Political Royalty…….Diabetes Does Not Care.

So a friend of mine from my days in government (not connected to the diabetes world) and I were having a discussion.  The discussion ‘morphed’ into the recent events surrounding the daughter of the former Vice President, Liz, and the diagnosis of her teenage daughter with t1 diabetes.

“So are you guys going after her?”

“Going after her…..?”

He went on to explain what a huge difference that someone with this sort of clout could mean to the world of diabetes.  Education, publicity, and perhaps even a media frenzy to know more about diabetes.

Really? 

I stated to him that all I COULD think about is the fact that this woman, this possible future Senator, this person who is of political royalty, as well as her entire family, just had their world ‘rocked-down-to-zero’ with this diagnosis.  Her child’s diagnosis.  THAT is all I could think about.

The former Vice President is now a grandfather of a child with t1 diabetes.  THAT pain, THAT turmoil, THAT feeling of ‘what can I do’; just became as real for the former Vice President as it has for every grandparent who has gone through this ordeal.

The VP’s daughter is now a d-mom, just like every other d-mom that must now deal with a teen-ager diagnosed with diabetes.

Now; a d-family.

I have said it a million times, diabetes does not care who you are or where you come from.  It attacks and it attacks strong.   It is my sincere hope Liz and her family realize, like so many of us have come to know; that there is a world out here who has come before her.  She is now a d-mom and she will have every bit of pain, frustration, sorrow, anguish, questions, fears, and tears as all of us.  We, in that world, know first hand what they are going through and unless one has been there, one DOES NOT know.

In time, let’s hope; they also learn that together they can manage this and make their daughter’s life as fulfilling as she could ever want or need.  Because most of us know that as well, don’t we?

Let’s hope that she also reaches out to those who can help her through this horrendous time.  And we will help, not because she is the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, but because she is now a newly diagnosed d-parent.  And THAT is something, unfortunately, we all know too much about.  We all, as the diabetes community, stand ready to help her as we also did for the newly diagnosed parent from Uniondale, New York.    Because diabetes doesn’t care……but we surely do; and help is what we do best.  And we, as always, stand ready–because that is who we are.

I am a diabetes dad.

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