#DBlogWeek 2014 Day 3 – What Gets Me Down

Wednesday’s topic:May is Mental Health Month so now seems like a great time to explore the emotional side of living with, or caring for someone with, diabetes. What things can make dealing with diabetes an emotional issue for you and / or your loved one, and how do you cope?

I’m not so sure it gets me down but it’s incredibly hard seeing your child get upset, about anything, ever. Throw in Type 1 Diabetes into the mix along with teenage years, blood-glucose-level-challenging-growth-supports and the fast-forming schoolgirl cliques and it’s amazing that the dark days don’t occur more frequently.

There’s no doubt that I find it difficult when occasionally it all becomes too much for Amy, those days when she’d rather just be someone with a fully functioning pancreas, those days when she doesn’t want to be different. I know she’s had too much when I just get ‘the look’ usually after I’ve asked her to try and fill out more details in her log book, which I use to check whether or not there’s a pattern and therefore her insulin pump’s basal needs adjusting. Just after I’ve got ‘the look’ I absolutely hate diabetes and wish it would bugger off for good. I normally don’t mention anything about diabetes for a good while afterwards.

But this isn’t what really gets me down about diabetes.

Some comments by a minority are annoying: the people who say those stupid things and suggest that cinnamon or okra will cure my daughter; the ones who say they couldn’t have diabetes as they hate needles; the ones that say (in front of my daughter) about someone they know of who lost an arm/leg due to diabetes. This always makes me laugh though:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFIVVHQod5o

 
But this isn’t what really gets me down about diabetes.

I find the attitudes of some others without diabetes annoys me too: those that “can’t cope” with their slightly runny nose; can’t go to work or school because they’ve got a bit of a cough; find the bad in anything that happens rather than the good. Come on people, take a look around you and see what my daughter and many of my friends have to go through each day. Walk a the day in their shoes then realise that they cope with far, far more than you and they go about it with a smile.

But this isn’t what really gets me down about diabetes.

No, what gets me down is when I’m reminded just how brittle life can be for those with Type 1 Diabetes and the recent tragic story of the death of 15 year old Nicole Wilson brings this to the forefront of my mind. I heard about it through the news of #SingForNicole going viral and I must applaud Liam Payne for his tweet about Nicole, that’s a nice touch.
I’ve known about ‘dead-in-bed syndrome‘ for a while now but some reason I’d always associated it with hypos following a night out drinking, so when a 15 year old died I was shocked. It’s the sudden realisation that all I thought I knew was wrong and my child could be taken from me at any time.
Any time.
Honestly I don’t think I’ve slept soundly this last week.