Have your Cake & Eat it Too

Meet Dareian;  my older Type 1 in our  house of  Diabetics.  She is one amazing teen!


Dareian the baker!

This is her story, and how she has learned to manage her diabetes through carbohydrate counting, glucose monitoring, and MDI so she can live life how she wants, not how Mr Diabetes dictates. 
Sure she still occationally gets abducted by aliens (See post) but she usually returns the same day.

We partook in a study here in Edmonton called the Trial Net  to determine if any of our non-D kids had autoantibodies for diabetes. If  these autoantibodies are present  the risk of developing Type 1 D in the future is increased. So we took the remaining 4 children and had the blood drawn.  To our surprise, becasue you never really expect it, our oldest child(Dareian) had the autoantibodies.  Crap!

Anyhow, we proceeded with our day to day life, managing Rowan our youngest D and myself of course. Waiting, worrting, and uncertain if or when Mr Diabetes would attack. 

A little over a year later, after many random and fasting home glucose checks, he attacked! We went to the ER and had the blood work done to confirm what we knew.  "Your daughter has type 1 diabetes" There was that dreaded statement again. Once in a lifetime is enough but three times, come on already!

The next day we went through the same training we had with Rowan a few years earlier.  We felt like employees at the diabetes center since we'd spent so much time there.

Dareian was amazing, like her younger sister. She immediately caught onto to Carbohydrate counting, self injecting, I thought, man this kid is smart.  She took Mr Diabetes buy the horns.  We on the other hand felt overwhelmed, and once again went through a whole range of emotions, she was still our baby, even though she was 11 at diagnosis.

Upon arriving home, Dareian has her days, like all PWD where she is angry, sad, and in denial.  But she also has that essential quality or characteristic that I equate with success in diabetes management.  That is; she truly believes she can control it from the inside out.  She has learned and continues to learn about managing diabetes; what works for her and what doesn't. She is active and is a track star! I know I am bragging, but that's my job. She has learned, and managed well enough and knows that she can have her cake, and eat it too!  Great job Dareian!

The Cake she baked for her Moms B-day