Diabetes Blog Week – Admiring Differences

Banner with blue background and a cartoon computer on the right. It says " 2nd Annual Diabetes Blog Week May 9-15, 2011"

 

Thank you to Karen over at Bitter~Sweet for organizing this week of D-Blogging.  For those of you reading this who are not diabetics or parents of diabetics, there is a whole community of diabetes bloggers out there and we tend to find each other because we can all understand and support each other.  But today’s topic is about admiring those who are different from us.  For me, that’s an easy one.  Other than the new blogger, Melissa at My Corner, I haven’t found any other bloggers out there like me.  If you know anything about our children, you know that their type of diabetes is extremely rare.  The estimates are that it happens in about 1 in every 100,000-400,000 live births in the United States.  Add to that the fact that having more than one child with it is only a mere 10% and we have the makings of a literal Neonatal Diabetes lottery.

So why do I stay so connected to the diabetes online community?  Because I’ve been there.  I’ve done the shots.  I’ve done the insulin pump.  I’ve held my child on my lap, upside-down, and inserted a cannula in his bottom (because that is the only place with enough fat on a 1-year-old) while he is thrashing and screaming.  I have seen the listless look when he, at only 6 months of age, dropped to a 26 blood sugar.  I gave him a glucagon shot then for what I hope is the only time in his life.  I gave multiple shots and got up at 2 or 3 in the morning to check his blood sugar.  I’ve had the sleepless nights and the scary lows and the horrible highs where he just isn’t himself and he thrashes out.  I have hoped and prayed for a cure for my son.  And I, unlike all of my friends in the Type 1 Diabetes community, won the lottery.  No, I didn’t get a cure.  But I got a miracle nonetheless.  I don’t have to check sugars 8-10 times a day (95% of the time).  I don’t have to worry about lows as much (except for the two months this winter when amoxicillin wreaked havoc on both of them).  I hardly EVER worry about highs anymore (about 99%) of the time. 

So I admire all of my friends in the DOC (Diabetes Online Community) who have to deal with all of this and more.  I still pray every day for a cure for my friends out there.  I grieve with you all when I read the stories of hospital visits and deaths due to this monster.  I admire you all for your optimism and your support of each other and I thank those of you who have welcomed me with open arms even though our worries are a little different.  God bless you all and I pray for a wonderful night for everyone out there in blog land.


Leave a comment

Please note, comments must be approved before they are published