Wednesday, June 13, 2012

"But I want diabetes too!"

How do you explain to a 6 year old that diabetes really does suck? He can't see the crappy way his brother feels when he is high or low. He hears us encouraging his brother that pod site changes "don't really hurt that much". What he does see is his brother say "no" to the food everyone else is eating and get something else. He does see his brother get a cup of milk every night right before bed. He does see his brother get banana or applesauce in bed if he is going low. Sometimes we give them both a snack, but it's not good for the 6 year old all the time. Heck, it's not good for the 3 year old, but it is necessary.  He knows that diabetes is "yucky". He just doesn't know why. What he knows is that diabetes allows his brother to get sweet tarts or fruit snacks while we are walking around the zoo. He doesn't understand that his brother's body is on a constant state of upheaval.
The other night he actually said that he wished that he had diabetes. He and I had a long talk about that. I asked him what he thought about getting finger pricks 8-10 times a day and pod and Dex site changes? He said that he didn't want that. I told him that of all wishes in the world, Joshua would wish to not have diabetes anymore. He would gladly give up those nighttime snacks. It is hard to explain these things to a 6 year old. He is so thoughtful and sweet. He helps distract Joshua during site changes. He runs to get us if Dex starts buzzing. As I tucked him in that night, he finished the conversation with "ok daddy, instead I wish that there was no more diabetes". Me too buddy, me too.

3 comments:

  1. Amazing resource! Thank you for creating it. Keep going that way.

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  2. Makes me think about what my older son will think of this after a while. My suspicions were correct and my almost 3 year old was diagnosed type 1 a week ago. We're obviously going though some life alterning changes right now and we're talking about it all the time with both of them. We do have 3 other close family members who are type 1, so we are at least a little familiar with the drill. But constant carb counting and 9 finger pricks a day is definitely becoming our new norm. Do you both have pumps? How do you like using them?

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