Month: May 2012

One. Great. Thing. My son does everything great when it comes to his diabetes.

My son checks his sugar at the appropriate times. My son counts his carbs (or has us count them) before he eats anything. My son breezes through POD changes every 3 days. My son carries his diabetes bag every where around school without complaints. My son rocks when it comes to his diabetes care.

But THE one great thing that my son does is take it all in stride.

While this may not seem like that is a one great thing that someone can do. Let me tell you, taking diabetes in stride is amazing for anyone, never mind an almost 9 year old that is going on 5 years with this disease.

Diabetes is messy. Diabetes is annoying, intrusive, disrespectful and a bully. Diabetes doesn’t know when to shut up and just sit down. Diabetes doesn’t take a vacation. It is on duty 24 hours a day. Even Christmas. I mean for God’s sake even the Shoprite closes for Christmas, at least for a few hours. Nope, not diabetes.

Diabetes follows him to school. Annoys him in the shower. Insists on coming to the beach. Diabetes plays soccer, football, Frisbee and video games. Diabetes just…ugh.

Oh, diabetes also takes State Standardized testing. My son took our State’s testing last week. Diabetes was making sure my son remembered that it was with him all the way. Kind of like a cheerleader offering support, NOT.

Day One of testing my son’s blood glucose went from 119 to 53 to 60 to 358 where he stuck for a few hours. Over the course of the testing day, about 9:30 am to about 12:15 pm my son had to test his sugar over 5 times. His teachers were concerned with the low and then the high. Concerned enough that they had him test well above our normal testing schedule of 2 times per day at school.

This is how the conversation went when he got home from school that day.

Me: Hey Buddy.

Him: Hi Mama.

Me: Hey Buddy. Sorry about today and all. All that nonsense with your numbers.

Him: It’s okay Mama.

And. That’s. It.

IT’S OKAY MAMA!

He had to prick his own finger, make himself bleed 5 times over the course of 3 hours and all he wants to say is, “It’s okay, Mama.”

He had to endure the shaky feeling he gets when his blood glucose dips, and apparently he had to endure it for quite some time because his number was not coming up on subsequent checks. He had to then feel the awful sensations that come along with his blood glucose shooting to high, the confusion, the thirst, the extra trips to the bathroom. And what does he say about it all, “That’s okay, Mama.”

No screaming. No crying. No anger. No resentment. No bottled up feelings. No nothing.

My son teaches me a lesson everyday when it comes to how he handles his diabetes. He is my hero. He is my heart and soul and the person I admire most in this world.

And he’s right, you know, it is okay, mama. It is okay.

 

For my loyal readers, this is a brief explanation of Diabetes Blog Week as stated by the originator Karen Graffeo:

Two years ago I had an idea for a week when diabetes bloggers could unite and give our views on a set topic each day.  I wasn’t sure if anyone would be interested in joining Diabetes Blog Week but the response was overwhelming and the whole week turned out more awesome than I ever could have imagined!!  Many asked if this would become an annual thing, so last year we did it all again.  Even more bloggers participated the second time around and it was another great week.

This is my first time participating in Diabetes Blog Week. I am not usually a joiner, meaning I don’t jump in and join new things right away. I usually sit back, take it all in, and then decide with what, if anything, I am going to do about the new information.

The first topic is Find a Friend. The idea is to write a blog about other blogs that we read about diabetes.

As I hang my head in shame, I am embarrassed to tell you, I do not read many other blogs on a regular basis. I have my diabetes home, which is www.type1parents.org, and that is where I live, but that is not a blog. I reside in this website and gain insight into this annoying disease through the experiences of others in my family over there. I know it seems odd to write about a website using the words home, reside and live, but that is how I feel over there.

It is a safe place for me to fall when diabetes breaks my heart. It is a funny place for me to share when diabetes is the butt of a joke. It is the cheering section of my life when we get one-up on diabetes. It is the warmest place for me to spend my cold nights when I am up checking sugars until the sun rises. It is the place where I know people have my back when diabetes tries to be a big stupid bully. It is my home.

Through the wonders of facebook though, I have been lucky enough to learn about one mom’s blog, http://www.d-mom.com/ D-mom Blog The Sweet Life with a Diabetic Child. While the author may not know me or my blog, I have reached out to her in the past via her blog and email regarding some diabetes questions. Like I said before I am not a joiner, I have my few people that I trust regarding diabetes, and that is usually it. But when I felt like I needed a bit more then my group, I sought out some help. I received that help from this blogger, and for that I will be forever grateful.

The second blogger that I thankfully encountered through facebook is http://thisiscaleb.wordpress.com/. Not only do I read this blog, but I find the author to be well versed on many diabetes topics, who presents herself in a well thought out, well articulated manner, that I truly appreciate and listen to the words she chooses to use.

While I know there are many fantastic blog out there about diabetes, these are the two that I gravitate towards. I look forward to being part of Find a Friend in the Diabetes Blog Week 2012 because I know many more wonderful blogs will be highlighted and along with my readers, I will learn about them as well.

Tomorrow’s topic is One Great Thing…where I get to talk about One Great Thing my son does when it comes to his diabetes. The hardest part is going to be thinking of just one. My son rocks. Stay tuned…

My son was diagnosed (dx’d) with Type 1 diabetes on July 25, 2007. He was a baby. He was just 4 years and 1 month old.

A baby.

He is now in the 3rd grade, turning 9 in June. July 25, 2012 will be 5 years for us. This is a pivotal year for us. As of July 25, 2012 he will have diabetes longer then he has been on this Earth…(I see another post coming out of this)…

School just called and asked if my son has another diagnosis date for his Type 1 diabetes because the one they have for his 504 plan has expired. I politely explained to the ‘power that be’ that with Type 1 diabetes there is only one diagnosis date and unfortunately there is no cure so there is no way our diagnosis can expire.  The one date remains the only date of diagnosis.

‘Power that be’ proceeds to tell me that in order for the 504 plan to be carried through to next year, we have to provide a new diagnosis date every two years.

I will not provide a second diagnosis date.

It has taken me five years to come to terms with the fact that my son’s life drastically and forever changed on July 25, 2007. My son has endured over 18,000 finger pokes over the course of those five years. Each one of them a tiny badge of honor that he is a true hero in fighting this disease day in and day out. Not to mention the thousands upon thousands of carbs we have counted, the thousands of units of insulin we have used, the thousands of shots to give that insulin and the hundreds of site changes to change his pump site, no I will not change our diagnosis date to fill in paperwork.

Perhaps the paperwork should be changed for my son. Perhaps instead of a diagnosis date there should be a ‘living with’ date. This child -insert name- has been kicking the crap out of Type 1 diabetes since he was diagnosed -insert date- and will continue to do so until there is a cure…this seems like a perfect sentence to put in a 504.

Agree?

So I told the ‘power that be’ just that. No, I will not change my son’s diagnosis date for the benefit of some bureaucratic paperwork. I told her maybe the paper work should be changed to acknowledge that there is indeed only one diagnosis date with Type 1 diabetes, it never goes away, no matter how many stars we wish upon. She was stumped. I’m sure it wasn’t the first time.

I agreed to send a letter stating that my son does indeed still have Type 1 diabetes but by no means will I change his diagnosis date.

You can’t change the date of Pearl Harbor. The day that shook the US Military.

You can’t change the date of Sept. 11, 2001. The day that crushed America.

You can’t change the date of my son’s diagnosis. The day that broke my heart.