What do the siblings think?
Do they hurt for their brother or sister? Do they care? Do they not deal with the diagnosis of diabetes?
We make so much of what happens in when a child is diagnosed. It changes our lives. It turns a household upside down. But alone, in the corner of their room; the brother and/or sister is sitting on their bed taking it all in.
What are they thinking?
It does not matter if they are age six or twenty-six; their lives have just been changed. They sit on their bed, they look around the room. Perhaps they sigh. They think.
It becomes lonely I’m sure, a bit scary too.
For the first few days there is much activity, there are a zillion phone calls coming and going; being carted away to babysitters, babysitters arriving; or a grand parent coming to help out……and of course, there is just that room. Even harder still, if the room is shared with the one going through the diagnosis.
The silence at night is deafening to the brother and sister who try to figure it all out.
Can you feel this? They may still be experiencing it years after diagnosis; make sure you include them. Make sure you give them the extra bit of attention they may need; even today.
Because it’s lonely in their room, still.
I am a diabetes dad.
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