No one cares, I am all alone. How many times have we all felt that feeling? Our families do not understand, our schools do not understand, our friends do not understand, and on and on and on.
Wendy Rose, who is very well-known in the Diabetes Online Community with her fabulous Candy Hearts Blog, has an incredible talent for writing, only surpassed by her heart of gold. Wendy has a daughter with both diabetes and celiac. Wendy, a registered nurse, shares what she has learned in her blog about living with these two diseases and the dealings of everyday life in this household of much faith.
Yesterday Wendy shared a story that just made my knees weaken. Every now and again, a story comes along that lifts our spirits to new heights. Today is such a day. She has graciously allowed me to share the story of what happened with a new neighbor that just moved in to the neighborhood.
My daughter was invited to a sleepover this weekend. It’s a new neighbor, and she really doesn’t know anything about the diabetes/celiac daily grind. Our girls have fun playing together, but there really hasn’t been an opportunity to go over “Autoimmune 101” with her.
I was honest in my reply, and explained it’s hard to condense all the information. I told her that it could mean a 2 or 3 am sugar check…it would mean needing to know how to recognize a low blood sugar and being ready to intervene with glucose. I shared a link about low blood sugar and some general info, and asked her to think it over before we mention it to the girls. I told her I’d completely understand if she’d rather try it another time, after we’ve had a chance to talk about it a bit more.
This was her reply:
“Wendy, knowledge is power and as long as I have the proper knowledge, then I have the power to help her when or if she needs it. It’s only scary if I am clueless. You have filled me in and I read through your link and will print it off as well.
Little girls love sleepovers and just because A was dealt a bad hand on the autoimmune front, doesn’t mean she should be left out. Rest assured, I will call immediately if the numbers are outside of the parameters you wrote to me.
How’s this sound for a menu: pizza for the girls and a gluten-free one for A on Saturday night. Gluten free brownies that we all make together and Breyer’s vanilla ice cream on the side. For breakfast on Sunday, scrambled eggs, Ore Ida hash browns (which their website says is gluten-free) and fruit.
Let me know if A would or wouldn’t do well with any of these…for both the celiac and the blood sugar?
I mean……..seriously? Gold……just pure gold. Right?
We all need people in our lives like Wendy’s new friend. If you have a story like this, please share it as it would be nice to read about friends who care. It will inspire all of us and helps us all to realize super friends ARE OUT there. So if you have something like this, please share with us by replying.
Thanks Wendy.
I am a Diabetes dad