by Erin
After dealing with diabetes as a family for four years and four months, I think of it as if I am holding a pencil in my outstretched hand. I am relatively confident now in the daily decisions that need to be made. Thanks to Sugar Surfing techniques I am usually able to run Grasshopper’s blood sugar control as a background program in my mind instead of as the main focus of my day. But of course it is always there. It is like holding a pencil in your outstretched hand. The pencil is light and easy to hold. But if you hold your arm straight out for a minute or two, your arm starts to hurt, to shake with fatigue. Trying to be a stand in pancreas for a few hours is hard. But what is harder is being a stand in pancreas day after day, trying to be a consistent, constant force against a chronic condition that frequently changes. Our family has been holding that pencil for Grasshopper for four years and counting. We will keep it up, of course, because we want him to have blood sugar levels as close to those of a non-type 1 diabetic as possible. We will hold this for him and teach him how to hold it. But wow, is my arm is tired.
One thing that helps is to laugh. The diabetic online community (DOC) is a clever, supportive bunch, over all. T1D is a serious life threatening condition. But it also daily offers up ridiculous situations, funny juxtapositions and a sort of language all its own. And the memes. THE MEMES!! They are a kind of relief all their own.
There are plenty of days when type 1 diabetes acts like a certain annoying MTV character.
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