Introduction

Let me start our by sharing how Maddie was diagnosed with diabetes.

My sister was diagnosed with Type 1 (Juvenile Diabetes) in 1996, at the age of 28. At the time, she didn't live near me, and I only saw her on vacations and holidays, and the occasional weekends here or there that she would come and visit. I knew NOTHING about diabetes. She had gotten it under control, and was on the pump, so there usually weren't any issues that she had with food, or with highs or lows when I was around.

Fast forward to when Maddie was born. She was a healthy and beautiful baby girl. She was everything we could have asked for. She was not a fussy baby, she slept through the night early on, she was a good eater, and so on and so on.... She started going to preschool at the age of 3, and got rave reviews from her teachers for 2 years straight. They said she was smart, and polite, and she played well with others, and all of that stuff every mother wants to hear. Then she started a Pre-K class.....

When I would go to pick her up, they would tell me that she had been acting like a "vicious lion" and growling all day. She wouldn't listen during story time. She wouldn't stop talking to her friend during work time. She kept rolling around on the floor when it was time to clean up. They kept her from the "treasure box", she didn't get the reward candy at the end of the day, she didn't get the "good" stickers by her name, and her GREEN light went to YELLOW, then to RED, just about every week.

I would stand in the hallway every day when I picked her up, waiting for it to be my turn to get my child, praying that the teachers would tell me that she had had a great day. When I got up to the doorway to get her, I would stand there crying listening to both of the teachers tell me all of these crazy things that my child did during the day. I couldn't believe that this was the child that every teacher had praised, and was always loved by all of her teachers, and always got hugs in the hallways from every former teacher she had had. This wasn't MY kid. It had to be the teachers' faults. They must be extra hard on the kids. They must not be good teachers.

On the way to the car, Maddie would tell me that she didn't know why she acted badly that day. Then, she would get into the car and sleep. She slept all the way home, then went back to sleep when she got home. I just thought she was a great napper. I had a newborn baby. I wasn't going to complain about a child that wanted to be still and quiet and sleep in her bed, so that I could get other things done.

What was going on with my child???