Mightier than Type One : #SuperheroShoutout Finn’s Story "He’s a typical 3 year old!” everyone said. “It’s normal behaviour, don’t worry!”, they said. Was it? I didn’t quite believe what people were saying to me, I thought it was one of those things they said to try and stop mums worrying. I went with the majority verdict and got on with family life. The 3 year old? Our little boy, Finn. Finn was going through some severe mood swings, uncontrollable tempers where he would scream as though he was in pain. All apparently ‘normal’ according to the professionals. The tempers gradually became worse. He started wetting himself at bedtime and was getting infection after infection. Looking back he was probably a very poorly 3 year old, not a typical one. Finn woke up early one morning with a really bad cough and struggling to breathe. We called NHS Direct and they said to take him to A&E and get him checked over. Off we went. We got seen very quickly and they diagnosed Finn with croup. They gave him some steroid medicine and the usual Calpol. The doctor then asked “aside from the cough, how is he in himself? Going to the toilet ok?”. We mentioned the mood swings but that Finn was late in toilet training and that he was generally good at going when he needed to but at night he begun to wet the bed. The doctor asked to check his urine just to make sure there was no other infection anywhere. Finn was very willing to go ‘point Percy in a special pot’, and smiled his cheeky smile to the nurse that took it off him. It was probably only a few minutes after that when the doctor came back with the nurse holding a blood sugar monitor. It was as though he knew by looking at us that there was something else was wrong. He asked us if we’d heard of Diabetic Ketoacidosis or DKA, I knew then what he was telling us. I broke down right there and then. They pricked Finn’s finger and it read 23.8 for his blood sugar and his ketones were 7.4. I’d never heard of ketones before but we were told that in a non-diabetic, levels are normally below 0.6. Finn’s levels were extremely high and that he is classed as a medical emergency. They told us that if we hadn’t gone in when we did, he would have been in a coma within a couple of weeks. We were admitted straight away into the children’s ward and Finn had a cannula fitted ready for a drip. Finn’s grandma has type 1 so I had grown up with it but a lifetime of watching someone else cope was nothing compared to what we were about to be faced with. How do you tell your child that he’s going to have to inject himself whenever he wants to eat anything and that he will forever have to prick his finger at least 7 times a day? Finn spent almost a week in hospital adjusting to life as a diabetic. We learnt how to administer the injections, how to do the finger tests, how to recognise a hypo, what do to do if he falls into a diabetic coma and quickly learnt about all things linked to diabetes. Finn didn’t take to injections very well and was having between 6 and 8 injections a day. With this came a lot of anger and a lot of tears. Thankfully, Finn went onto pump therapy a few months and whilst this took away the fear of injections and allowed him to eat more freely like a normal child of his age, it means that he is permanently attached to his pump via a cannula and tube. Since Finn was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes on 14th November, a date I later learnt is World Diabetes Day, he is amazing with it and he doesn’t let it stop him doing anything. He has little breakdowns (only with us at home) fairly often and it’s not easy watching him go through it, but we do what any parent would do and try comfort him as best we can. Finn has found a love of football and Leeds United and it currently on trials with them (proud mum alert!), whenever possible he gets to go to Elland Road to watch his dream team! He’s a different child when he’s there and I’m so proud of him and the young man he is turning into. A few months ago my daughter (4 years old) and myself took part in a trial to see if either of us are likely to develop type 1 diabetes. My results came back negative, but my daughters have come back positive and we have been told that she’s basically a ticking time bomb. Not good news, but at least we are prepared and we now monitor her closely so that she won’t get poorly before diagnosis. Every cloud has a silver lining I suppose. Victoria