Anchor chains, plane motors, and train whistles. Any fan of the holiday classic, It’s a Wonderful Life starring Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed, will tell you that Jimmy Stewart’s character, George Baily, states that those are the three best sounds in the world.
I’m a little biased toward train whistles.
Sounds. All around us, but truthfully when you have children (or a child) with diabetes your deciphering of sounds becomes acute because we have become trained that a certain sound can mean a course of action is needed.
Think about it. Can you not hear the click of a lancet device from a mile away. Not to mention hearing the sounds of a pump, or a continuous glucose meter (CGM). Warnings, ‘out of insulin’ lows, no matter what; we have tuned our hearing.
They could be doing construction outside your house and you don’t hear it but if the alarm of a CGM happens I KNOW there are people out there that will jump out of bed, get a bathrobe on, and put on their slippers before their feet even hit the floor.
Amazing isn’t it?
Every year while attending the CWD Friends for Life Conference in Orlando Florida; there is another sound that resonates with me. 3000 people preparing for breakfast and you can actually hear the lancet devices clicking across the hall. What is really cool about that is that every child sees that they are not alone. They see that there are many people who live like they do. I am sure this happens in camps around the world as well.
“Click, click, click, click.” You can hear it, can’t you?
Add to that the many sounds that our children have dealing with diabetes. A tonality in their voice, a tearful statement, a whine, or perhaps a grimace. Makes me want to tell you that there is another sound that I urge every parent to seek out at least once a day. When it happens, hear it. Grab a glass of wine, or a cup of hot chocolate, and listen for it. It usually happens about 45 minutes after your children are asleep.
You sit down. Take a sip. And you hear nothing. Perhaps a little music. But at this moment your mind knows that there should be no sound for at least an hour or two. With all the sounds of diabetes, sometimes the best one is no sound at all.
In the distance, you just might hear a train whistle passing in the night.
I ama diabetes dad.
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