She Has...What?!

So...my last blog was the night before we were heading for our favorite week of the year...Family Camp! It's usually a place where the moment we cross the boundary into Pine Cove, the real world goes away, and in its place, is only ease, contentment, fun, smiles, and lots of love. We left Sunday morning with those expectations, but one of our children, Darby, threw up right as we were walking out the door. So we adjusted our thoughts that instead of really starting our vacation on Sunday, we would head to camp, but Darby would feel better on Monday and then the real world would go away.

Not to be...on Monday, Darby was worse and was looking, literally, like a skeleton with skin pulled tight over it. She was scaring Ben and me and even frightened the camp nurse. She made an appt for us at 1:30 at a local dr's office and within half an hour of making that appt, Ben and I decided to take her to the local minor emergency clinic. One of her symptoms was a stomach ache, so what does any parent give a child with a stomach ache? Sprite! So while sitting there waiting, she downs 20 oz of Sprite.

We get called back and the basic vitals are taken and then they try to get blood. She is so dehydrated at this point that getting anything from her is seriously difficult. They finally get a small vial of blood and take it to the back for testing. I am expecting a severely low iron result, along with maybe what thing she might have that would require a quick prescription and be able to head back to camp for the awaiting fun. Not to be.....

The nurse is back very quickly saying that her blood sugar number was 869! Normal being between 90-110. The lab was running a second test to verify the number, but life became a blur after that announcement. They quickly placed Darby on a gurney to try to start an IV(they were not successful), then called for an ambulance and within seconds they were there to take our baby to the ER!

I rode with her and called everyone I knew for prayer, trying to hold it together, but not being so successful. Ben followed in our van and was only seconds behind us.
We get wheeled into the ER from the back, a room had already been prepared for her and they began the process of starting an IV. This process ended up taking 2 1/2 hours since Darby was so dehydrated. After a bit, the doctor comes in with the diagnosis of Type 1 Diabetes and, instantly, we have a whole new life.

There have been so many blessings in all of this and I know that God will continue to provide blessings for Darby!
1. We were at camp. As crazy as that might sound to be a blessing. We know that if we were at home, we would have waited another couple of days, thinking it was a virus.
2. Our other children were blissfully unaware of the details because they were at their camps having a marvelous time.
3. Our oldest daughter had lots of help in the form of counselors to help with the kids when they weren't in their camps.
4. Tyler, TX for some reason has a large population of diabetics and has one of the most fabulous diabetes teams in the country.
5. We had just been talking about needing to figure out what "normal" was in our new home and God provided just that. We don't have to worry about our traditions and routines in Little Rock and maybe having to do away with all that. We don't have any of those yet here, so Darby's diagnosis is our new normal and we fit everything around that. A true blessing!
6. Darby instantly began to take responsibility for checking her blood sugar, giving herself her insulin, and learning what she can say "yes" to and what she needs to avoid for now.

We have always said that God meets us at Pine Cove, and it was no different this year. We feel as though Darby is our Lazarus...she was dead and God has raised her back to life for us! I am anxiously awaiting the rest of her life, because I think there is a great plan for her in all of this.