I love my DVR. For those of you who do not know what that is, it is a Digital Video Recorder. Like TiVo but I am not that cool. We have digital cable at home and they offer a cable box with a DVR which pretty much does most of the things a TiVo does it just doesn’t have the cool hip name!
Well, last night I was scrolling through the shows I had recorded to see if I had missed anything cool since I had some time to kill before din din. I noticed that there was an episode of dLife listed from Sunday afternoon.
dLife is a show on CNBC each Sunday at 7PM Eastern time which is why I had never seen it since that is 4PM Pacific. We are usually running around on Sunday afternoon or attending some function of some sort. This weeks show was an all athletes special. Kendall Simmons (NFL & Type 2), Jason Johnson (MLB & Type 1) and Missy Foy (Olympic Marathon Runner & Type 1) all shared the way they have not let diabetes get in the way of their dreams and how they manage their disease daily and when they are participating in their sport.
A funny thing happened when I started watching the show. Right before the first commercial break, all 4 of the hosts and several audience members whipped out there machines and tested their blood sugar. At first I got very uncomfortable. I started laughing because it was so foreign to me. I am the only Type 1 I know so to see all these people start testing all at the same time, all in the same room, just freaked me out!
Then at the commercial break I saw a commercial for Lantus Insulin, a blood sugar machine, and other diabeticy goodness. It was so bizarre to me.
When they came back from the break was when they did a piece on each of the athletes and I found it very interesting and inspiring. I was starting to accept the fact that this is not so weird at all, it is actually quite cool! A show completely about Diabetes! That is awesome!
Then another weird moment occurred. They panned to the studio audience again and this time I saw a bunch of little kids sitting there, totally excited to see Kendal Simmons. They looked so star struck and were smiling from ear to ear. He talked about how he hopes he is an inspiration to kids with diabetes. And when I thought about all of those little kids with all of their dreams and how they have to struggle with all of the same stuff that I have to, I started to cry.
It was those half happy half sad tears that sting so bad. You are so touched by their enthusiasm and strength for even coming out to this taping and testing their blood right on camera but then you are so hurt to know that they have a disease that will be with them their entire lives.
Both my daughter and son were asking me about diabetes the other night in great depth. It was such a nice conversation and a great opportunity to teach them. But I could tell that both of them are scared or assume that they may get it one day. I told that they will be well prepared if it ever did happen since they live in a diabetic friendly house but not to dwell on it. If that is in the cards for them then we will cross that bridge together when we get to it.
They were both okay with that and understood that they already have a head start if or when they get the big D.
Again the half and half tears were produced, and stung.
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6 comments:
It's great that you're communicating with your kids about your diabetes.
I'm sure they've had questions swirling in their heads for a long time.
Man, I am so happy for you that you're starting to feel more connected with the diabetes - you are not alone.
And for the record, I think the information you shared with your kids, and how you handled their curiosity, was just awesome. I only hope I can handle it with that much grace when my kids ask me about it.
I've spent my whole life being someone's child with diabetes that I haven't given much thought to be someone's parent with diabetes.
Thank you for giving me some insight into what it will be like to explain to my children. And for how to be real and honest when that time comes.
The vision of those kids in my head made me cry too. I live with that half happy half sad thing on a daily basis. Riley gets so excited to see someone else who has D like him and that makes me happy that he's happy, but it just sucks that he has this stupid disease at all.
:)
I meet with a group of parents who have kids on pumps and I felt like I was on Mars when they all suddenly pulled out testers and started talking carbs during a snack at one of the meetings.
It was so surreal.
I was just so happy that they really were interested. I think as a parent with Diabetes, one part of you doesn't want to freak them out but at the same time, they should understand and be ready in case they have to deal with it. ALthough I pray that they don't of course.
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