Today’s theme: Diabetes Hero
“Let’s end our week on a high note and blog about our “Diabetes Hero”. It can be anyone you’d like to recognize or admire, someone you know personally or not, someone with diabetes or maybe a Type 3. It might be a fabulous endo or CDE. It could be a d-celebrity or role-model. It could be another DOC member. It’s up to you – who is your Diabetes Hero??”
All of the above.
Really.
I am almost 4 months into my journey as a mother of a child with diabetes, and I can ‘t believe how many amazing new people I now know because of it. (And some people for whom I have known a long time but now have a new-found respect).
We have an AMAZING diabetes educator. I wish I could just keep him in my pocket and reference his brain whenever I need to. Medium’s pediatrician and endo are awesome too. All of the staff at Children’s Mercy Hospital are at the top of their game.
Medium’s school nurse has gone above and beyond in making me feel at ease while he is at school all day long. His teacher, the principal, all the school staff have rocked.
A woman, whom I had not met in person until today actually, hooked us up with a scholarship for Medium to go to diabetes camp this summer. How awesome is that?
The women of the DOC that I have met this week alone through Diabetes Blog Week have been nothing short of inspirational. And not just the one’s who have multiple children with T1D and husbands with cancer and other children with horrible diseases besides T1D, all of the women who are brave enough to put their inner-most thoughts and feelings; the good, the bad and the ugly, out there for the whole world to see and learn from.
My sister-in-law who, although she has lived with this disease for close to 40 years, doesn’t let diabetes define her. I have known her for twenty years and only in the last 4 months have I realized what all she has had to endure. And things are so much easier now! Even though my own sister-in-law has T1D, I never knew how serious or complicated it was because she made it look easy. It is a part of who she is, it is not her identity. She is a very creative, artistic person and is a great writer. She has always worked in publishing, and now she works for the ADA. She is a huge advocate for diabetes and is an amazing role model to Medium of what it looks like to live with type 1 diabetes. (Plus she doesn’t make me feel bad that I don’t change the lancet on the poker as often as I should!)
My mother-in-law, who went through everything that I am going through, 40 years ago when they used pig insulin and didn’t have glucometers, and didn’t even know what a healthy blood sugar was. I know that if she was able to raise my sister-in-law to be the smart, creative, kind, successful person that she is with virtually no tools to help her, then I can certainly do the same now with all of the advanced technology out there.
Everyone who gets up every morning and goes to work or school, who cleans their house and does laundry, takes care of their kids, runs corporations, plays professional sports, contributes to society and doesn’t let this disease tell them they can’t.
But most of all, my Medium. He does not complain. He does not ask why. He counts his carbs. He gave himself shots. He sticks a needle in his finger 10 times a day without so much as a whimper. He knows how to navigate his insulin pump. He gets A’s in school. He plays soccer. He plays basketball. He plays football. He loves his dog. He tolerates his brothers. He hates taking showers. He loves peanut butter crackers. He gives the best hugs. He is 10 years-old and is scared about what diabetes is going to do to his life.
But you wouldn’t know it.
He is my true hero.
WifeMomPancreas 