Tag: parent

It was an absolutely horrendous night.  I need to share this so people know what my life is like………………………………………
Do people REALLY need to know what my life is like?  I get that there is misunderstanding.  I get that people could know a whole lot more; and would make my life easier.  But do I care about their life so much that I want to read about something I do not understand.

Our lives are so crucially important………………………….to us.  My mother once told me “What is important to you is not as important as you think to others”.  I never forgot that phrase and reminded myself many times.   With some exceptions, I don’t write thinking that someone, who has no idea about diabetes reading about my life, will all of a sudden have an epiphany.  My articles are more to encourage those already on the journey.

Our lives are truly important…….to us.  If you know someone with MS, Lupus, Cancer, Autism, mental health disease, heart disease……..and/or in any other disease-state, how much interest outside of our own personal involvement do we actually have……or even need to have; or perhaps (be honest) even WANT to have…….really?

It’s not that we do not care, we do.  But are we fully aware of the person going through chemo spending hours of sickness; or a person with MS having to have each and everything done for them because they cannot do it themselves; or a person in intensive care losing a recent battle with depression……do WE ACTUALLY know?

To be clear, there are those that probably should make an effort to know more than they do.  That’s a point well taken.  That said, be very careful on where you hold expectations regarding your own situation.   Something else I learned at an early age; it’s better to be surprised than disappointed.  Expect little, you will be surprised more times, than you will be disappointed.

I am a DiabetesDad.

Please visit my Diabetes Dad FB Page and hit ‘like’.

It’s been ‘all-the-rage’ for some time now.  A group of people get together in a social atmosphere (translation: wine is served) and look at a painting of some kind and try to duplicate what they are observing.  Mind you that all participants are looking at the exact same art work when they proceed to reproduce it……..as theirs.

We had one at our house recently.  Not sure who thought of this social event or where it started but it’s a grand slam and it’s becoming increasingly popular.  Now as I saw the finished products, of which just a few of the many are shown here, I could not help think how hard it was for me to believe that people were looking at the exact same painting.

But the art instructor was quick to point out that art is subjective.  It’s what the artist sees which means there is really no ‘right answer’.  I find a direct parallel to these art works and the different things people believe in our diabetes world.

Whether it’s a way to manage diabetes, an organization believed in, a form of research, or how one faces diabetes on a daily basis……..each and every person does it differently.

But is diabetes subjective, like art?

That’s the question I kept asking myself.  In as much as I can truly appreciate when someone paints something and has a point of view; It does not change the fact that what is painted does not necessarily come anywhere near the original.

To me if the art work being looked at is to inspire one to paint, then there is not right or wrong answer.  But IF one’s goals were to duplicate it, and it looks nothing like the original, then the objective was probably not met.  I’m pretty sure in the context of these evenings few are out to fully duplicate the painting exactly and I AM NOT here to say that people are getting it wrong.

What I’m saying is that in as much as one may like and be comfortable in the way they are dealing with something, if it’s supposed to be done a certain way based upon scientific fact (know this key phrase) and it’s not; it’s wrong.   No matter how comfortable one feels about.  Recently I met a person who has T1D and he was telling me that he checks his blood sugar once a day, he needs to do it no more.  Now as much as he may be comfortable in doing that (as my friend Jeff Hitchcock says, ‘show me the science that proves that.’) it’s NOT the way to handle T1D…..science just says otherwise.

In art work it does not matter if 10 people are looking at a painting and some show two clouds and some make it a completely cloudy day.  But there are things in this diabetes world that no matter how many times one does it, it will never make sense to be done otherwise, based upon years of data.  One cannot just go through life with this disease on a wing and prayer.  You can not just do something any way you choose and think it will ‘JUST’ be all right, just because you say so.

I’m sorry but it just doesn’t work that way.

I say this not as a judgment.  At the end of the day you make the choices.  But the plain and simple truth is that one with T1D cannot go for too long without taking insulin.  Now as silly as that even sounds there are other things that people do that have absolutely no scientific data to back up how they handle it………..but the process is thought to be okay to do for THE ONLY reason that one thinks it’s okay.

You can get away with running through a red light a million times……..but at some point disaster is going to hit.  Taking a chance that you can copy an art work can be a fun thing to do and a great evening out; taking a chance dealing with diabetes………probably not.  Diabetes is just not always broad strokes……..think about it.

I am a DiabetesDad.

Please visit my Diabetes Dad FB Page and hit ‘like’.

Even after 23 years in the ring fighting this disease, it will alarm me all of my days when I experience people who do not understand our children’s diabetes.  Not the very details of the disease but the bigger strokes, “you should know better”-type.  In discussions over the years, I have come to the conclusion that people believe….and they DO actually believe this……that when our children experience a glycemic reaction (low/high blood sugars) that they get to the point where they can just ‘will’ themselves to move forward.

Really?

Any of these sound familiar?:
(Condescending pat on the head) “You’re okay, c’mon get back out there”.
“Get tough and get back up”.
“Feeling a bit better, okay suck it up and let’s go”.  
“Oh she’ll be okay, let her get it out of her system”.
“Okay it’s been 5 minutes, you can go back to class”.
“I just don’t know why you over-react to this……”
“Really, 5 minutes is enough time JUST get going.”

People?  Amazing, right?

Ignorance, as the saying states, is NOT bliss…….Ignorance is stupid.  I was always taught that if I did not know something, I should ask those who know.  It alarms me when people who have no clue about what this disease is about venture to tell me what their version of reality is in my situation (follow that?).

And if you have a brain between your ears, you should never use the word “JUST” to me when it comes to dealing with my children’s disease.  There is nothing about diabetes that deserves the word ‘just’.  Right up there with, “It’s just diabetes”.

In as much as I have preached to stay positive, to live life to the fullest, to not stop, to not let diabetes hold you back; all of  this is said with the fullest of understanding what this disease is all about.   But when dealing with a low blood sugar and someone who has no clue turns to me and says after the cookie is eaten and the orange juice is just being finished;  “Okay, all good to go now?”

I really just wanted to punch them in the nose.  Don’t you?

I am a DiabetesDad.

Please visit my Diabetes Dad FB Page and hit ‘like’.