Something interesting happens when people find out that someone has an illness. When they really understand that it’s serious. That it’s stressful and overwhelming. Often, they decide to pray. While it can be a nice gesture, sometimes people don’t understand the harm they may be causing. And it’s not just because the other person might not be religious…

“I will never celebrate my son’s diaversary.” That’s what I said when I found out what a diaversary was. And I meant it. I remember the feeling. Feeling like that day would be better if it just fell off of the calendar entirely. I even wrote an article about how I would never celebrate his diaversary. That’s how strongly I felt about it. And yet, here we are, 10 years into his diagnosis, celebrating his diaversary.

I was out with a friend running errands. By the time we were done, it was close to lunchtime. We zipped through a drive-thru and to grab a quick lunch for ourselves and the kids. We got back to my house and gave everyone their food. Then, out came my “diabetes logbook” and I started writing and looking things up on my phone. It’s so automatic for me that I didn’t realize how unusual this T1D math looks to people who don’t do it every day. My friend commented, “Woah, there’s a lot of math going on over there!”

Your child’s diaversary is coming up but you don’t know what to make. Yes, people have cake for their diaversary… but how do you create a cake that sums up all of the pokes, accomplishments, stress, milestones, grief, and proud moments? Let’s face it, you can’t exactly walk into your local bakery and ask for their most popular diaversary cake design. Don’t worry, whether you’re looking for elegant, simple, sincere, or sarcastic, you’ll find the perfect diaversary cake for your celebration in this list! [Read more…]

This is not a low carb blog. My family is not a low carb family. I have a son who has type 1 diabetes. His A1C has been between 6.5 and 7.5 since diagnosis over 8 years ago. He eats pancakes with regular syrup, can eat a whole cucumber in a sitting, and even has cereal for breakfast (or dinner) sometimes. Again, this is not a low carb blog. [Read more…]

A little girl in my community passed away today. Not the T1D community, in my city. I never met her or her family, but they are very well known in our area. Everyone followed their story, including me, and I can’t help but see parallels between their family and ours. [Read more…]

“My child can do what any other child can do” and “Kids First, Diabetes Second” are very common sentiments in the D-parent community. While we go out of our way to make our kids’ childhood normal, there will always be affects that T1D has on their life. Sometimes, we find ourselves in tough situations, trying to console a child who is dealing with more than most of their peers. [Read more…]

“Mom, are you sure you know what you’re doing?” he asked me as I was about to start the Dexcom insertion. I rolled my eyes at him and replied, “Come on, sure I do.” The eye roll was more for me than for him. Because, well, I didn’t really know what I was doing. But I had to give it a try.
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“Welcome to your new normal.” This is what we tell parents of newly diagnosed children. What a bizarre thing to say. It’s a cloaked way of saying that we know a bad thing has happened to you, but don’t worry, you’ll get used to it. Eventually, your memories of before T1D will fade. This is your new life. But your memories of before never fully go away. Especially in the beginning, it can be extremely hard to let go of “before”. [Read more…]

Want to hear a joke? Sleep. Yeah, I didn’t get it either, until recently. Years ago, my relationship with Sleep got put on the back burner. I had my reasons, but I missed sleep a lot. I didn’t realize how much until we got to spend the whole night together again.
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