Five Things You Ought To  Know About Type 1 Diabetes

Okay, so day two’s challenge is to school you. It’s my duty to teach you five things about Type 1 Diabetes. After two and a half years of life as a D-family, can I narrow it down to five? Can I pick the five most important? Can I pick out five things you might not learn somewhere else? Can I do all this while
keeping you entertained? Delighted? On the edge of you seat? Probably not…but I will try.

1) Diabetes is not the end of the world. It seems like it on the day of diagnosis. It seems like it weeks later, months down the road. It kicks you in the nether regions even 2.5 years later, but it gets you down a little less often. At the end of the long, long day, everyone gets by. It sucks,
but you get through it. I promise.


2) There is, despite what people think, nothing my child cannot eat. Well, except for poison and cookies made with poison. I however cannot manage eggs or milk and really don’t like mushrooms.


3) Insulin doesn't cure diabetes. It is medicine. It helps her get by. It provides a measure of “control” and I use that word loosely. TYPE 1 DIABETES IS INCURABLE.

4) Type 1 Diabetics poke their fingers at least 2000 times a year (if their blood sugar is good). A T1D who is pumping will have approximately 121 pump site changes each year.

5) My biggest fear in the world is the day when I give up control. Someday, my child will be a teenager, and she’ll want to drink beer/liquor with her friends. That will be tricky to calculate the insulin for. Or she’ll rebel and decide she doesn't want to be as diligent with her calculations/ratios/insulin/care. These things scare me to death. Rebellion in my oldest daughter could be so deadly. The day that I no longer choose and calculate what goes into her mouth almost makes me want to cry.

I have to teach this little five-year-old how to take care of her diabetes and pray that all of you who don’t live with it will take up arms with me and find a cure for her, and all the others like
her.