D-Mom Fear

Being a D-Mom is.... well.... I don't quite have the adjective for that. Its not like we know what all being a mom entails until were actually having children and living it. Then to get the job title of D-Mom on top of being a Mom. They're all just not what you had expected.

I write this because I read a post from another D-Mom in a group I'm apart of on Facebook. Her 16 year old was diagnosed at age 5. Now that he's 16 he wont check his blood sugar. He wont give himself insulin when he needs it. He has however used his insulin to try to commit suicide. His a1c was over 11%. To put this number in perspective.... and a1c under 8% is what you should aim for to prevent complications from diabetes complications. This complications due to poor management of blood sugars include: Heart and Blood vessel disease, Neuropathy (Nerve Damage), Kidney Disease, Eye Damage, Foot Damage, Skin and Mouth Conditions, Osteoporosis, and Hearing Problems.

I read her post pleading for help with what to do with her son. My eyes started to water and my heart hurt for her. I held my sweet Sydney close, and had to take deep breaths. I had to assure myself that she's still 10 years away from being a teenager. I had to tell myself that I cant worry about the future because I don't know what the future may bring. Sydney may not go through what the D community refers to as "Diabetes Burnout". Sydney may continue to take care of her self after the example of care I've shown to her. I don't give her any strict limitations due to her diabetes. I let her do and eat pretty much anything she'd like. Granted we limit carbs to breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Carb-free things for snacks in-between which is really a healthy diet. We should all try to live by that more around here.

Type 1 Diabetes is something I never knew about pre-diagnosis. I thought only fat people got diabetes. When I heard kids had diabetes I thought their parent must have fed them horribly and pitied the child. Horrible misconception to have. Those uneducated assumptions I use to have are what I have to live with and deal with daily. I have to defend myself and Sydney that this is nothing we did. There's not a way to prevent, nor to cure, type 1 diabetes. Being a D-Mom now, I wish there was more education, more of a push, not just so people understood our children's lifestyle, but so parents could also know the warning signs. I didn't know the symptoms of Type 1 Diabetes. Sydney was in full blown Diabetic Keto-Acidosis when we found out. If there had been more educations, more information being passed out, we could have gotten Sydney help way before she went DKA. I wish I knew of a way to get more involved and to be able to educate more people about the disease itself, as well as, symptoms.

This whole motherhood journey has been more that I could have ever imagined it would be. Sometimes I wonder why. Why did Heavenly Father trust me to have a type one diabetic child? Why did he think I was strong enough to handle everything that comes with this disease? Then to throw twins on top of the mix... Why? That's when I pray, I ask these things, and I feel peace, and a small voice says, "Because you are enough." Then I take a deep breath and everything is okay again.

Starting to Blog

I want to start blogging. I want to remember the small things in life, the cute things my children do each day, what life was like, just something to look back at and say, "oh yeah, I remember when that happened!!"

This week has been a very challenging week. Sydney was hospitalized due to an awful stomach flu. Her blood sugar kept plummeting and she kept throwing up. It was a nightmare. First time she got sick since she was diagnosed with diabetes back on November 18, 2011. Getting anything gastrointestinal with diabetes is so not a good mix. Then once we got released from the hospital, Sydney ends up with an awful yeast infection, which got infected, on top of the poor thing having a UTI. She got sent through the ringer, the poor girl.

Trevor and I both got Sydney's stomach flu the next morning after we got home from the hospital. So, 24 hours of puking. I thankfully found some Zofran from when I was pregnant with the twins, and if it weren't for that we would have been in the hospital too, due to dehydration. It was awful. Sydney did so well with having both parents out of commission. She made a mess of the house, but did great with entertaining herself and checking on us to make sure we were okay.