Someone died.
I know you are thinking of a young lady who was taken too soon. It’s sad, isn’t?
The diabetes community turned their lights to blue candles, as they do, and the outpouring was just everywhere.
It made me think.
Today is also the 5th anniversary since Little Reegan was taken from us. That’s sad too. The list is long, Reegan and Kycie who passed before (or due to) their diagnosis and Sophia who passed after her diagnosis; results in the same sadness…..doesn’t it?
I ask, as I always do……but are you angry enough to try to change it? Are you sad enough to try to make it not happen again? Are you moved enough to not sit back and wait for others to do the lifting?
Now hear me…….if you have, or are, doing to the best of your ability, I’m not speaking about you. I do not care how small or how insignificant you think what you do might be, the fact is you are doing something, and something……is not nothing.
I know that each time this happens, each time, each time ANY child dies, and I would do it the same way if was my own; I look into the bathroom mirror and look at my reflection and I say the words, “Are you doing everything you can?” I do not answer right away. I think of those I know who have been lost and I think of those who I love, and then I think of my two kids who continue onward with this disease. When I’m done with that thought process, I look at the image looking back at me and I literally ask, “Tom, do you think you are doing enough?”
What happens between me and my reflection will stay that way and yours should too. The answer should remain yours also along with the actions you take. No one’s business but yours. But for the sake of those we need to stop from dying, for those we need to educate so they do not die while not knowing, and for all the those that live every day…….it’s my hope that each and every one of us, alone in the bathroom, ask that reflection, “Am I doing all I can?”
Because if not us…………who will?
Rest in Peace little ones…..your memory will make a difference.
I am a diabetes dad.
Please visit my Diabetes Dad FB Page and hit ‘like’.
5 replies on “When they Die……….the Reflection is in the Mirror”
Hopefully a type1 cure will be released to the public soon before more die from type1 diabetes.
I feel like at least for Sophia and the many that will be diagnosed after: CGM at diagnosis, because of course there are times where you can.lose the signal but for 99% of the time it’s a life saving device! My question that I always ask is WHY? Why did this happen. What can we do to prevent it from happening again?
Something to consider……I have felt for a long time that the Dexcom Follow app shortchanges parents/followers by not allowing a low alert to happen until 100. While 100 is a great number, it’s not great if it’s accompanied by two arrows pointing straight down. There is nothing in the app that allows parents/followers to get an alert sooner. I have written Dexcom about this and they do not care at all. It would be a simple app update to allow more alarm choices, and to also alert parents immediately when the cgm is out of range. I feel powerless on my own to get Dexcoms attention. But perhaps if we banded together we could affect change?
Did you send this information to Dexcom?
Seems like they may want to hear your idea.
Thanks
One good change that seems easy enough to take is to have the ADA and Emergency doctors to tell ER’s that when a person with flu comes into the ER, to a simple finger stick. A $1.00 test to rule out T1 makes sense. I would donate 100 test strips and a meter to my local hospital.