Wednesday 12 April 2017

Some advice....8 years on.

I'm part of quite a few 'diabetes' groups on social media, mainly Facebook. In my opinion they can be the most wonderful places for support and understanding. However, they can also be completely overwhelming. Everyone on them will be at different places on their journey, deal with things in their own way which can sometimes be contradictory. This morning I decided to write this on one of the groups.

For those of you starting out on this journey.... I know that you are scared, and worried. Possibly thinking it's not fair, what did I/we do? Why us?
We understand. It's not the path that any of us would have taken, but it will be ok. You will be ok.
Every single one of us has been in your shoes, some recently and some a long time ago. We all have our stories, some good, some bad. We have shouted, we have cried, we have been angered and we have been (still are) tired. We educate other, we do silly things for charity (tuning 26.2 miles in hot temperatures at Brighton was mine 😬), and we support.
My advice, and you really don't need to take it...
Look forward, not back. You can't change it.
Remember there was NOTHING you could have done to prevent it!!!! NOTHING!!!!
Your child child can do ANYTHING!!! Sure things need additional planning but they can still eat chocolate, go on sleepovers etc.
Choose your battles...by this I mean try not to get upset/angry when members of your 'inner' circle say silly things. It's hard for people that don't deal with this condition to understand. They may say 'it could be worse' (this is one I actually believe, but that's me), they won't mean it to sound insensitive. Let's face it did you know much about type 1 before it landed at your door?
Understand that the media get it wrong most of the time, it's frustrating, but they do.
Remember, by being here you have found people that do understand, but it can still be extremely overwhelming, this is a big group.
Lastly, what I would say is that this is only one part of your child. It doesn't have to define them.
Samuel was diagnosed at 4, he is now 12. Our consultant 'The Prof' is an extremely wise man reminds him that type 1 fits in around his life, not the other way round. He is Samuel first, and always will be xx


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