Leanne's Story

"You need to book Maisie a doctor's appointment" , not words I often heard from my husband, in fact, never. And not ones I expected to hear whilst sitting in the special care baby unit with our four day old baby boy. My husband had been co-sleeping with our then, 2 year old in my absence with an unexpected stint in hospital with our newborn rainbow baby. He'd remembered some training that he'd had years back where sweet smelling breath was a sign of type 1 diabetes. I told him to not be ridiculous as he continued telling me she was drinking excessively. I thought this was a good thing! That lull between Christmas and New year as I remained in hospital also meant fewer doctors were on the ground so getting an appointment was proving difficult. We were advised to drop off a urine sample. My MIL dropped it in the morning we were due to come home. It was NYE. Finally, we were home from.a week in hospital all back together to start our life as a family of 4. The cuddles interrupted by a phone call from the doctor. " Pack a hospital bag for your daughter, she's very poorly with high levels of glucose and ketones in her urine". At the time, I had no idea what this meant. Only that our family was about to be split. I was unable to take my newborn in due to risk of infection so my husband went in with her. My heart broke saying goodbye. Within a few hours we got the diagnosis we'd hoped wasn't coming. The week in hospital was tough for us, along with a newborn missing bonding time. Luckily, Maisie was put on an insulin drip and her blood glucose came down safely and we are now managing with a dexcom and tslim. I've learnt so much about my daughter and most importantly, she's taught us so much . Her strength is incredible. It has shaped us. But it's life now. And we couldn't be prouder of our beautiful superhero. Forever grateful for science, insulin and tech.