Dear 16 year old me...

Dear 16 year old me;

You have your entire life ahead of you--enjoy! You will be nervous at times but relax. It will all work out.  Everything will come just when you need it, never worry.

You will face crisis's and have heart aches but there will always be someone there to help you. You are stronger than you think and when you are sick of people telling you that and you just want to curl up in a ball and be weak for a bit? You fill find that you really are strong and that weakness just doesn't feel right for you.

Dear 16 year old me, your life will take you on adventures that you never dreamed would happen to you.  You will have two amazing boys who will become fine young men.  They will brighten your life and show you things that only children can.  You will laugh with them and you will cry with them.  They will do things that will scare you and one day your youngest son will fight for his very life but you will all make it through. It will open a new chapter in your life but you will work hard.  You will be stronger and a better person for it.

Dear 16 year old me, join the Internet after this crisis with your son! Its a new place that you find using your computer. You will need that connection.  You will find support for you and your children there. You will meet friends who will become family.  Open up to them because they truly will love you and help you along the way.

With their strength and encouragement, you will take on the world.  You might think that you are just one person but you are one person with a voice.  You will use that voice and you will change lives.  There will be tears and you will think that it just doesn't matter. You will not always have the support in your personal life that you wish you had but you have the support of those who truly matter. Listen to them, not to the nay-sayers.

Dear 16 year old me, life will be hard but it could be harder.  You will suffer losses but you will also have victories in places that you never imagined.  Your children will make you cry but they will also make you proud.  You will worry but you will also become stronger and more compassionate. You will doubt yourself.  You will question your value as a person but look back on all that you have accomplished--that is the account that matters not the one that simply shows dollars and cents.

Dear 16 year old me, listen to your heart. Don't let fear stop you. Embrace a challenge. Do what you feel is right.  You will never go wrong. Remember that you are loved and that that love will always guide you and get your through.

Now go out and enjoy your youth! Embrace each day. It brings new lessons and new blessings--sometimes you just have to look a little harder to see them but they are always there.

 

Keep Calm....

Today's challenge? Creat a Keep Calm poster!

No you can't eat that chocolate bar!

WEGO Health Activist Blog Activity for day 8!

"Wow! That's a lot of Easter treats!"

The "loot" including the infamous chocolate bar

"Yes," my son said as he came in the door from school. "The bag of treats came from the bus driver and I won the bar."

"Almond and chocolate?? You should really give your mother that bar.  I love almond and chocolate!"

"Yeah, they told me that at school."

I was puzzled. How could his school know that I loved almonds and chocolate? "They told you at school to give me the bar?"

"Yep.  After I won the bar, they said to me, You have diabetes so you can't eat that but you can take it home for your mother."

I was stunned. Had these people learned nothing from my conversations with them? My child could not eat chocolate if he wanted to??? "They told you that? Are you serious? Have they never seen you eat?"

"I don't know but yeah, that's what they said.  They said that I couldn't eat the bar."

"Have they learned nothing? Why couldn't you eat the bar if you had insulin for it? You don't have to eat the entire bar at one sitting but there is no reason for you not to have the bar."

"I know" my son said as he headed off to his room with his candy...chocolate and almond bar included!

Its too early for "The Lecture" Mom

I got up at an ungodly hour to take my son to the airport. He was heading off to spend part of his Easter holidays with his dad, brother and friends.  As we drove to the airport I began....

Trip down memory lane...Easter many years ago

"Don't forget to text me with your readings.  If you are on quad or running around all day, use the "active" basal not the travel basal.  You need less insulin not more."

"Mom, we haven't even got to the airport yet! Its too early for "the lecture"....  Don't forget to text me.  Call me once a day with your readings.  Don't forget to test. Make sure that you bolus.  Do a site change."

I looked at him and laughed.  It is never too early to remind him but he seemed to have the rules down pat and I told him so.  I then suggested that since he obviously remembered what I was going to say, it would be really nice if he actually did everything that I asked.

