Reading, learning, sharing

I have been reading up on Type 1 and other forms of diabetes since I became the parent of a diabetic child. Reading various types of advice and information keeps my eyes open to possibilities (and impossibilities) while our family manages this disease.

It has been much like reading those parenting magazines that tell you about how to get your child to sleep through the night, or how to stop them from whining on a long car ride. As I gather opinions and information, I can choose to follow my instincts (like ignoring advice about getting my child to sleep through the night), or take creative ideas and make them own (giving little activities to the kids every 100 miles does make the ride go faster).

When my children were young, I was often chided for allowing my daughter to go without a sweater on days that were below 75 degrees, or for not bothering to put socks on her feet. People did not know that I made these decisions because she would cry and sweat if she was overdressed, or because socks were a moot point because she would only pull them off, chew them, and throw them on the floor to be lost forever. As a result, I have learned not to assume much about the choices other parents were making when I noticed how their children were dressed, buckled or entertained while in the supermarket.

Being the parent of a diabetic has made me notice and recognize a whole new category of children: those with diabetes. I tend to observe the actions of parents of diabetic children as part of my information gathering. As with parents of non-diabetic children, I have likewise learned to keep my mouth shut. After all, I have been the recipient of some pretty weird comments - my favorite being from a coworker that told me that a shot of raw milk every day would cure my daughter's diabetes.

Here is a video that I swiped from one of my favorite diabetes-related blogs, SixUntilMe, by an excellent writer named Kerri Marrone Sparling. She had, in turn, swiped the video from somewhere else (Death of a Pancreas) . Rarely does Kerri write about parenting a diabetic, as she is a diabetic who shares her own personal experiences, so this video was a special gem for me.

I love Kerri's writing. It gives me an opportunity to peek into M's future. I don't like everything I see, but it gives me hope that M can overcome this "unfortunate obstacle", and enjoy her life as Kerri seems to.

I shared this video with M's classmates of sixth through eighth graders, her principal, and her teacher today. As they are all part of M's daily experience as a diabetic, they truly appreciated the misconceptions presented in this video. Roaring laughter from everyone in the room brought people from other parts of the building to see what was going on.

The fact that we were all able to share this experience only brought to light how happy I am that M has such a supportive and well-educated group in her daily life. Hopefully, she will have minimal experiences like the one presented here.

If you know people who have had to face the kinds of questions and statements posed in this video, please share it.

Enjoy.