Hannah was 7 when she was diagnosed. She was diagnosed on 8/10/15-3 weeks before 2nd grade started. Our 3 kids were enjoying the very hot weekend outside and soaking up every last bit of summer vacation that they could. They came in for the occasional drink and snack but it was very odd to us that Hannah was a bottomless pit and she was so thirsty. She couldn’t get enough to eat or drink. I can remember asking my husband Tom “You don’t think she could be diabetic, do you?” As both type 1 and type 2 run in our families. He said he didn’t think so but we would keep an eye on her and call her pediatrician if it continued. And it did continue. The following day was Monday and we were lucky enough to get an appointment with our pediatrician. They ran the necessary tests and our pediatrician came in with the diagnosis. Hannah had a blood sugar of 656 and an a1c of >14.0 at diagnosis. As parents, you don’t know how to prepare for something life changing happening to one of your children. The following days were filled with more emotions than we even knew we could experience. We began to learn how to care for Hannah and did our best to get back to life. School started and she handled it great. She had the support of everyone around her and it really helped to make this new part of life easier. Fast forward to November 2016. We began to see a new provider who immediately got Hannah started with an insulin pump. She began using the pump and for the first few weeks, it felt like starting over. But we worked out all of the kinks and it has completely changed the way she manages her diabetes. Using her pump along with her Dexcom has made Hannah more independent. She is confident (most of the time) in her decisions to treat and is happily transitioning into being a tween without allowing diabetes to decide how she is going to live her life. She is about to turn 10 and she is so happy and healthy. Hannah doesn’t let diabetes stop her from doing anything in her life and she has huge dreams for her future.

Diabetes turned our world upside down in the beginning. We were terrified for what her life would look like because we honestly didn’t know that children could have diabetes. You see the tv commercials for diabetes and you see the magazine ads for diabetes. But they all gear towards adults and they are almost all about Type 2. So this was foreign to us. It has been our mission as a family to educate whenever possible. Hannah’s big brothers have been very vocal about her diagnosis and they spread awareness however they can. As traumatic as it was for us as parents, it was definitely a hard point for our boys too. It has brought us closer together and taught us to love harder and live for today. We will always fight this disease together as a family, Hannah will never fight alone.