He told me that he always remembers. I just shook my head and continued to drive.

As we sat in the lounge before his plane boarded I gave him a gentle reminder...I wouldn't want him to think that I forgot the full "lecture". I also reminded him to enjoy himself...now that is one thing that needed no reminding!

Diabetes Haiku

Today's WEGO Health Writers Activists challenge is to write a health haiku.  I have done no poetry of any kind since high school...and that was not yesterday no matter what I tell people! I am sure my attempted haiku is written proof that poetry is not my strength...

Poking, testing, hurts.
Highs and lows, no end in sight.
Diabetes sucks.

Cows equal diabetes?

Go to flickr.com/explore and write about the image that you see.
This is the prompt for today's WEGO Health Writer Activists challenge.

The picture I received is a picture of a painting. A lone man and a herd of cattle.  It took me only seconds to see how it related to my health issue...diabetes.

The cattle are divided into two groups and I instantly had my connection.  Diabetes!! The cattle can be seen as the disease commonly referred to as diabetes.  The large group of cows on the right represent the larger category of Type 2 (Adult onset) diabetes.  The smaller group to the left reflects those living with Type 1 diabetes.  Statistics always say that only 10% of people with diabetes have Type 1.

I was on a roll! The lone man walking between the two groups? Well he is not necessarily a man. He is me! He is a parent of a child with diabetes. It does not matter what "type" of cow his/her child is.  He watches over all of them.  He is concerned with all of them. He wants to protect all of the cows--to watch over them and keep them safe from harm.

A simple farm scene quickly becomes a health scene.  My brain is filled with diabetes and can see it in the most unlikely of pictures but there it is..."Bringing them home" becomes "Guarding the Herd" in my mind's eye with very little effort.  It is almost scary how easily that came to me.  How diabetes fills even the most obscure crevasses of my mind.  

Why do you do it?

Another day in April and another WEGO Health Activists Writers Challenge topic! Today they ask, why do you write about your health? Well actually I don't, unless I am writing about my deteriorating mental health which is in part related to the health of my youngest son. 

Why do I write about the health of my son? For so many reasons! First, because its great therapy for me.  When I have been stressed or frustrated, by writing it down and getting it "out there", I have often been able to get perspective (or have someone give me perspective).  Sometimes it doesn't seem so bad when its spelled out on my computer screen.

Secondly, a friend once said that she liked reading what I was writing.  Silly woman!  Now I write to entertain the other one or two people who actually are interested in what I have to say.

This leads me to reason number three...so others know that they are not alone.  That is actually why my friend encouraged me to continue to write. She goes through similar events with her child with diabetes. My ranting, raving, and general discussions have shown her that she is not alone.  All of us parents of children with diabetes are in this together. We experience many of the same issues and seeing a variety of ways to cope allows us to find the best way to manage our own situation.

That actually brings me to a fourth reason (and here I thought I only had three!).  The fourth reason that I do this is to help those who are not yet at the stage in their diabetes life that we are.  I have learned a lot from those who have gone before.  When my son was a toddler I listened to the stories of those with pre-teens with great interest.  When my son became a pre-teen, I followed the horror stories of teenagers praying that some of their wisdom would help me through. Now that my son is a teen, and my older son is getting ready to move forward into his post-high school life, I read the tales of parents of young adults hoping to gain inspiration and guidance.  Hopefully, my stories will help prepare others for their next stage in life with diabetes.

The final reason to write about my son's life with diabetes is simple...some of his stories and points of view are priceless to me.  They amaze me.  They inspire me.  They make me laugh.  Blogging about it allows me to share his unique perspective with the fifty or so other people who follow my blog and allows me to preserve the memories in a unique form for both of us.

Back to the original questions...Why do I write about my son's health? To preserve my own sanity and hopefully to help out a few others along the way. Its as simple as that!