Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday; by far one of my favorites. What can be better than a day with family and friends celebrating how thankful we are for all we have in each other? I love Thanksgiving. My son who has Type 1 diabetes also loves Thanksgiving. He loves going to Nannie and Papa’s house to see his Uncle who will be visiting and spend some time hanging out with our family. He also loves to eat.
When we all sit down to eat my son is the first to receive his appetizer because he just can’t wait. Of course, all of this happens after we have checked his blood glucose. What, the six year old in your house doesn’t check his glucose before eating? The six year old in our house cannot eat a bite of that fantastic shrimp cocktail appetizer until his glucose is checked. It just takes a few seconds, but it feels like an eternity when your mouth is watering just at the sight of the shrimp.
My son sees scrumptious shrimp and cocktail sauce sitting in front of him. I see carb free shrimp and a 15 carb serving of cocktail sauce. My son eats and I bolus (give insulin) through the remote that is wirelessly transmitted to the insulin pump that he wears 24 hours a day…even on holidays. Diabetes doesn’t take a day off.
Now it’s my turn to eat my shrimp, my carb free and 15 carb cocktail sauce. Oh wait, I don’t have Type 1 diabetes, no need to count my carbs, but it just happens now. All food has become some carb amount for me.
“Can your son have more?” someone asks.” Of course”, I say as I try to count the carbs of the cocktail sauce as it’s dripping off of each shrimp. All done. Great. Time to take a break from eating…and counting.
Round two. Check the boy’s blood glucose again. We need to make sure we were close enough on the counting of the shrimp cocktail carbs that his glucose is somewhat in range. Too high, we need to give more insulin. Too low, we may need to eat something with sugar in it first to help the glucose number stay more steady.
The table is set in nothing short of a feast. There will be turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, broccoli, stuffing, biscuits, cranberry sauce and Nannie’s ever famous sweet potato bake with roasted marshmallows on top. As my son makes his plate of turkey, gravy, green beans, cranberry and a biscuit or two or three his mouth is visibly watering. His eyes are getting bigger and bigger with each new addition to his plate.
As my son’s fork is poised and ready to inhale all this delicious food, my head fills with numbers. Quickly adding the gravy, the green beans, cranberry sauce and the biscuits getting about 48 carbs for the first serving. Adding 11 more carbs each time he reaches for another warm biscuit.
Eating. Adding. Adding. Eating. Bolusing. Eating. Bolusing. Bolusing. Checking.
This is all before we even get to the apple pie, pumpkin cookies and ice cream.
Thanksgiving really makes you think about all you have to be thankful for. First and foremost I am thankful for my family. I know how truly lucky I am. I am also thankful for my son’s insulin pump, his life support. I am also thankful for the Internet which keeps me on top of the latest diabetes info. I am thankful for my own intellect which helps me keep track of the carbs in his meal to help keep his blood glucose as close to range as possible.
Diabetes affects every part of your life even holidays, no matter how hard you try to pretend that it doesn’t.