Wednesday, April 4, 2012

WEGO HAWMC Day #4 Write about health

I write about my health because... Reflect on why you write about your health


Well technically I don't write about "MY" health. But I do write about my son's health... At first my blog started as just a way to vent about the everyday issues we face with Type 1 diabetes. But as I've grown into the role of a caregiver and mother of a child with diabetes over the last 2 years, so has my blog. It's now become an outlet to give others (D and Non D families) a little bit of a look into what it's like to raise a child with a chronic illness, or what it's like to be a child with a chronic illness. I've shared our experiences in hopes of reaching out and helping someone out there that may be reading. I have a hope that some newly diagnosed families may come across my blog and take a look through everything only to gain a better understanding of things and realize that they are not alone. In the beginning your thrown into this whole new world, and it's confusing, scary, and honestly you don't see it as serious as it really is. In the beginning we really only learned all the "Technical" parts of diabetes management. We were told test the first two weeks at 12 & 3am, to tweak his Lantus (basal).... Then you can only test 2 nights a week.

I have to be honest after those two weeks I was exhausted, little did I realize that would become my new "norm". And I did cut back and test only two nights a week. ( thinking about it now scares the crap outta me). But as we've grown and experienced more of the "realistic" side of diabetes management so has our managing skills. He gets tested at least 3 times a night now. Once before I go to bed ( gives me peace of mind knowing what he is) again at 12 or 12:30 depending on his # when I go to bed and what time. Then once more at 3 or 3:30am. From time to time he'll get tested at 5am. I have to say I am learning to break out of my "norm". Last night was an example... Clifford was 111 at 11pm. 111 could go either way but I decided since I was getting up at 12 to test he'd be okay. Somehow I even woke up 15 mins before my alarm and he was 143.  This morning he woke up at 178... This leads me to question whether we need to change the basal at 3am. But that's a whole different story. I typically do not like a 111 at anytime before 3am. But I learned to go with it because there wasn't any nagging feeling of needing to treat it, I actually felt at peace with that number. Call it intuition, call it a 6th sense, or perhaps that's my "superpower" as discussed in yesterday's blog post. Whatever it is, it actually worked last night.

So the point to this all is, I write about his health for you all, and for myself. I write to help others in the same situation. I write to help those that may be a big ignorant as to what Type 1 diabetes is, and help to educate them properly. And I write for myself, writing helps me to release some tension, it helps me to think and analyze things when speaking about his numbers and basals etc. And you know what, I write for my son. When he gets older I'm hoping he'll stumble upon this and see how much I cared about him and his health, and more importantly that I love him.