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One thing is for sure when it comes to dealing with Type 1 diabetes there are many right ways to treat this disease. Of course, every single solitary person living with Type 1 diabetes has to take insulin to stay alive, no matter what bull they give you, but the nitty gritty of the day to day decisions on how to stay healthy are very individualized.

I know many people whose children have Type 1 diabetes. I met most of them through the website www.Type1parents.org. It is a forum where parents of children with Type 1 diabetes and adults living with Type 1 diabetes can go to discuss, well, really anything, but mostly diabetes related questions. And I can honestly say when a question is asked as many as the number of people that respond there will be that many different answers,  all with different solutions that work.

With all of this individuality there comes lots of justification. Justifying from a parenting perspective is hard to do. Parents don’t like to justify choices such as bedtimes, punishment tactics, or homework routine. We think we are doing what is best for our children and that should be enough. Well the same goes for caring for a child with Type 1 diabetes, but it’s not that simple.

Every 3 months we have to see our pediatric endocrinologist. And every 3 months, in a very caring and professional way that endo will go over our blood glucose charts, our pump setting, our insulin usage and discuss our choices. Essentially having us justify our decisions over the past 3 months. Now this is not meant to put parents on the spot, but in essence it does. And it stings. Like salt in a wound.

Every day when I lay my head down to sleep I know in my heart and soul that I have done every single thing that I could have done to make all the right choices when it comes to my son and his diabetes. Not that every decision I made was the right one, but every decision was thought upon and deliberately decided in the best interest of my son. Mistakes are made, and then the following day I attack each situation with lessons learned from previous days. The more I know the more I owe. The more I know about diabetes, the more I owe it to my son to make the most intelligent, informed decisions based on his care every second of every day.

Justify, so be it. But rest assured whether all my decisions were right or not, they were done with only the best intentions. The best intention of keeping my son happy, healthy and alive. Not a second goes by where I don’t try my absolute hardest to succeed. So far so good.

As 2009 comes to a close I just wanted to thank you all for joining me on this blog-writing adventure. I hope some of my posts provided you with whatever you needed: support, information, knowledge, fuel for the fire, or a safe place to fall.

As there still is no cure (patiently tapping my fingers waiting) and my beautiful son is still living life to the fullest with this crappy disease otherwise known as Type 1 diabetes, you can be sure Type 1 Demystified will be full of new posts, new adventures, and of course, trial and tribulations for 2010.

Thank you again, for without you dear subscribers, this blog would not exist. You know the old adage, if someone writes a blog and there is no one to read it, then is there really a blog at all…or something like that.

Leslie

I am not what I consider a control freak (others may disagree, feel free to comment). However, when it comes to keeping my son with Type 1 diabetes the healthiest he can be, I do have to control some elements of his care. While my son is never denied any food of any kind, we are adamant that his blood sugar must be checked before meals and the proper amount of insulin must be given for all carbs eaten. My son gets his sugar checked before breakfast, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner and evening snack as well as any time he feels that his sugar may be off. We do give insulin for all of those snacks unless he chooses a carb free snack like pepperoni and cheese.

These are the normal days.

Now we add in special days like school parties, birthday parties, holidays and Christmas cookie baking day in our home, and it is made clear to me that if I want my son to have as normal life as possible, I need to let loose, just  a little, for his sanity. On special days we do our best to keep my son’s sugar as in range as possible, but there will be some ups and downs with the extra snacks or treats along the day.

Baking cookies is a prime example. It’s practically an American right that you taste the cookie dough before it is cooked. I have no idea how many carbs are in a small spoonful of raw cookie dough and I have no desire to know. I simply dole out the spoonfuls to both of my children. That’s it. No glucose test. No carb count. That’s it. Just continuing the glorious tradition of tasting the raw cookie dough.

Letting loose. We can always check my son’s sugar later and correct with insulin if need be. Most times the excitement of the holidays runs his sugar a little on the lower side, so a spoonful of cookie dough doesn’t have much impact. But letting loose (just a bit) has all the impact in the world.

For a brief moment in time, my son is exactly like his sister, just enjoying a holiday tradition without carb counting or glucose check. Yes, Type 1 diabetes takes a great deal of management and consistency, and that is a necessary life saving practice needed for everyday. It’s the special days, where along with management and consistency, you add in a little spontaneity and loosen the grip just a bit, and you realize you can do this. We can do this. Type 1 diabetes is always there, holidays and all, but we don’t have to let it take center stage.