When I woke up on the morning of my 4th birthday party, something didn’t feel quite right. It was on May 17th 2005 that changed my life forever. I was extremely tired and dehydrated. These sensations came in waves. When I was younger, I never felt good so I thought that maybe I was just thinking too much about not feeling well. I moved past not feeling 100%, and I was super excited because I had waited for a long time for my birthday party to come. I was meeting some friends later on in the day at Holliday Park. We had lots of activities planned.

I got dressed and went down stairs, but that same dehydrated feeling came back. I was as thirsty as a dog running in 100-degree weather. My stomach was churning. My mom could tell that I wasn’t myself. When I got nauseous, I got nervous to go to my party because I felt pretty awful. I could barely manage to eat breakfast, but as soon as I got food in my stomach, I felt a little better. My mom packed up the large pepperoni pizza, spider man cake, colorful balloons, a piñata, and all other party accessories. My Grandma, who is from New Brunswick Canada, and my two sisters jumped in the van and headed to the park. Even though I was nervous, I was very excited to party with my friends. Earlier in that day, my mom could tell that I wasn’t myself. I was exceptionally pale.

We arrived at the park at 11:00a.m. and were greeted with smiles and warm hugs from my friends. Holliday Park is a great place to have a party because, it is huge with big, twisty, slides and spider web climbing walls that you could climb up. There is a big river that runs right through the beautiful park and nature walk routes that go through it as well. As the party started, my friends and I went off to play, but I kept coming back because I still didn’t feel good. I was extraordinarily thirsty! My mom kept encouraging me to go back and play with my friends but all I wanted to do was to sit at the picnic table and lay my head down.

Next, we took turns trying to split open a spider man piñata. Normally I would have been extremely competitive and the first to hit the piñata, but I didn’t really care if I got to even hit it or not. When the games were all over, we had pizza and the spider man cake. When my mom cut me a piece of cake, I didn’t want to eat it and she knew that something was definitely wrong. Over the course of the party, I had drank 6 water bottles!

One of our friends that came to the party was a nurse and her name was Peg. We were and are still very close friends. Peg has two kids, Molly and Chad. My mom told Peg that I was acting very strange and that I had been parched. Peg thought that was very strange and had an idea of what it could be in the back of her head. We decided that after the party we would go to Peg’s house and she would test my blood sugar with a finger prick.

We were all very nervous. My party moved on into the late afternoon, and we all just hung out for a while and enjoyed each other. I had some really close friends that came who were older than I was, and all I felt like doing was laying in their laps and resting. The party came to an end and everybody started to get packed up. We said our goodbyes, and immediately my family hopped in the van and rushed to Peg’s house. Now remember, I was only three years old and was turning four in 3 days, so I was very young.

Peg went into her house and brought out a scary-looking meter with a needle. She poked my tender finger and I cried. After getting a sample of my blood, normally the meter was supposed to show us a number. The average person is supposed to be around 70 to 100. All of us were holding our breath as we waited for the number to pop up on the screen. It felt like waiting for eternity but then the meter read, err. Peg made a nervous glance at my mom and we tried again. It read err again. Peg quickly explained to my mom that we needed to rush to the E.R. as soon as possible. We had no clue what was ahead of us.

My whole family was with me, except for my dad, when this occurred, but my little sister was still a baby and needed to go home and take a nap. So my Grandma took my two sisters home while my mom called my dad, who was at work, and told him to meet us at the St. Vincent Hospital. That was one of the scariest moments in my life not knowing what was wrong with me. However, I felt some sense of relief knowing that they were going to figure out why I had been so sick for my whole life.

We arrived at the hospital and my dad met us there. We got put in a room instantly without having to wait. While we anxiously waited in the hospital room, my mom explained to my dad everything that had gone on that day and what Peg had told her. Since I was so young, I didn’t really understand all the words my mom and dad were discussing. I have to say, I loved the attention?. After a few minutes, doctors came in and talked about the symptoms that I had been having. My doctor (who has become a close friend), checked my blood glucose on a meter and it read 697! My family was in shock, and I knew that something bad was going on.

I had a few tests done so that the doctors could confirm what I had. It was now around 3 o’clock and we had been waiting for this moment for what seemed like several years. The doctors told me and my parents that I had been diagnosed with Juvenile Diabetes. We were all very sad and scared because we knew that I would have a whole new life- style to get used to.

But at the same time, we were very thankful for such great doctors, and we were glad that it wasn’t anything worse than it could have been- for example, cancer. While we were in the hospital, my family received some training on how to take care of the disease and me. This was a long process, but my family wanted what was best for me. My family is so supportive in times of trial. Even back then, I wasn’t too scared because I knew that God had everything in the palm of His hand.