November 19, 2011
All day I have been thinking about what to write today – a whole month of thinking and talking about diabetes and how to express our lives now has been daunting. In an effort to continue hearing from the rest of our family we posed these questions to our 8 year old son Ryan – he was born 13 months before Allie and when they were toddlers looked like twins!
Ryan and Allie have the usual brother / sister issues but generally get along really well and seem to enjoy each others’ company most of the time! One of my first blogs was about Ryan and his support of Allie and diabetes research so I thought now might be a good time to hear a little more from him. Get him going about Star Wars and he might talk your ear off – he was a little more hesitant to get into too much about his sister’s diabetes but here is what his Dad got out of him during a father / son drive to get some ice cream tonight…
The first time I heard that my sister had diabetes I thought -- what is diabetes? Will she be ok? Will I get it? I really did not understand so I was not too worried – but as I learned more I got more and more concerned about my sister. Mom sent me a picture from the hospital with all of these tubes in Allie’s arms and they joked that she was being turned into a Clone Trooper – I thought that was funny…and that it would be cool if true!
The hardest thing to have a sister with diabetes is – keeping an eye on her to make sure she is ok – I did not realize until later that people can die of type 1 diabetes which made me very scared, but that helps me to remember to keep a close eye on her when I am around and get to mom and dad or another adult right away if she starts acting weird or falls down (unless I accidently tripped her – then I see if she is ok and beg her not to tell on me!)
How has my sister’s diabetes has inspired me…when I think of Allie and how she handles the diabetes I think one word…Wow…she is my goofy kid sister but, and don’t tell her I said this, she is pretty amazing. I enjoy thinking up ways to support diabetes research because I really want to find a cure soon for Allie. I am doing a bake sale, have participated in a walk, will do a bike ride next year and have worn a diabetes support shirt with my diabetes awareness ribbon every day this month (diabetes awareness month). Thanks to the folks at ADA for giving me a bunch of shirts so I didn’t have to wear dirty ones or have mom do laundry every day! I want to keep doing things to raise money – the research is cool – I went to hear a researcher talk about the “artificial pancreas” which would be great in helping Allie manage her diabetes. I want to do my science fair project this year on it!
What do you think of the shots she has to take…YIKES! I hate shots and can’t believe she has to do this 4 times a day – more if she wants a high carb snack we didn’t account for! The blood sugar testing is weird too – odd to see my sister have to make herself bleed.
Our life is different now in these ways – I have to always keep an eye on Allie no matter where we are – eating out can be frustrating for mom and dad as they use their phones to try and find the carb counts for pizza, mac and cheese, corn dogs, and any number of other things she eats – I feel bad that she can’t just eat a piece a candy whenever she wants.
Dad relayed that after Ryan’s concern for his sister he is really worried about also getting diabetes – he sees how Allie has handled it but is not confident he would be able to handle it as well (especially the shots and the eating challenges) – of course Allie would have said the same thing prior to diagnosis but as we have learned you accept your challenges and adapt.
To say we are very proud of Ryan is an understatement - he has taken on this family challenge head on and we hope his unwavering caring for his sister continues as well as his dedication and support for diabetes research.
Until there is a cure,
Jennifer
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