My diagnosis

I thought I'd write a little bit about when I was diagnosed with diabetes, since that is what this blog is going to be about. I was diagnosed in June of 1985. I had just turned 4 in May. I don't remember a whole lot about that time, but I will tell you all about what I do remember and what my parents have told me.
When I was a baby my mom tells me I never sucked a pacifier. I didn't want one; I would just spit it out. After potty training, I never really wet the bed. I was pretty much a normal child. Sometime before I was diagnosed I started sucking the middle & ring finger of my left hand. (Why not my thumb....I have no idea. You'll have to ask my 4 year old self). One thing I do remember is standing in my kitchen and my dad trying to get me to stop sucking those fingers. He picked me up and asked me why I had started putting those fingers in my mouth. I told him, "I get water from my fingers."
That was one of the first things that I can remember. I also started having nightmares. More than just a normal child. I would wake up shrieking like I was being murdered according to my mother. And I actually do remember one of these dreams. I was in bed and a white tiger was in my bed trying to get me. I don't know why it was white, and I have no idea if I had seen one on TV or something that would even make me know what a white tiger looked like.
And then I started wetting the bed 3 or 4 times a night. I would wake up and beg for water and drink till the water ran down the sides of my mouth.
By this time my mom thought I needed to see a child shrink. She took me to the doctor. He didn't even hesitate. He told my mother to take me to a hospital at a nearby town as quickly as possible.
I do remember some of the stay at the hospital. There was this nurse with buttons all over her white coat. And I remember being held down to give me shots. And crying for more orange juice because that was the only thing sweet they would let me have.
I am very thankful, on one hand, to have been diagnosed so young in life. I don't remember a whole lot about my life pre-diabetes. I think it is easier to not have to change a lifestyle that I remember. Diabetes is my lifestyle. I know nothing else.
This isn't my complete story, but it is part of it. And I hope that it helps people understand me a little more.