Well one year 4 hours and 45 minutes ago we heard that dreadful d word! Casie (who is 11) wants to celebrate! I can't think of anything less I want to celebrate! I just want to cry, but can't so I need to find some way to make this a special day. She wants to go out to dinner and rent a movie (transformers I think) while her brother (13) and sister (14) wants to know why she gets a special day. What I want to know is, how can it be special? I know I'm supposed to look on the bright side right? You know she is doing very good with it, and she is healthy, but you know what I don't feel that way. It is just not right that she has to go through this! She is a good kid why her? Well I guess I need to go the screen is getting real blury!
My wife's grand aunt died in the 20's before insulin was discovered. Her diabetes was undiagnosed and was thought to be "consumption/" Imagine a world today without insulin and without the discoveries that research has brought.
One thing that diabetes has taught me is how each day with our T1 daughter (now 13) is such a special gift. Without the care that your daughter has received from you, her doctors, researchers, insulin makers, pump manufacturers and the like, she may not be celebrating this one year anniversary. It's something very worthy of celebrating; it's a way to recognize everyone's efforts (including Casie's) to keep her in your lives.
As for her jealous siblings- hopefully as they get older they too will realize that the gift of their little sister belongs to them on this special day. Celebrate. Rejoice. Casie's wise enough to realize this. We should all learn from her.
~ Red
(BTW, - what a coincidence- my daughter's name is Cassie (2 s's) - you can check out her picture on our JDRF fundraising page at www.cassiemaxwell.com. She's a cutie-patootie)
Our one year anniversary is coming up in 2 weeks. I feel the same...how do we celebrate? I would like to erase Nov 5 from the calendar forever. We have actually planned a trip to Disney and will be there on the aniversary. We are going to celebrate our strength as a family. We are going to celebrate the fact that despite our life being turned upside down and inside out, we survived and will continue to survive. Each family has been affected differently and we are going to celebrate our strength, hard work, and bravery. After the kids go to bed I will cry and ask why did we have to have this "celebration". Why did my sweet innocent little boy has to have this crappy disease. I will cry and cry. The next morning I will get up kiss my family, check sugar, and count carbs. I am proud of my family, especially Collin, everyday but I am going to use the anniversary day to go overboard with letting them know.
Our son was diagnosed 5/13/09, and I have that date in my Outlook calendar as his "anniversary". I fully intend to celebrate his first anniversary, and each anniversary thereafter, the fact that he is alive, healthy, and happy. May 13th could have been the day we lost him forever, but it is the day he was snatched back from the jaws of death by a wonderful team of medical professionals. I'll never forget the gratitude I felt on that night, knowing that he was going to be okay. And, that's what we'll be celebrating every year.
Very well put! I sent a thank you note to the dr and hospital staff on my daughters anniversary. I will never forget the day she was diagnosed and how caring they all were. The nurses sat with me, holding my hand while they got the ambulance ready to take us to the other hospital. It was a nightmare but without the health care team we had it could have been much worse. I celebrate the anniversary to thank God for letting me have my little girl.