Tomorrow is the big day!! Emma's first duties as Youth Ambassador for JDRF. Seeing as how she had been sick all week, I finally got a chance to sit down earlier and write a speech for her to read at the event. At first I found it kind of difficult honestly. I am so used to just unloading all of the random thoughts from my brain out threw my fingers pecking away on the keyboard. It was a bit of a challenge to write something from the perspective of my 7 year old. Anyway, I thought I would type it out here in the hopes that some of you would give me some feedback before we leave tomorrow! I really truly respect all of you out there and your opinions on all things including diabetes really means a lot to me. So, here goes....and please be honest with any comments. If it is not that great...or if you think something should be changed that could better tug on the heart strings of these people, please feel free to tell me! Thank you all!
Hi, my name is Emma. I'm 7 years old and I have had diabetes for almost 3 years. I am here today to tell you how thankful I am for all of your support of JDRF. Not only does JDRF support research for finding a cure, but they also have made my life with diabetes better. They are always there for us, and I have made a lot of friends who are diabetic just like me.
Life with diabetes takes a lot of work. We don't ever get a break from it. There are no vacations from it. Diabetes is with us every single minute of every single day. It's there from the minute I wake up in the morning until the time I go to bed at night. My Mom gets up in the middle of the night every night to check my blood sugar while I am sleeping to make sure I'm ok. When I am at school, i have to check my own blood sugar and pay close attention to make sure I don't go low. During recess and gym class the lows can happen very easy. On special school days like Halloween, I have to be extra careful watching for lows too because I am extra excited!
This past week I was really sick with the stomach flu. I had a lot of lows as well as ketones. On Wednesday, my blood sugar dropped down to 2.8 so my Mom had to make me eat 200 carbs of food just to keep my blood sugar from staying too low and making me pass out. It was very scary.
Like I said before, I am only 7 years old. I should not have to be scared for my life like that. I should be able to run around and play outside with my friends without being scared that I will go low. I should be able to eat whatever my friends are eating and not worry about needles. I should be able to live my life freely without the added stress of diabetes. I'm just a kid. I didn't do anything wrong to get diabetes. It just happened.
So, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for helping fight this disease. It means a lot to me and my family. I can't wait for the day that I can say that I USED to have diabetes! Thank you!
Ok...so that's what I came up with. Let me know what you think if you get a chance! Thanks everyone!
I think it's great Amy! It says exactly I'm sure what she is feeling and it gets great points across. My only suggestion would be instead of saying "... without being scared that I will go low." maybe say "... without being scared my counts would drop into the danger zone." (or just that the counts would drop instead of saying go low?) Just a suggestion, but either way I think it's great! Great job!
ReplyDeleteDana
Fabulous. Tell Emma GOOD LUCK!!!
ReplyDeleteThat sounds fantastic! How did it go?
ReplyDeleteI bet she could say anything and pull at heart strings. Can't wait to hear how it went.
ReplyDelete