As a parent of a child living with Type 1 diabetes I find that whenever I mention that my son has Type 1 diabetes I am bombarded with knowing nods by unknowing people.
Over the last couple of days with the inception of my son’s official school career I have had to tell many people that he lives with Type 1 diabetes, and it is then that I get the nod. The problem with ‘the nod’ is that there is usually nothing behind it other than misconceptions, untruths, myths and sometimes outright lies.
Many people in this world know someone with Type 2 diabetes, a great deal less know someone living with Type 1. It is this disparity that allows for the misconceptions to be laid and the nod to be given. When I tell people my son has Type 1 diabetes they immediately think they know what I am talking about. The think he can’t eat sugar, he tests his blood glucose once and a while, and with a little time his glucose will be controlled. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
People with Type 1 diabetes can eat sugar. In fact, sugar is in almost everything. We count total carbohydrates and cover each carb with a certain amount of insulin. Yes, he does test his sugar, but it is over 10 times a day. Not when he feels like it, not just when he wakes up, and he can never ever forget to check his sugar or he runs the risk of getting very sick or worse. And by no means will time help control his sugar levels. Maintaining even blood glucose levels is a 24 hour 7 day a week job. How long he has had diabetes had no effect on his sugar levels. Every day is a new day. A new hurdle. A new circumstance. A new set of numbers.
The nod requires me to explain my son’s disease. I cannot let people think he gets off as easy as some people in this world. I will not leave until the nodder knows that my son checks his sugar as much as he does. I always make sure the nodder understands that any and all things can negatively affect his sugar levels. Stress, food, excitement, sports, sleepiness are just a few of the things than can affect sugar levels. And to top it off, they can affect it differently each day. One day stress may make my son’s sugar go low, and the next it may make his sugar go high.
The nod sometimes implies that they know someone who had Type 1 diabetes but has since been cured. This is the lie that I must rectify. Type 1 diabetes has no cure. Not now. Not then. Not ever. Regardless of what they have been told, and now falsely believe, no one has ever been cured of Type 1 diabetes.
I know there are many people out there that do not understand Type 1 diabetes. I understand that and I understand why. I also understand that it is my responsibility to all people living with Type 1 diabetes to educate as many nodders as I can.
It’s a dirty job, but someone has to do it.