"Friends & Family Friday"

Week 4: GIVE
Friday, November 26

“Friends & Family Friday” – Interview someone to learn how they feel about your diabetes, or let them write a “guest post” on your blog! Don’t know who to work with? Try looking at the other blogs in our community and reach out to another blogger who wrote something you liked.

My Mom was with me the day I was diagnosed.  I didn't want my husband to have to take off work in case there wasn't anything to worry about, but I also didn't want to go by myself in case there was...So I asked her to go with me.  Even though I pretty much knew what was going on, I was still very nervous because I knew that if I was right, it would be a life-changing moment that I didn't want to go through alone.

So that afternoon, Mom met me at the clinic and waited with me for my name to be called.  She asked me if I wanted her to wait on me, or go back to the room with me, and I chose the latter.  The nurse came in and took down my symptoms, then checked my blood sugar and asked me to give a urine sample.  A little while later the doctor came in, and we went over my symptoms and such.  He left the room to get my results, then came back and said, "You do have Diabetes, okay?" 

As I've commented before, I couldn't believe later on that the doctor wasn't more sympathetic when he revealed that piece of news to me.  I know it's an everyday occurrence for them to have to give bad news to people, but it's my opinion that they should at least try to be empathetic towards their patients.  But, that's not so important to the subject at hand. 

When the doctor left the room after that, I was kind of in shock, but then I looked over at my mom, and she was crying.  Whenever someone else is crying, I usually end up tearing up as well, and this time was no exception--even though I know we were both trying so hard not to do so.  We had enough time to get our faces cleaned up again before the doctor came back in, but it was a tough moment nonetheless.

When we talked about it later, Mom told me that it was hard on her because she didn't want to have another child that had to go through that (my sister was diagnosed with Type I Diabetes when she was 16 almost four years ago, and my dad has had Type II for the last two years).  She knows the impact this disease has on someone's life, and although I adjusted to my diagnosis somewhat easier than my sister had, my parents still had to go through the emotional shock of having a daughter being diagnosed with a chronic illness once again. 

I suppose it was easier the second time around, especially since by the time the doctors figured out what was going on with my sister, she was already in Diabetic Ketoacidosis.  She had to be transported by helicoptor to a hospital a couple of hours away, and spent a few days there recovering and learning the ins and outs of Diabetes.  It was a traumatic experience for my family, but if there is a bright side, it was that when I was diagnosed we had already learned a lot about living with the disease, so there wasn't such a big learning curve.

As I've mentioned before, my mom has been a huge support throughout all of this, and I don't know what I would do without her.  It helps a lot just knowing that I don't have to deal with it all on my own, especially since my husband would never be able to get off work every time I have a doctor's appointment!