My daughter was diagnosed in July 2013 while we were on vacation in Dallas. She's 15 and thankfully good with numbers. She was diagnosed with psoriasis earlier this year and it's all over but worst on her scalp. She's dealing with all of this remarkably well both physically and emotionally. Here's hoping that continues. We are still learning and trying to get her bg more under control. I am looking forward to the point where this becomes more routine.
Hey Liz. I'm really sorry about your daughter's diagnosis. Make sure she knows that diabetes won't ruin her life, it will just make it different.
I was diagnosed at age 4 and am 40 now and have no diabetes complications despite many years of bad control when I was young. I went to college, worked a variety of jobs, traveled, and spent a lot of time camping and hiking in my younger days. I'm married and have a healthy, non-diabetic son. I work full-time and also attend school part-time as I'm preparing to go to nursing school.
There are tons of good books that have helped me:
* Think Like a Pancreas by Gary Scheiner
* The Diabetic Athlete by Sheri Colberg
* Using Insulin by John Walsh
* Pumping Insulin by John Walsh
* 50 Diabetes Myths That Can Ruin Your Life; And the 50 Diabetes Truths That Can Save It by Riva Greenberg
* The Calorie King Guide to Calories, Fat & Carbohydrates (for carb counting, they also have an app)
If you or your daughter have any questions, please let us know so we can help.
My daughter is dealing with this better than most adults. She seems to have accepted it as an annoying fact of life and is determined to manage it to the point where it is nothing more than that.
I have to be careful to remember that she is still just a kid and not leave her too much on her own without checking in a little more. When she was put on insulin to carb ratios, she just seemed to absorb it all to the point where I stepped back. But after a few weeks, she's been on a roller coaster that seemed to make no sense. Last night I questioned her about her equation and today looked back on my notes only to see that she was skipping the correction factor! That explains a lot! Sure hope she's in a good mood when I tell her after school today.
Got my copy of Think Like a Pancreas a few days ago. Got put onto CalorieKing and GoMeals in the hospital. Might check out that myths and truths book next?
I have a call in to the Diabetic Nurse's line now waiting for advice on treating her "first" cold. I know not to give her things with sugar or alcohol. But it seemed every med had warnings about checking with your doc first if you are diabetic. There just seems to be so much to learn! It's a bit overwhelming.
You are so positive and doing a great job. As you know, this is life changing, a challenge, but it is OK and it will be easy some months and a struggle the next. Keep positive!
Well it turns out she was doing the right after all. She was just tired when she tried to explain it to me. It rocks to have a daughter who is smarter than I am.
Well I may be doing a good act of being positive. But like my daughter I am a pragmatist. We are here. We cannot go back. It sucks. Lets move forward. It's gonna be hard some days. But the part where I see my daughter not able to have a totally average life sucks. The part where half her hair fell out with psoriasis breaks my heart. The part where she can't simply sit down and eat the WHOLE container of ice cream rocks my world. But we cannot change it. And there's no time now to wallow in it now. Maybe we'll grieve later and maybe we won't. Time will tell.
Wow, well said. I hated that Mary was diagnosed at such an awful age, 11, but now that she is 12, I am glad because we have 6 full years to get her on track before she leaves the nest. Glad to hear your daughter is doing such a good job counting etc. And know that it will change, the honeymoon phase ends, she will grow, hormones. ETC...keep up with being supportive!!
Oh yes that too. I have thought many times that if this had to happen now is as good a time as I could imagine. She's old enough to deal with it and I have 3 years to launch her to college life.
Everyone deals differently with the stress of managing diabetes and the reality of living with a lifelong illness. Most often people are kind of in shock first, it's not until later that the ugly emotions and frustrations come up. Kind of like it is when a loved one dies.
One of the biggest challenges of diabetes is that it feels like you'd be in perfect control if only you were "good". Some diabetics actually keep a separate glucose meter to use at times they know their blood sugars are bad. But the reality is that honesty, including the good, the bad and the ugly is the only way to deal with diabetes and work with your doctors. Any decent healthcare professional undertands that highs and low will happen with type 1 diabetes and there are many variables that affect blood sugar.
Try your best to let your daughter know perfection isn't possible. Each of us has to learn how to balance diabetes with real life demands. And diabetes is always changing. You never hit a point where you have it figured out and can sit back.
I love this article published online a few years ago that captures both the diabetic's frustration at falling short and her mom's perspective. The comments are great too. I know everything is going okay now, but you might need this at some point in the future.
Thanks for that link. It made me cry to read it, but it speaks the truth. We cannot make our kids do anything they don't want to. We can lead; we can cheer; we can console; we can advise; but in the end it's up to them. I learned this the hard way with my middle child who is now 18 and in college. He was a high honor roll student at a very rigorous private school. But in 10th grade he just quit trying. I threatened; I begged; I bribed; and finally I realized that I had no control in this matter and he was still going to graduate from that school with reasonable if "average" grades. He might not attend the college I dreamed for him, but he would get into a college and have a life and he would be happy. And that's pretty much what happened.
But my daughter is a different animal. She is driven. And she is OCD about a lot of things. She has been told that managing her D is an art form. But she's very much into science and math which are precise. I know that at some point in her future she will get frustrated with it, and her response to that frustration could take any form including rebellion.
I feel powerless over this matter. I feel like all I can do is love her, and support her, and always be there for her no matter what.