening condition. Waiting ti see a GP could be FAR too late.

Diabetics pee more than non diabetics. Bed wetting is a potential sign, particularly in a child/teen who has otherwise been dry.

The amount of people here thinking it’s acceptance to abuse an A+E department because a teenager ‘might’ have diabetes is insane.

The rest of us aren’t saying to ignore the symptoms, but that a phone call to the GP in the morning would have been the best thing to do. The child was not unwell. Yes he has some random symptoms that might indicate a problem like T1 diabetes, but equally they were symptoms that could have been a number of other problems.

Good god, kids are wetting the bed up and down the country and complaining of stomach aches and you don’t see parents whizzing them down to A+E incase they have a dangerous illness.

It’s about having an appropriate response. His life was not in immediate danger. He wasn’t unwell, clammy, faint, dizzy or collapsing.

And those saying he wouldn’t have been triaged to see a doctor if he wasn’t really ill, I’m afraid that’s untrue. If a minor is bought in to A+E with any medical symptoms, they are always seen by a GP after triage. My friend did triage in A+E for years. It was a bug bear of hers that she had to waste doctors time with children who had a simple earache or cold, but that was the protocol with children.

Personally l’m quite glad that OP didn’t post before she took him to A&E because on this showing, she would have been comprehensively advised that it wasn’t necessary. And clearly it was, because triage determined he needed to stay and see a doctor. So a bit more than a sneeze.

How is getting a finger prick test ! Possibly some blood tests humiliating??

Tell that to the story family who just lost their 2 year old daughter to DKA!!
If anyone suspects type one diabetes - it is ALWAYS best to go and get checked. The hostipal would rather finger prick a child and say no they dont have diabetes than one turn up nearly dying because their parents were told by strangers on the inernet to wait the next day for the GP.

'I'm sick to death of people that don't understand diabetes is a serious, life threatening condition.'

Literally no one has said that. You seem to be arguing with yourself.

People need to remember this campaign:

Are you being paid to promote 111?

it would be fine if they were trained medical people, not just any old body willing to do the job.

it is a useless service as it is.

Good grief. I might have some symptoms that coincide with diabetes symptoms, and T1 runs in my family, but would I clog up am A+E waiting room when it’s not an emergency? No! I’d go to my GP for investigations. I would only attend A+E if those symptoms reached a situation where it was an ‘emergency’ and could not wait for the GP. If I died in the meantime, well that would be very rare, and I’d probably have just as much chance of being hit by a bus on the way to the doctors.
We can’t live our lives panicking because we ‘might’ have something that could kill us.
I have a life limiting/shortening auto immune condition that people die of every day. Please don’t treat me like an idiot.

Am I living in an alternate universe here? I’m starting to realise that the reason the NHS is in such a state is because of the ridiculous knee jerk reaction of people have to vague symptoms.

It's scary how so many ill informed people there are on this one thread alone! Keep up the good fight xx

Being dragged off to A&E because you pissed the bed? At 13? No, of course the boy will have been completely unembarrased.

I also have it in the family and have a high thirst today. Should I pop down? Or should I check my blood sugar is ok and just conclude there is a heightwave.

You took your son to A&E because he wet the bed the night before? And had a bit of a tummy ache and sore calves. Sorry, what?!
Just call the GP the next day. Taking him to A&E was an absurd thing to do!

And this is why people are still dying of undiagnosed type one diabetes in this country. Shocking.

And those saying he wouldn’t have been triaged to see a doctor if he wasn’t really ill, I’m afraid that’s untrue. If a minor is bought in to A+E with any medical symptoms, they are always seen by a GP after triage. My friend did triage in A+E for years. It was a bug bear of hers that she had to waste doctors time with children who had a simple earache or cold, but that was the protocol with children.

Sorry but this is nonsense. In general children are treated in the same way as adults. Triage assessment determines whether A&E treatment is appropriate and if so, at what priority level, and if not, determines the appropriate alternatives, such as referral back to GP, appropriate urgent care centres, or home with self care advice. Suggesting that OP’s son was only advised to see a doctor because the nurse was obliged to do so is ridiculous. Triage is to determine the best course of action and keep waiting times down. Otherwise it’s pointless.