This picture is something only a parent will understand. This is a picture only a parent could possibly grasp. For the last 12,327,840 minutes of our lives, this door was our life-saver for our children since Kaitlyn was diagnosed on September 26, 1992 and then Rob on March 20th, 2009. For 12,327,840 of the preceding minutes, this space in our refrigerator had to be ready to serve us at any given moment within that time span. This space held the welfare of our children’s very lives. This was the space where our ‘immediate’ diabetes supplies were both held and ready for Rob and Kaitlyn.
If you look real close, you can see faded letters from their names written on the clear plastic, but in a short amount of time, we knew which one belonged to whom without looking at the names on each.
As I opened it today, I just stopped and stared at the refrigerator door. When Rob moved out yesterday, being the final one of our three kids to move out; his empty room had an impact for sure, but this space was both his and Kaitlyn’s; and THIS spot for immediate diabetes supplies has not been completely void of diabetes supplies in 12,327,840 minutes.
You can figure the amount of shots, and finger pricks if you want. Opening this door was an eye opener for me. All of our kids are now on their own. As I think back, we can only set a foundation for all three of them; it’s up to them what they do with it. For their lives. For who they are. For who they hope to become. For how diabetes impacted the younger two directly; but all of us in some way.
But for 12,327,840 minutes there has been a lot of diabetes in that time frame. I’m glad to have our refrigerator back; but dealing with diabetes, learning everything we could about progress toward a cure, and pharma’s bid to make better management devices, and stronger education for them to be ‘in the know’; I’m happier still that my kids’ got their lives back. Diabetes is what they have, not who they are……we’ve all been working at that objective for the last 12,327,840 minutes…..and we will all continue…..until a cure is found.
In our refrigerator now; we have a glucagon kit and some juice boxes………..for when they visit.
I am a diabetes dad.
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