The Day I Found Out My Daughter Had Diabetes

Scary is an understatement when you're talking about a diabetes diagnosis, especially when a child is involved. In this video, Kim and Brittany talk about the day of Brittany’s type 1 diagnosis and how much treatment has evolved in the years since.

Transcript

00:00

She was. I was. You were three months before your 10th birthday.

00:06

I remember. It was September 22. She was going to turn 10 in December.

00:13

She had not been feeling well, and my mother took her to the doctor. Two days later, I went to wake you up to take you to school,

00:21

and I was going to work. You wouldn't wake up. Finally got you in the car and before we got to the end of the road, which was less than a half

00:28

a mile, you were sound sleep in the back seat again. I called Nanny and said, I'm going to bring Brittany to you.

00:35

I'm calling the doctor. And they retested and they said, you've got to go to the hospital. Well, my sugar was 523.

00:43

They did a finger stick at that time. You know, Nanny doesn't panic much, but you could see the panic setting in.

00:51

It almost became like the teacher on Charlie Brown. Like, everything just started getting, wah, wah, wah.

00:58

And all I could picture was Mamaw and her shots. And then I--

01:04

She took you back there. I couldn't get back to Nanny and Papaw's house fast enough to hide. Well, where's Brittany? We've got to get her to the--

01:10

Exit stage left. So we start a house search, and lo and behold.

01:17

The dryer. Miss Brittany has climbed in the dryer and shut the dryer door behind her. Yeah, I wasn't real happy you found me.

01:23

Do you remember when we got to the hospital and we got in your room, and the lab tech come in the room

01:30

and he said, you're extremely lucky. He said, she walked in. He said, most of our newly diagnosed type 1 diabetics,

01:39

they get diagnosed when they're brought in in a coma. So don't dismiss it.

01:45

I don't feel like people need to accompany it with that-- it's serious, but there's a solution.

01:54

Things are so much better, so much better than 25 years ago. Do you feel like they are with type 2 also?

02:01

Do you feel like the medications are more effective or just the way that they understand how the body reacts to carbohydrates and fat?

02:08

I think the understanding is better, and there's more information getting put out there for everybody.