Wishes, diaversaries, and reasons to hope

What can you say to your child that you haven’t said a million times over the 14 years she’s battled an incurable disease? How do you voice true hope and win her over with faith when really, she has no certain memory of what life is like not in battle? That is my challenge today. Because it was 14 years ago this very day, at exactly 2:35 p.m., that a pediatrician looked me in the eye as I sat next to my wilted, weakened child and said “What do you know about diabetes?” Lordy, have we come far since that … Continue reading Wishes, diaversaries, and reasons to hope

Picturing and verbalizing hope

What does hope look like? It’s a question I’ve been noodling a lot the past week or so. (Not that hope has not been the theme of my life since 10-28-1997 . . . but sometimes you have to ponder it more). It started like this: the mom of a relatively newly diagnosed child with diabetes posted on a website about a promising “cure” she was going to pursue for her child. I won’t go into details here to protect the mom’s privacy, but the moment I read it, my 14-years of really intense D-Mom education sent up a million … Continue reading Picturing and verbalizing hope

Forgiving the Forgotten: It’s all part of D Life

  A fellow D-Mom posted on facebook today, her angst reading through like facebook had just installed emotions 3-D. (Thankfully, they have not yet). For the first time since her child’s diagnosis, she’d forgotten to give him a breakfast bolus. And now, realizing it, the mother came to what some may think is an obvious conclusion: She’s unfit to be a D-Mom. Okay, so dial back about 14 years in time. My daughter was a newly diagnosed kindergartener. I was still in the midst of adapting to all this. Mornings meant blood sugars, breakfast, carb counting, timing (that was back … Continue reading Forgiving the Forgotten: It’s all part of D Life