Ever since my son was diagnosed, I talk about his Type 1 diabetes in terms of we. When I mention checking his blood sugar in conversation I always say, ‘we check our sugar…” Of course, I am not physically checking my sugar every time he checks his, but in my own miniscule way, by saying we instead of he, I feel I am taking some of the weight of this disease off of my son’s shoulders. In a perfect world, I would take this disease from him and carry the burden all myself, but as I can’t do that, I share whatever part of this disease that I can.
It doesn’t stop with blood sugar checks either. I use the word we when talking about anything with diabetes. If my son’s insulin pump site needs to be changed rather quickly at school, I will grab my young daughter and tell her, “Hurry we need to go to school we need a site change.” Now my three year old (soon to be four) knows full well that she does not have Type 1 diabetes, yet she never questions why she should be included in this family site change. She knows we own this disease, it has become part of our family. We are a family with Type 1 diabetes.
This really hit home today when my daughter who does not have Type 1 diabetes read her brother’s meter. She asked what number was on the meter. I told her 123. She said in the sweetest three year old, soon to be four year old voice, “Oh, that’s a good number,” with a huge smile on her face. I didn’t know whether I would explode with pride over how bright and concerned she is regarding Type 1 diabetes, or whether I would fall to my knees gathering up the pieces of my broken heart realizing how smart and concerned she is regarding Type 1 diabetes.
I don’t check my sugar 12 times a day like my son.
I don’t give myself insulin every single time I eat a carb.
I don’t get shaky when my number drops too low.
I don’t get cranky when my number is too high.
None of these things happen to me because I don’t have Type 1 diabetes. All of these happen to my son, he’s the hero living with and defeating Type 1 diabetes everyday. He’s the one, yet since that fateful day in July of 2007, the day Type 1 diabetes bombarded our home, it became part of all of us. No one else in our home has Type 1 diabetes, but in reality we all have it. It is our family disease.