November is Diabetes awareness month! I should have posted this last Friday on World Diabetes Day, but I’m not that organized. Now perhaps I should have named this post ‘Mamma and Papa Pancreas'; but as I’m with Sarah all day, every day now–I really do feel like I can safely call myself Mama Pancreas without stepping on Jason’s toes.
Sometimes, actually lots of times, quite often really, I tend to forget just how much Type 1 Diabetes has changed our lives, and more importantly how it has changed Sarah’s life. And this is the part that makes me what to stop and have a little cry for my daughter who needs insulin pumped into her around the clock, who wears an electronic device 24/7, and who can’t remember what it’s like to go a whole day without pricking her finger at least 5 or 6 times. I know she would love to just go back to those days where she could just eat something, anything, without having to stop and think about how many carbs it is and then tell her pump that number so that she gets enough insulin to cover that food. To not have to endure a site change every three days, where we freeze a little patch of skin on her tummy, and then insert another infusion site into her, and then have to put up with the rashes from the medical tape and spots on her tummy from previous sites that hopefully one day will fade.
Whew…. diabetes is not fun. But we do have lots to be thankful for still, yes even in this. First of; it’s a great day-in-age to have diabetes because they seem to be getting closer and closer to a cure – or at least effective work-arounds all the time. So that is exciting. And to be able to wear a pump and have the control that we have over Sarah’s blood sugar is wonderful too – even if it does mean I get the privilege of checking her blood sugar before I go to bed and sometimes even in the middle of the night.
And I’m so thankful that Sarah is who she is–a strong brave girl who doesn’t let diabetes get her down. She swam all summer long, and was in and out of the lake and pool like a fish. She plays hard outside and inside and it hasn’t stopped her from doing anything she wants to do. Once in a while she breaks down a little and we have a little cry together over it, but then she’s off again. And her insulin pump that she started wearing last year at the end of January has been wonderful and her A1C’s (a test they use to look at blood sugar levels over the past three months) have been really good, so that is encouraging. I try so hard not to get frustrated with myself and with her when she eats something and we forget to bolus and her sugar gets out of whack. But really, there doesn’t seem to be much of a point to strive for perfection with blood sugar control because even things like her getting really upset can affect her levels. It is what it is. It’s a treatable manageable disease that God has allowed into our lives for His purpose and His glory and we accept it — sometimes rail heavily against it but I know that God understands that we still feel pain even when accepting His will.
Maybe things like this are put into our lives to make us look forward to heaven more… no diabetes in heaven, hurrah! I’m just thankful that we have Sarah and that she is healthy and that we get to enjoy everyday with our precious daughter who is growing up so fast!!!
And I love the way she doesn’t care that her pump is out there for the world to see, in fact I think it’s great.
Here’s this verse AGAIN that we can cling too; I can’t get enough of it…
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. Romans 8:18
Heaven is going to make all this so worth it!
Amen.
