At first, I thought Lyla was just having trouble sleeping—she was up constantly, going to the bathroom ten times or more.
When she told me she thought she had diabetes, I reassured her that it was very unlikely and used one of her older brother Hamish’s tests just to put her mind at ease.
But when I saw that high reading, my heart dropped. We rushed her to hospital.
That’s when our new reality began. Lyla wears a continuous glucose monitor—painful to insert, changed every 10 days—and an insulin pump connected to her lower back, changed every three days.
There are no days off. No holidays from diabetes.
As a mum, it’s heartbreaking. Lyla said to me recently: “The worst thing is knowing it will never go away”.
Lyla was diagnosed at just 11 years old—just like her big brother, Hamish.
I never imagined we’d go through it once, let alone twice.
— Lyla’s mum, Jen.