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Balancing Diabetes. Kerri Sparling
Читать онлайн.Название Balancing Diabetes
Год выпуска 0
isbn 9781938170386
Автор произведения Kerri Sparling
Жанр Здоровье
Издательство Ingram
He wrote: “When we were little in stature, the snow would cover our backyard like a puffy comforter. We would go out into the backyard to build snow forts, to go sledding, and to eat a majority of it. We also had this thing where we would try to go as long as possible without damaging the ‘virgin’ snow, keeping to our trails and cordoned off zones, in an attempt to stave off ruin. We were a prepubescent Snow-Peace, minus the trademark galleon. It would only last for so long, before the snow would melt, no matter how hard we tried to preserve it with the no-walk, no-eat zones, but we knew there’d be more snow to cover up the previous damage we had done. You’ve done so well, for so very long. The way you think and operate, I see a snowscape for you for a very long time … just don’t forget to eat some snow once in a while.”
Diabetes isn’t just a balancing act for the people living with it, but the people living near it and caring for people with it. I never knew that my brother noticed what I did to take care of my diabetes, and I hadn’t thought ahead to how he would be impacted by any future issues. He wasn’t feeling the highs and lows, but he saw them and they left an imprint on him, too. Now that my brother has two children of his own, he’s mentioned that diabetes is on his radar as a parent, not just as a sibling. “I can’t help but think that it was the simple roll of the genetic dice. I keep tabs on my children’s weight and how many ounces of fluids they drink as opposed to how often they go to the bathroom,” he admitted, when I asked him about watching my niece and nephew for possible symptoms.
My sister agreed, confirming that my diabetes was an ever-present force, but something that lived on the periphery of our lives. “Diabetes didn’t really affect my childhood. There were food changes that Darrell and I had to adapt to, with a lot of the sugary foods we used to eat being cut out. Lucky Charms cereal was replaced by Cheerios. Regular lemonade was replaced by that Crystal Light stuff. We still ran around the house, though, and got into trouble. Picked on one another. Diabetes didn’t really change much, in that sense.”
Laura found herself in a similar situation as a sister, focusing on the hard-to-pinpoint effect that diabetes may have had on her life. “I don’t feel it’s had an effect, but maybe that’s how it’s had an effect. Maybe Jacquie wishes that it were more front and center for me, or that I would have been more helpful when we were younger. She was kind enough to participate in a Science Fair Project for me in the tenth grade. She was my only participant. I basically made her check her blood sugar, jump on the exercycle that was in our kitchen, and check her blood sugar again. I made it to the State Science Fair that year and was placed next to participants who were proposing cures for cancer and ways to reduce the spread of oil in the event of an oil spill. I was surprised because, to me, it seemed I was just presenting a day in the life of my sister and her blood sugar levels. It wasn’t until we started to spend more time together as adults—even if just on vacation—that I feel I’m really understanding what a burden she’s been carrying around.”
So what do you do, if you’re the sibling of a person with diabetes? It’s not your disease to manage, but it resides in a person about whom you care deeply, so it becomes yours, in a sense. Jackie found that she could make the biggest impact, and be the best supporter for her sister, simply by being there for Mollie. “The comfort of knowing they’re not alone and that there’s someone who’s got their back no matter what makes their struggles a little easier to bear. Sometimes that’s all anyone needs to help them get through the day. For someone with diabetes, it’s always one day at a time.”
Laura and my siblings agreed with Jackie, but also mentioned the need to be there for the moments of acute need, such as low blood sugars. “I don’t know if it’s best to make a big deal out of it or to try to make life seem more normal by not making a big deal out of it,” said Laura. “All I knew to do was to be there with a juice box, if needed.”
Darrell concurred. “Be ready to help if a low or high occurs, as I know your greatest fear is to have that happen alone, with no one to assist when your body and mind aren’t cooperating. Young siblings should know how to call 911 and/or parents if there are issues. Other than that, treat them no differently. There’s so much change and so many routines a person with diabetes has to do to work to be healthy, I’m sure they’d appreciate just being a brother or sister to them.”
He added, “That and look beneath the frozen snap peas for the M&Ms.”
Weaving the Threads of Friendship and Diabetes
It was fifth grade and Mrs. Latimer was my language arts teacher. It was the first year I’d ever had a locker and they were strategically located outside of the language arts classroom. Being totally honest, I felt wicked cool having a locker. It was such a rite of passage, to the point where I actually cut out pictures from a Tiger Beat magazine and hung them inside of the door. (Isn’t that what you were supposed to do, in fifth grade? Like it was some after-school special on Nickelodeon?) Nicole, my locker partner, and I cut out pictures of tropical fish and fashioned a pretend aquarium out of the locker—we went so far as to make a fake filter out of a used water bottle and some aluminum foil.
One day as two of my friends and I walked back from the cafeteria after lunch, we stopped by our lockers to toss in our lunch bags. Christie grabbed her reading book from the top shelf of her locker. Nicole didn’t need anything because she already had her book. I reached into the bottom of our locker to retrieve a reading book and saw a folded up piece of paper stuck in the locker vents.
“To Kerri Only.”
A note! I got a note! Fifth-grade immaturity gave way to giggles and blushing as we crowded around the note to read.
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