Not to toot my own horn but us caregivers rock at being artificial pancreases!! I mean really! Most of us are honorary nurses...no training, just what they give us at the Clinic and what we learn over time. Yeah, we may complain on fb status updates now and then about being up late, site changes, etc BUT we are just venting. We aren't looking for a pat on the back or Caregiver of the Year award...we just need an outlet sometimes to share our highs and lows...literally!!
Caregivers give tirelessly. We manage to keep a family running smoothly, advocate for our D kids, get kids to where they need to be, change insulin pump sites on the fly, clean the house, calculate carbs in .001 seconds, grocery shop, tuck in the kids in for bed, stay up half the night battling high or low blood sugars and then start the day all over again! We do all this AND help our kids gain self confidence, responsibility and try to make their lives as normal as possible. Really...our D kids are pretty extraordinary and it comes from the strong foundation, the caregivers start them off with!
At some point, us caregivers transfer all the D responsibilities to our D kids. (I cannot imagine this!! I think I'll still be calling Nora when she is 35 asking her what her Blood Sugar is...if we don't have a cure by then, then maybe my Diabetes Fantasy Device will be on the market!)
I've met some pretty AMAZING D adults. It is rewarding as a caregiver to see D adults work as hard at raising diabetes awareness, advocating, working with the D kids, volunteering their time and telling their story. Not to mention that they were kids with D that survived and are know adults with D. I consider all diabetics heroes. They are, after all, the ones that LIVE with this disease! Us caregivers take care of them and feel bad when they aren't feeling well but it's their body that has to fight hourly.
They are the REAL fighters of diabetes!
So today I salute all caregivers and diabetics as DIABETIC HEROES!! Great job!
Keep counting,
keep bolusing
and keep LIVING...even WITH diabetes!!
