What’s next for your child? Or what is next for you?
I was with someone recently who stated that their lives were spent with endless trips to the hospital and missing school and endless trips to the doctor’s office. Their lives were a mess. A single mom, hard to find work, she blamed everyone. “I was NEVER happy, never.”
But it all changed.
I asked what transpired that caused the change and she answered, “me.”
She went on to explain that she was always so negative and ‘letting diabetes win’. “Every time something happened I took it as just another defeat. Another way that ‘diabetes was trying to kill me’. My entire life was in defeat. It was almost easier to live like that all the time.
She stated that she always wondered why some kids do so well and others are always sick and in the hospital and why “…….I am always so miserable? I decided to make a change”.
I stated that sometimes diabetes is like that and it can get tough. She stated that it became unacceptable. “We had no life”. “Diabetes, diabetes, diabetes….my life was an endless woe. I got tired of it.”
If diabetes was going to throw something at us, we would try harder, and harder, and harder. The attitude of ‘…whatever happens will happen…’ was totally unacceptable. We decided to take control. We still had times that things went haywire but the days missed in school became less, a lot less; the trips to the hospital became almost non-existent; and life became bearable. “I took control.”
I could not resist to ask; “Wait a minute, your lives completely changed just by a change in attitude? You just said, ‘This can be changed’, just like that?”
“Absolutely. I lifted my head up and after watching me, my child started working right along side of me. Things got better, and quickly. We still hit road bumps, we all have road bumps…but our lives were so much better.”
How is your attitude?
I am a diabetes dad
5 replies on “Maybe it’s Your Attitude!!!!!”
Great post! Although ever once in awhile my son (14) will say it “Diabetes sucks Mom” when he has to change his site or has ketones, etc… and I reply “It sure does Suck!” and then we move on…
Hi.
I’m diabetic and I have been diabetic for 10 years…. and I don’t really care about it. I have a friend at school who likes to make fun of it slightly, which doesn’t bother me at all because he is my best friend. Every lunchtime at school I take out my blood glucose meter and my insulin pump under the table, test and bolus. He has a thing of pointing at the pump and saying “haha pancreas.” He kind of mocks it, then I mock it more. The way I look at it is, my pancreas tells the time. What more could I ask for. It doesn’t bother me about the site changes or the endless blood glucose testing but what does bother me about the stereotypes of diabetes. That’s what I think sucks about diabetes-that people don’t understand it. I’m happy that I have my diabetes and feel fortunate that my control is pretty steady thanks to the insulin pump. I am not bothered about a cure. My diabetes has however given me the opportunity to try and help others and address some of the stereotypes of it.
I also have a wallpaper on my phone which says “Keep calm and be diabetic” That is evidence that I just don’t care.
Only complaint I still have is the expense. I use to complain about seeing test strips all over but after Michelle Alswager commented about finding Jesse’s strips as a blessing, I never will complaing about it again. Diabetes has taught me to appreciate what we do have ,not what we do not.
Diabetes will not win in our house. I am a single mom of 2 kids with type1. My son is now 9 dx @ 5 on his birthday. My daughter now 11 dx. 15 months ago. My son was also dx with gastroperisis. His food take. 3x to digest. He just was released from the hospital after spending Christmas in the hospital. But with God in our lives we live! God is Good.