Being a mom of a child with Type 1 diabetes is difficult because it is the one thing that I cannot say to my son, “I know how you feel.”<\/p>\n
When my son skins his knee outside on the driveway, I can ease his pain with a band aid and a story. I can tell him about the time when I was riding my bike down the park and I stood up and let go at the same time. I can tell him how I walked all the way home to Nannie’s house with bloodied up knees all while holding back tears for fear of someone seeing me crying on the street.<\/p>\n
When my son has a belly ache, I can ease his pain by having him lie down and telling him a story. I can tell him about the time when I was a brand new teacher and my belly hurt so much that I had to lie down on the little toddler mats until I felt better. Picturing his mama lying on a little toddler mat always seems to make him smile and rid his world of the blasted belly ache.<\/p>\n
When my son has too much homework, I can ease his pain by sitting by his side and reminding him of the homework I used to do in college when I met his daddy. While my son works on his homework he travels to a place in time where his daddy and I were just 19 years old working on our college assignments together, just starting to fall in love.<\/p>\n
When my son has that shaky feeling from his sugar dropping too low, I can ease his pain by treating the low, but I have no story to share.<\/p>\n
When my son has that angry feeling from his sugar being too high, I can ease his pain by giving him more insulin, but I have no story to share.<\/p>\n
When my son cries in the night because his belly hurts from ketones, I can ease his pain with insulin and water, but I have no story to share.<\/p>\n
When my son cringes at the thought of taking an unwanted break from playing to check his sugar, I can ease his pain by checking as quickly as possible, but I have no story to share.<\/p>\n
The greatest gift we can receive will be a cure<\/strong>. The second greatest gift that I could have received would have been a diagnosis for myself on the day my son was diagnosed. I wish everyday that it were me with Type 1 diabetes instead of my boy. As I cannot switch places with my son, I would gladly take on this disease myself. I want to be able to say, “I know how you\u00a0 feel,” and mean it.<\/p>\n If I had the option of getting this disease too, I would in a heartbeat. Every finger check, site change, high and low that I would live through would bring me that much closer to knowing what my little boy has to live with everyday of his life.<\/p>\n Until then, I have no stories. I do have plenty of hugs. Fortunately they are limitless.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Being a mom of a child with Type 1 diabetes is difficult because it is the one thing that I cannot say to my son, “I know how you feel.” When my son skins his knee outside on the driveway, I can ease his pain with a band aid and a story. I can tell … <\/p>\n