Thanks Mom!

Since Mother’s Day was a while ago [okay, a few months by now, but any mom will understand how time flies when juggling children and work], I wanted to give a quick and mighty shout out to my mom.

I was diagnosed with type I diabetes when I was 14 years old; the month before high school began. A tear comes to my eye (really, it does, I am not just making poetic hyperbole) when I think of how my mom helped me. The HUGE medical notebook tracking all of my tests, blood sugars,  doctor’s visits/results, etc. The epic blood glucose meter memory read back sessions (this was before the technological  smartness of synching and downloading, when you literally had to press a button again and again and go back through ALL the test results). The early morning balanced breakfasts she would prepare and pack so I could eat it in the car on the way to school (don’t worry, I wasn’t driving…eating Cream of Wheat while shifting and steering isn’t part of my skill set). The weekends when she would wake me up to test my blood and give me my shot and a snack so I could sleep in (remember…this was pre-pump days when you needed to be consistent with the times of injections so your NPH wouldn’t run out and your R had time to kick in before you ate). 

She came with me to the doctor and asked the right questions to try and understand the complicated things going on with my body, spent hours and hours on the phone to fight with insurance companies to cover enough test strips and pump supplies, while at the same time giving me my space and privacy so I could learn how to handle life with diabetes. I always had her support.

Thanks Mom. 

Now that I have tiny kids who are erratic (at best) in their eating habits and life can get a bit hectic, I can’t imagine adding diabetes to the mix. I do know that if one or both of them are diagnosed, I will deal with it. Just as we all deal with our own diabetes diagnoses (sometimes with more flair and grace than others) even when friends and family may say “I don’t know how you do it!” and  we just think “we HAVE to do it!” 

So another shout out to my friends with diabetic children. You are saintly. And to all diabetics who were diagnosed when they were young…thank your mom! And if you are diabetic and have children who have diabetes... I am going to miss you because you have an EZ pass straight to heaven!!! Keep up the good work.

*Note: my PhD dissertation was all about the relationship between teenagers with diabetes and their parents, and how privacy and independence and diabetes all fit together. Be ready for a post about this sometime in the future. Probably not near future, but future nonetheless.*