Tag: diabetes parent by diabetesdad.

Want to be involved in a really great debate…..pick a presidential candidate and tell everyone on social media why you are voting for this person…..and let the fun begin.

I promise you that no matte how much sense you my be making to yourself, you will be handed an earful from others.

Decisions in diabetes……..mmmmmmm…..not too, too different.

I’m not exactly sure why both of these topics can roll into such heated debates, but they can….and they do.  I mean it is, after all, a decision that each of us makes.  We do our homework,  We read.  We become educated.  We make a decision.  But as soon as it is shared with others, we are made to feel like we know nothing, or little, at all.

What I do know without certainty, I know extremely smart and intelligent people, brilliant in some cases, and members of this elite group much smarter than I, are leaving some to vote for Ms. Clinton and some to vote for Mr. Trump.

In the same way, I know brilliant people who have different philosophies on the diabetes management and care for themselves or their child.

So who is right?

Here is the thing, it’s YOUR call on what you want to do, and what you choose to share with anyone else.  Do not let anyone tell you otherwise.  If you have done your homework, know what you know, and are comfortable with the choice…….make it.  Where the problem starts is listening to people without doing your homework for yourself.  DO not rely on ‘hear-say’ rely on what you know to be true.

This world is extremely opinionated and the comfort of being behind a keyboard anonymously is a sense of power.  People do not REALLY know you or your child, how could they.  And yet, we become so influenced when our opinions differ.  Why?

In the fact-seeking aspects of life, it does make sense to get opinions but at the end of the day the decisions made are yours and yours alone.   We need to respect the reasons people believe what they believe, we need to do our own homework, and we need to make our own choices……why would we ever let someone else?  And why would we let anyone else influence us differently than what we know to be true?

I am a DiabetesDad.
Please visit my Diabetes Dad FB Page and hit ‘like’.

Ever want to say that?  My guess is, yes.  I know people with diabetes (PWDs) have shared that with me many times as people forge forward in telling them what they ‘need to do’.  An expert who has no reason to be an expert is….well….a turkey-brain; right?

Now I know expertise can be somewhat learned.  I mean Endos do not have to have diabetes to treat the disease (although many have shared, it surely does not hurt), right?  I’m not a PWD and cannot speak from that point-of-view but I can surely speak from a parent’s point of view.

I have a friend of mine who has twins.  One boy and one girl.  Guess the number one question she is asked……ready…..are they identical?  I thought she was kidding. “Nope, they look me straight in the eye and ask me if my kids are identical.”  My jaw dropped as I asked her how she answered?  “Depends on the moment and how I feel but the one I enjoy saying most is that no they are not, one of them has a penis.”  Absolutely priceless.

We get the stupid questions too, do we not?  I do not know about you but I’m still looking to see what I did that my kids got diabetes; what was the piece of cake that sent them over the edge; what age they will grow out of it; how it might ‘deform’ them (still not getting that one at all); when will they die; or where it is in my family; like answering that question will heal all wounds.

Not to mention the stupid comments because quite truthfully, I do not care what part of body your aunt’s cousin’s brother lost with his diabetes; and/or that your dog, cat, kangaroo or sloth had it so you know exactly what we are going through.

You don’t.

Such is the nature of……well……so many….who just don’t know what to say or do.  A simple, “how are you all doing?” is fairly safe.  But for the life of me I do not get the conversations I have had over the years.  Drives me a little coo-coo.  I guess there are worse things in life…..are there not?  I mean, aren’t we just lucky it’s not cancer?
I am a DiabetesDad.
Please visit my Diabetes Dad FB Page and hit ‘like’.

I hear it constantly.  I cannot make a difference.  I do not have the time.  What can one person do?  Now listen closely about what one person can do, if they choose to set their mind to it.

My cousin Carol is one of these people who has a heart the size of Texas.  She always has.  I always have envied that she balances kids, and work, then adds grandchildren, and then adds whatever else she is doing to help others whether it be at a school or church; Carol is there.  She does not ‘look’ for time, she ‘FINDS’ the time.

The picture above is made up of animals she made for a pre-school in Haiti.  “They have little”, she states, “perhaps this will brighten their day.”  Just like that, just that simple.

My brother Joe, who I have written about before, has always been one of my true heroes.  A minister and outreach director for Cru, Campus Crusade for Christ, Joe has helped so many in both their personal and spiritual needs; he allows God to work through him and the so many he touches.

When he found out about what Carol was doing, he shared a story—it is THIS story that again shows how powerful things are to others when you reach out and touch them…..even if you never, ever know.

Here’s Joe’s quick story as he shared it:
Lenisse is a Cru Alum (Meaning as a college student, she was one of Cru’s leaders at Medgar Evers College–my life’s work, indeed my life’s calling is with Cru). She is married now living in St. Louis. As a child, Lennise lived in rather poor conditions in Belize. Through Operation Christmas Child, she received a gift from someone in the states. Years later, as a college student, she spoke at Operation Christmas Child gift collection events at Medgar Evers College and Pace University telling her story as to what the gift meant to her. It is for this reason, Carol, I am confident your labor will do SO MUCH MORE than ‘brighten their day’. They will NEVER forget it. I wish there were more like you!

Never underestimate the little things you do.  Little things are big things to those who receive them.  But if we don’t do them………they’ll never know, will they?  Not all stories make us cry and bubble over, sometimes they just make us think……”what can I do to help someone else?”…….and that ain’t so bad, is it?

As Joe stated, I wish there were more people like Carol, and add to that; a few more like Joe wouldn’t be so bad either.
I am a DiabetesDad.
Please visit my Diabetes Dad FB Page and hit ‘like’.

Anyone seen fault lately?  You know….fault.  We always look for fault.  We always find fault.  Fault.  Pretty nasty rap that fault gets….don’t you think?  How things go wrong and how bad life gets……someone’s fault……not mine….right?  If not mine, someone else’s fault surely.

Funny word……fault.

In so many areas people are so quick to try to get the fault off themselves.  But let’s stay specific about diabetes.  Whilst we want to blame the government, the pharma companies, and everyone else…….we also need to look at ourselves.  I have a weird feeling that healthcare and other items in this country are going to get worse before they get better so we had all better start to prepare.

What supplies we get, do not get, cannot afford, cannot be given the choice, cannot find, are not made anymore……it’s always and in all ways up to us to make good; for our kids, for ourselves.  If I have said it once, I have said it a thousand times—the equalizer in all things diabetes is education.  And education starts with one’s own self.

Now there may be an entire means to advocate about some of these issues but while all of that is going on, you have to stay in touch with what you need….because no one is going to do that for you.  You have to be ready for anything needed, you have to plan for it…..whatever it is and whatever it takes.  And if you don’t, you have been warned, it will be your fault.
I am a DiabetesDad.
Please visit my Diabetes Dad FB Page and hit ‘like’.