Diabetes Awareness

Diabetes Awareness Month is a pretty big deal in our house, my daughter Brooke was diagnosed with Type One Diabetes over a year ago. Though we've had over a year to adjust to our new "normal". I'm going to be honest, prior to her diagnosis I had very little idea of what diabetes really was and didn't know what symptoms to expect. I expected her to get super sick or something that screamed"Blood sugar issues!". Instead it just looked like the flu to me, she truly just looked like she'd bounce back. Then she had a seizure, this isn't something normal that my kids do(obviously) so naturally I freaked out and we rushed her to the ER. She was then diagnosed and they planned to send us home until I threw a fit and said I couldn't do it on my own! So she was admitted for 24 hours so they could teach me how to feed my four year old. It was a lot to take in, there were so many medical terms that I didn't understand and still barely understand. What I did understand though, is how differently I'd look at food. I used to just eat freely, never read labels except to see if it was gluten free or not, and we just ate until we were full. Now we read labels and see how much of everything is in there. I get mad when Jason throws away the cereal box before I get to write down everything and I've seriously dug labels out of the trash to make sure I adjust everything accordingly. Brooke has learned how to measure out cups of food and how to portion things out. No child should have to live like this, she shouldn't have to be so worried all the time, but sadly she has to be. This is a disease that won't go away until we find a cure and it sucks. This kid and many others like her have to take at least four shots a day, sometimes more and then finger pricks as well. When she was first diagnosed she would cry and scream about these things. Now she just sits there and cries silently. She still has moments when she tries to get out of it, but she realizes she needs this. I pray for the day that Brooke and kids like her don't have to prick their fingers and can eat whatever they please whenever they would like.