a year of juvenile diabetes

One year ago today, my second son was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.  The best advice I got from another diabetic during the year is to not allow diabetes to define my son.  He is my son who enjoys playing soccer, tae kwon do, and likes writing books for his sister.  I will always pray most that he becomes a strong Christian man of God, and I'm enjoying seeing his personality develop in that direction.  He also has diabetes, but that does not define him, and I don't talk or write about it much.

However, today is the one year anniversary of his diagnosis, and it's on my mind.  I think a lot of people don't understand the difference between type 1 and type 2 diabetes, so if anyone's reading this, I'd like to clarify.

Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease where the body attacks its own pancreas until it no longer produces any insulin.  More exercise or a more healthy diet will not change type 1 diabetes.  It's very serious, and he needs to be injected with insulin four times per day.  You can't take a pill of insulin, because insulin is a protein and the body would digest it.  These are all facts, but you know the part of type 1 diabetes that hurt me the most to realize?  If there were a national disaster or some problem where we could not get him injectable insulin, he would die in under 3 days.  It still makes me tear up to type that.

Type 2 diabetes occurs when the pancreas doesn't function as efficiently.  It can sometimes be controlled with better diet, exercise, and pills to help the pancreas function properly.

There have been a bunch of people who've asked me something like now that E has diabetes, will I have my family stop drinking so much pop.  They've never had pop except for birthdays.  Does that sound defensive?  I'm sorry.  I know people always mean well and are concerned about him, and I appreciate that.  If you want to ask me that kind of question, I'll just smile, but I kind of always wanted to clarify.  :)

So, what are we doing on the anniversary of E's diabetes diagnosis?  My friend celebrated her son's one year diagnosis by getting him a puppy.  Sounds like such a fun idea!  But, I don't want one more thing living in our 40 foot 5th wheel!  So, I'm celebrating it quietly.  I'm not even going to tell him, and he won't read this blog, because I don't want diabetes to define him.  He's happily playing right now, and that's what I want!

Quietly, on my own, I'll be spending some weeks praying for E, praying for our family, and praying about the direction God has for our family.  I had our lives so planned out before this diagnosis.  Now I'm understanding that planning our lives is not my responsibility, it's God's.  It's time to surrender my plans again and listen to God again.  I think this camping trip is part of that process, and who knows where God will lead.  I can smile as I look over at my E, know what a blessing he is, and know that God is caring for him and for our family.  We are safe in the plans of God.  A year of juvenile diabetes has taught me that.