Support Rem's Diabetes Journey

Hello. We are Katie and Preston, Remington's parents. Out of desperation, we are reaching out to our community for help during a financial crisis. We are currently 2 hours away from home with our 7-year-old son who is being hospitalized with a new diagnosis: Type 1 Diabetes. Between travel costs, missing work, and the monthly bills we will be facing for sometime while out of work ,we are humbly asking for help. Unfortunately, we are unable to get Paid Family Leave

because we used it for maternity/paternity leave this year on our baby girl. So, this is our only option at this point. Right now, the future is scary and daunting for us and any help to ease some of the burden is so very much appreciated. This is a complete life change for all of us involved along with a huge learning curve to keep our baby boy healthy during these first hurdles of the new Diabetic world.

Here is Rem's story:

On Sunday, 12/15 Rem's mom and dad, Katie and Preston, took our son to the walk-in clinic because he was having odd symptoms. Thankfully, Katie works for an animal hospital and recognized these symptoms to be suspicious of diabetes mellitus, so she wasted no time in seeking medical attention.

They discovered his urinalysis was very concerning and his blood sugar was 378 and he was close to Diabetic Ketoacidosis. They instructed us to rush him to the ER and they even called the ER to let them know we were on the way. We were all terrified.

They did all the blood tests and diagnosed Type 1 Diabetes; an unavoidable, unpredictable, completely life-changing medical condition. Rem's blood sugar continued to spike and he was feeling worse and worse while they consulted with the pediatric team who decided Rem was too sick to stay there and needed to be transferred to the ICU at Golisano Children's Hospital in Rochester, NY, 2 hours away from home. 2 hours away from our sick 11 month old baby girl, our pets, our support system and our job security.

They wanted us to go immediately, however, the roads were too dangerous for the ambulance due to the snow/ice so we had to wait until the morning. They started insulin to try to stabilize him until we could get him to the specialist in Rochester. He responded to the insulin and once he got to the new hospital, they got him in right away through the ER. He was stable enough to avoid the ICU at that point. Rem is having a very difficult time adjusting to all of this, even more so with his fear of needles and struggling with Sensory Processing Disorder. We do not know how long he will need to be hospitalized, and we have a long road ahead with doctor's appointments that will likely be 2 hours away in Rochester and missing more work.

We will post updates as we can. Please share and thank you for your support during this time of just trying to get through these first few weeks after such a huge life change for our little man. Thank you and Happy Holidays from our family to yours. Much love ❤️