Monday, September 29, 2008

You Know you are the Parents of a Diabetic Child when . . .

Here's a nod to the lighter side of having a diabetic child, which I have a hard time acknowledging.

Our monthly diabetes newsletter came today, and there was this list. There were 11 in the newsletter, but only a few were actually funny to me, so I'm only putting down those.

You know you are the parents of a diabetic child when . . .

-- Your husband names his internet gaming character "Lancet" (only sort of funny)

-- Everyone in the family says they are "low" instead of hungry! (Yes, this has happened in my family)

-- You stop calling them "sugar" and start calling them "splenda"

-- The ice cream truck speeds past your house so she doesn't have to answer questions about "how many carbs are in this?" (A shout-out to places that have been willing to be helpful to a poor mom trying to calculate carbs: At Jason's Deli they looked on the hot dog bun package for me; at O'Charleys -- miss that place! -- they brought me a whole binder to look through when ordering her meal; at Chili's they photo-copied several sheets of information for me to take with me for future reference)

-- Your endocrinologist is in your family picture. (kind of funny -- my diabetes educator who taught us everything we needed to know is the one I feel very fond of and think of her as a bff although I am sure she hasn't thought of me again since)

And, my personal favorite, although this hasn't happened to me personally yet:
-- You have no probelm asking your child if they are "high" in the middle of a public place

3 comments:

Stephanie said...

well, just to update you- my sister and her husband got word in from their doctor today and their son is in fact diabetic. it is very sad and my mom said my brother-in-law kinda blames himself (even thoguh, of course, he didnt do anything wrong). i guess the silver lining in this story is that my sister is living with an expert on the subject pretty much so they arent just starting from square one even if they are caught off guard.

Shauna said...

I am so sorry to hear that! There is of course a genetic link, which we don't have a history of in our families . . . but the doctors did say that because diabetes is an auto immune disease, and there is a history of auto immune diseases among my family, that might be the link. And I didn't like it that the "blame" was being directed toward my side of the family, even though I knew there really was no blame. So I know how your brother-in-law feels.
I hope that they have good doctors that will guide them well, because although there is an expert in the house, the way that they care for their son as he goes through the "honeymoon" phase (pancrease having some functionality) may be different than what your brother-in-law did that many years ago . . . they have come up with new, more flexible insulins since then, for example.
Wish them all the best from me, please!!

Stephanie said...

i will tell them for sure! my sister said they would find out more this week and i am guessing that means more in the education realm of this experience.