A person with Type 1 diabetes is a person first, a diagnosis should not change that.
For the first 4 years of my son’s life I watched him grow. It seemed he grew taller everyday. His brown eyes grew deeper, and his eye lashes seemingly grew longer as he slept. His blonde hair only got blonder in the summer sun. He laughed. He cried. He ran, played and jumped every second of every day. He was unstoppable. People would call to ask what he discovered that day, or what new phrase he learned. People stopped their conversations to hear one of his 4 year old knock-knock jokes. He could make his little sister laugh just by looking in her direction. He was the king or our world. On July 25, 2007, his diagnosis day, that all changed, except not in the way that you are probably thinking.
All the things I told you about my son were still there, shining brightly as ever. He still grew taller and stronger everyday. His brown eyes were still as chocolaty as Hershey Kisses. His lashes were still the envy of most supermodels. He still ran, jumped and played every second of every day. He was still our king. But what did change were the conversations about my boy. People didn’t call to hear him tell a joke. People didn’t call to find out what he discovered that day. People called to talk about his diagnosis and his numbers.
“How was your son’s day?’ became “How were his numbers?”
“Did he do anything funny today?” became “Did he go too high today?”
“Here, try this, it’s delicious.” became “You can’t have that you have diabetes.”
Not only was I mourning the fact that my baby was diagnosed with a disease that he would carry with him for the rest of his life, I was mourning how the world looked at my son. It broke my heart every time it was glossed over that he was just a boy and not a ‘big bad case of diabetes’.
Sure, there was a huge learning curve for everyone in our life. We weren’t that close to anyone with Type 1 diabetes, so we really knew nothing about it. The curve, however, was the biggest for me, I was his mom. On July 24, 2007, my son didn’t have a chronic disease, and on July 25, 2007 he did. But I never once forgot that my son was just a boy, my baby, who happens to have been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.
We are all on the same page now. When my son gets home from school, I know when the phone rings to find out about his day, it will be just that. A question about a 5 year old’s day in Kindergarten, not a question about the numbers of some kid with a ‘big bad case of diabetes.’