Do you know what sucks? When you are coasting along not really letting diabetes into the forefront of your mind...handling blood sugars as they come...seeing consistency....everything is all good good happy happy........
........and boom......she gets a cold....and all hell breaks loose.
Blood sugars seem to increase with every sneeze and ketones lurk around the corner waiting to jump out and join the party inside her body. You hand her tylenol...you become a water fanatic and continually get her to drink more...flush it out...keep drinking water...gets the fluids in you. And you sit there pissed off because it's never just a simple cold. It's never just a sneeze or a sniffle. It's never just a cough. Diabetes is always there...no matter how well you think you're doing at managing it...no matter how much you think you're keeping the focus on life and living and making diabetes step back and not run the show.....it's always there...always. It's there when the numbers are good and the sun is shining and everyone is feeling fine. It's there when the clouds have drifted in hiding the bright blue sky from your eyes and your ears are filled with the sounds of sneeze after sneeze erupting from your child's room and the scent of chicken soup fills the house from the crockpot on the counter. Diabetes is there. Always. No matter how much you try to pretend like it's not and like it doesn't matter and like you got this and it's no big deal.....it's still there.
The thing that gets me the most I think is how it's sort of a slap in the face reminder that my child has diabetes. It may seem silly because of course I know she has diabetes...I know...it's in my face every day. I have become so accustomed to the routine though that checking BG's and bolusing and changing her pump site are just normal tasks that we do every day. The times where I feel as if I have been slapped in the face by diabetes letting me know it's still there, are when she's not well and a ridiculous blood sugar number screams at me from the meter...mocking me....saying, "see? I'm still here! I haven't gone anywhere!" It's maddening.
Sometimes I just wish it was easy. I wish I could pour her a big glass of orange juice and not think twice about the carbs....just give it to her so she can drink the cold tartness in gulps. Almost six years of having things like a common cold wreak havoc on her little body, is exhausting...mentally...physically...pancreatically.
The thing that amazes me every time she isn't feeling well though...is how it doesn't stop her. Diabetes has made her tough...it's made her determined...it's made her keep moving...no matter what. I must admit, that definitely makes moments like this week of sniffles and sneezes and high BG's a bit easier to handle.
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