Life just keeps getting in the way.......

Life just keeps getting in the way!

This week has been hard as a type 1 parent, harder than usual for me.  Usually my husband and I “tag team” it for everything  – but he has been travelling all week and now I am exhausted. I know I am usually exhausted from life with this disease but this week is more so than usual. My daughter’s blood sugars just aren’t right this week – she is fine and acting fine – so I have to tell myself they must not be that bad – but it also isn’t good and to top it off life this week has been getting in the way of my focus on her numbers! I have three active and engaged kids – not unusual to be running around like a chicken with my head cut off - but highs and lows, little sleep, and missing my partner in this craziness has been hard. Of course I have done it – with grace and ease (ha, ha – just like thinking it looks that way from the outside looking in!!)

The one solace I have this week is that I know I am not alone, and I am not the only parent that has realized that life just keeps getting in the way of managing this disease this week (not that I want others to have to deal with it – but they don’t have a choice either!)

This week I was in touch with a newly diagnosed family. We only chat via email at the moment, but it brings me comfort that they reached out to me and that what they are experiencing is what I feel all the time. Neither of us are alone in our craziness! They are having a real “life keeps getting in the way” issue in that a close friend of theirs is dealing with a very scary health issue and they need to be there for them and also deal with a new reality for their family. I cannot imagine the emotional rollercoaster they are dealing with right now – life just keeps getting in their way in dealing with their diabetes.

Another family I know had a heart stopping moment in the middle of the night this week. All type 1 parents have probably had this moment at least once. That sinking feeling that wakes you from a deep sleep and makes you jump out of bed to rush in (quietly) into your child’s bedroom and you quickly place your hand on their chest to make sure they are still breathing and then you test their blood sugar to understand why you were startled awake. Of course all was fine but you never know. It didn’t matter the mother in this family is also a type 1 diabetic and stress like that can’t be good for her blood sugar or that they have a life and need sleep – life just keeps getting in their way in dealing with their diabetes.

I  was on the phone with a new friend that lives in Colorado that also has a child with type 1 – we met in an online chat room recently! They were trying to work out schedules for spring soccer for their NON-type 1 diabetic child and the necessary childcare for their type 1 child – and it has been really hard for them. Finding that person they can trust, that they feel can be just like them and watch and manage their 7 year old (diagnosed about a year ago) while moving around with their other kids activities. Life just keeps getting in their way in dealing with their diabetes.

I email with a family in the UK – and this week they have been dealing with this disease the EXACT same as us – even across the Atlantic – but their teenage daughter is getting embarrassed by the disease now. She was diagnosed at age 8 and is now 14. She was once okay with showing her disease to the world but now she is a teenage girl that cares about wardrobe, her hair, her makeup, her appearance. Apparently an insulin pump doesn’t really go along with that so well! She is growing up but this disease is not adjusting for her needs – life just keeps getting in their way in dealing with their diabetes.

This week we have had a lot to do from ballet (for two kids on different nights), a school musical performance, scout meetings, school activities, medical appointments, clothing issues, friend issues, fittings for costumes for upcoming recitals, volunteer commitments – and then the regular items for each day that we always do – like meals and baths. Of course at the same time my daughter’s blood sugars have been all over the place this week. High’s and low’s everywhere – this morning when she had a 134 I was so excited I actually jumped up and down – the sleepless night of adjustments worked for her morning number. Of course when she was getting on the bus she was 247 (ugh!)  Life has just been getting in my way this week in dealing with my daughter’s diabetes.

Maybe it is best that life keeps getting in our way – it keeps it “real” for us – we have all the same stresses that parents that don’t live with type 1 on a daily basis have in their lives. We have friends that need us, we have multiple kids with activities, we work, we volunteer, we pray, we do the daily dance of life just like all the other parents we know. But, we are not quite exactly like everyone else, even if life keeps getting in our way we still have to deal with this disease. Maybe one day, when that cure is found, we parents of type 1 kids (and our kids) can just let life into our lives without the added burden of this disease!

This morning I will raise my third cup of coffee to the HOPE for a cure – now on with life –  it just keeps getting in the way……

Until there is a cure,

Jennifer Holdgreve