Thursday, May 9, 2013

Diabetes - 22 years later

Today is my anniversary.  My Diabetes anniversary.  It has been 22 years since that fateful day in May.  I can remember how scared my mother was but was trying to not make me panic.  She kept leaving the room to get in touch with my Dad and make arrangements with my doctor.  Luckily for me and by some random act of god my best friend Stephanie was at my doctors office with her mom that day.  I remember how scared I was with the diagnosis.  Diabetes.  I mean it has the word "die" in it.  I even recall Steph and I having that conversation in the office.  "What's going to happen to you?' she asked.  "you will be fine"  she said.  Everyone kept telling me I would be fine but I knew they were scared.  And it took a long time, but I can honestly say that I am fine.  Diabetes is part of who I am at this point.  I am sure I tested my blood sugar atleast 8 times today, but I could not tell you when or that it even hurt.  My pump plays lovely music when it wants to tell me something but other than that I barely even know I am wearing it.  I think the news and sometimes my fellow diabetics make Type 1 diabetes out to be this awful thing.  My response to that negativity is that it could be worse.  The world is a cruel place.   To me Diabetes means taking care of yourself, taking care of your body, watching what you eat.  And if you think about it, shouldn't everyone be doing this in the first place?    I mean I am healthy, I am happy.  I am alive.  I am married.  I have a daughter.  Diabetes is with me everyday but I am ok with it.  So this year instead of feeling sorry for myself or anyone else with Type 1 diabetes, I am celebrating.  And yes, I can eat cake.

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Hug it out

Rhea is at that age where I am pretty sure she understands everything I am saying to her.  And I am pretty sure she knows exactly what she should and should not do.  So last weekend she hit me really hard in the face.  I yelled at her that hitting is not nice and that she hurt Mommy.   I asked her to apologize to me and give me a hug.  With tear rimmed eyes she came over to me, gently touched my face and hugged me.  Nice right?  Well now that she knows what an apology is she is trying to use it to her advantage.  Like on Sunday when she bit me and I told her "no biting"  She leans into me and says "hugs, hugs" which was very nice.  But she proceeded to bite me again.   So it seems to me that every time we tell her "no" now she just smiles, yells "hugs",  gives hugs and kisses and continues to do what she was doing.  That somehow the cute little way she is apologizing will make you forget what you were mad about in the first place.  And I will tell you what.  It is working.