Makayla Wilson was only 10 years old when she was diagnosed with insulin-dependent Type 1 diabetes earlier this year. Type1 diabetes occurs when the pancreas stops producing insulin, which is needed to turn carbohydrates, starches and sugars into energy for the body’s cells.
While symptoms of diabetes include increased thirst, hunger, fatigue and frequent urination, Makayla was experiencing what appeared to be a common cold or flu-like symptoms.
“I was throwing up,” Makayla said. “Then I went to the bathroom and then I laid down on the floor, but my mom had me go back [to bed]. I was trying to fall asleep but I kept asking for some water and then I had had some peaches, but my mouth was just dehydrated.”
Her big sister, Ashleigh Wilson, noticed something unusual, and called her mother, who had stepped out to the grocery to get Makayla some soup to eat.
“Her big sister called me and said, ‘Mom, she is breathing funny.'” Makayla and Ashleigh’s mother, Chantal Hart, said.
Hart came home, called the nurse line and checked – Makayla didn’t have a fever so she began to monitor her.
“I kept asking her, ‘Makayla, how do you feel?’ But around midnight, when she responded, I couldn’t understand what she was saying, so that told me that something was seriously wrong,” Hart said. “She was incoherent. I said, ‘Okay, it’s time to move.'”
Makayla’s mom took her to SSM DePaul Hospital, rushed her into one of their trauma rooms.
Hart said one of the emergency room doctors at DePaul had seen the symptoms before and had Makayla’s blood sugar tested.
“The first result that came back in the 700s and then when she got the result back from the lab, that’s when she told me we had to get her out of here because her actual blood sugar was 930,” Hart said. “The normal range – she should not be over 110. She was no longer registering on the meters.”
DePaul immediately sent Makayla straight to Children’s via ambulance.
“When we got to children’s that’s when we got a formal diagnosis that she was actually in diabetic ketoacidosis,” Hart said. “She was admitted directly into the ICU and she was there two-and-a-half days. She spent about four days in the hospital.”
Ketoacidosis is a serious complication that, if not caught and treated in time, can lead to a diabetic coma or even death.
The American Diabetes Association describes ketoacidosis this way: When cells don’t get the glucose they need for energy, the body begins to burn fat for energy, which produces ketones. Ketones are acids that build up in the blood and appear in the urine when the body doesn’t have enough insulin. This is a warning sign that your diabetes is out of control. High levels of ketones can poison the body. Ketoacidosis can happen to anyone with diabetes, though it is less common in persons with type 2.
“Her pancreas had stopped working so she had so much [blood] sugar built up in her body that her acid levels had increased to the point that her body could not fight it,” her mother described. “Her next step would have been – like a coma.”
The symptoms Makayla was having are a few of the early and dangerous signs of ketoacidosis, which builds up over time – a feeling of thirst or dry mouth, fatigue, vomiting, difficulty breathing confusion and high glucose levels.
Makayla doesn’t remember what happened during that life-changing health event.
“I was out of it,” Makayla said.
She remembers being in the hospital.
“Waking up – seeing a lot of doctors there. I was wondering what was going on,” she said.
In the hospital, intravenous insulin and injections brought her levels out of the danger zone. Makayla and her family learned how to administer the insulin injections themselves.
“Children’s has a really good program, because before they would even release her to come home, you have to go through the diabetes management education –
And even with that, it’s still an ongoing learning process,” Hart said.
“I was kind of scared and I didn’t know what it was,” I thought it was from eating sugar, at first,” said Ashleigh, the self-described candy eater in the family.
Children’s Hospital put the family in touch with the St. Louis chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation to learn more about the disease and research toward a cure.
“It’s a very treatable disease… but you don’t realize what all is involved with type 1 – how much it affects the family dynamics,” Hart said. “Our household, we all play a part in her care – trying to come up with meals that will work for everybody. The nice thing is – she is not on a special diet. So we can still eat the same things and she can even have sweets, but we account for it.”
Now, age 11, Makayla gives herself insulin injections four times a day, which she will need to do from now on. The short-acting insulin – she takes with her meals and a long-term insulin, she takes at bedtime. Her mother and sister help her count daily carbohydrates to maintain normal blood glucose levels.
“I will add up all of her stuff – all of her meals and tell her what she needs,” Ashleigh said. “When it comes to needles, I will just pinch her arms for her.”
Makayla’s health care team really stresses the importance of tracking the food that she eats to make sure she receives the proper amount of insulin.
Other key components to managing diabetes include working closely with your health care team, good nutrition, exercise and emotional support – which Makayla has plenty of. Her mother, sister and grandparents all learned how to give insulin.
“If you have that family, use them, because that takes a lot of the pressure off,” Hart said.
