Friday, November 16, 2012

Passing the Torch

When you have a child with diabetes you understand that one day they will become an adult with diabetes. All of the issues that you are dealing with now, the care, the management, the diligence with meals, etc, etc will be their responsibility. Honestly this whole thinking scares the crap outta me, but I do what I can daily to give Clifford a bit more responsibility in caring for himself.

It started slowly with testing himself, when he got the pump, he learned to bolus himself for meals, now he’s learning to count his carbs, add everything up and do that. However I didn’t know just how much we were teaching him until this morning. I knew that little by little we were passing the D torch over to him to care for himself when he was older, but it wasn’t until this morning just how much we’ve shown him had become apparent.

At 6:30 he woke up to let me know that my overnight “D” bag needs to have a new juicebox replaced in it, because he had woken up at 4:30 due to being dizzy, but when he tested himself he was 160 something. He said he tried to go back to sleep but still felt dizzy, so at 4:50 am he tested himself again and was 75, he then grabbed the juicebox, and treated himself, tested again and was in range. All the while he did this without waking anyone up.

I have a little bag that I carry with me to do overnight checks, in it I have his meter, his B Ketone meter, alcohol wipes, the dreaded glucagon, and a juicebox, everything that is needed. When I have to go back and retest at 2am which I had to do last night, I leave the bag by his bed, however this particular night I forgot to put it back downstairs, and it turns out that was a good call, as he didn’t even have to leave bed to test and treat.

He managed to handle one of the more scarier situations, overnight lows, with nothing but ease, and took care of it like a champ on his on. It’s that moment that let’s me not be so scared in my thinking of him out on his own as an adult in caring for himself and his diabetes.

4 comments:

  1. It's great that he is able to do that. Shows you all have bee awesome parents in showing him how to be independent, and that says a lot about a parent.

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  2. Wow, that is great that he woke on his own and took care of it, but a little sad too! You are doing a great job with him! My daughter has been checking herself in the afternoon at school now and it is a little comforting knowing that is one more thing she can do on her own now and not have to rely on others.

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  3. Thank you all! We were very proud of him. I've slowly been handing over more responsibility in the D department to him, but only if he's ready. We will be transitioning over to him inserting his infusion sets probably this summer, again only if he is ready. There are days I don't even touch his pump until night time because he boluses for his meals, and just double checks it all with me before doing it. He's even got dual bolusing down too :)

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