Sub Driver Nirvana
Six months before Arden began her school career - that’s when I first approached the staff at Arden’s school to discuss her diabetes care. Many though that I was too early but I knew how much information was going to have to change hands and I knew it wasn’t going to be a quick process. I also knew that I had a lot to do, like make the buses safer for kidswith needs.
Much has been finalized since that summer and Arden is now in first grade. There was however one lingering issue, substitute bus drivers were to be informed of Arden’s type I, given a fact sheet about her and then offered the opportunity to switch routes if they felt uncomfortable driving her. Sadly, every time Arden has had a sub driver, the driver never knows she has type I - until yesterday!
I was so excited when the door to the bus opened and I asked my stock question, “were you told about her?” - they always look back blankly and say, “no” but not yesterday...
The driver nodded and said, “yea, she has type I diabetes, I saw the sheet - were good”.
I felt like I won the olympics or the lottery or something - it was just the coolest feeling! The coolest feeling that is up until I got a phone call saying that Arden had been on television the night before...
News you can use
Arden was recently the focus of the ‘Covering your Health’ segment that ran on KIMT news. As you know, we try our best to bring awareness and transparency to type I diabetes and we were thrilled to have the chance to speak about Arden’s OmniPod insulin pump.
I feel particularly lucky to have the chance to tell other diabetics how much the OmniPod has helped us. If just one child finds the OmniPod and feels the relief that Arden has experienced then we have done a world of good.
Please take a moment to watch the piece (above), if you have any question about the OmniPod please feel free to leave them in the comment section or send me an email. I’ll do my best to answer your questions.
Diabetes helped me today
We have been building our “dream” house for the last five months and our contractor told me just the other day that we are about three weeks from being finished - yea! That great news got me off my butt and to the local home center to purchase the new appliances that we need.
Last Friday the first of those appliances arrived, our new washer and dryer. I only had a few requests as we designed our new house and number one on my list wasn’t a game room or a man cave, I’m a stay-at-home dad... I wanted the laundry on the second floor. I really don’t enjoy doing the laundry and carrying it all over the house just makes it worse.
Anyway, the second floor is done with the exception of carpets and the kitchen cabinets have been going in over the past few days. This morning I arrived at the house to greet the contractor, in the morning I make sure that they have everything they need for the day, answer questions and say good morning.
Here’s the part where diabetes helped me...
When I found Mike (one of the guys) he was on the second floor - cleaning up the water. What water you ask??? The water that had run all over the second floor of our new house because the installer put one of the hoses on the back of our new washer incorrectly and it apparently had been dripping all weekend long.
There is no way that my reaction to having to rip up expensive hard wood floors and watching Mike cut a 20ft by 6ft hole in the ceiling of our new home would have been so measured if I didn’t have the knowledge and perspective that watching Arden live with type I has brought me.
In some strange way, I have type I diabetes to thank for my ability to shrug off stuff like this. I’m not sure what would have to happen to rattle me at this point in my life - but this didn’t even come close to my worse day.
**
The following are archived comments from this post. You can post new comments below.
D Blog Day
Today is D-Blog Day and this is my addition to the blog topic that everyone is writing about...
Topic: Six Things You Want People to Know About Diabetes.
-
1. Everything
-
2. See Above
-
3. See number one
-
4. Refer to number two
-
5. and on
-
6. and on...
I want (rather wish) that everyone knew everything about diabetes even though I realize that isn’t possible. Heck in a world where I can’t trust that everyone knows how to merge into traffic, walk on the right side of the grocery isle and not spit on a sidewalk, asking to be as immersed in this world as we are is, of course, ridiculous - doesn’t mean that I don’t wish that it was possible.
If you read this site you know that it has a few goals; pass on what we’ve learned, be a friend to those in doubt, raise money and awareness by supporting the JDRF but mostly I want to bring transparency to type I diabetes - it’s my way of sharing 6,000,000 things that I wish people knew about diabetes.
In my mind there are a ton of D-Bloggers making these lists today and they will all likely make them better then I could. So I want to take this opportunity to say this...
I don’t feel as though I have the right to be disappointed when a stranger asks Arden if she, “should be eating that”, angry at the school lunch lady that referred to the rest of the student body as, “the regular kids” or expect the Superintendent of our school district to be completely versed on type I the day he meets us. It’s just not reasonable to expect. My best friend (when I was younger) had type I and I quickly realized when Arden was diagnosed that I didn’t understand diabetes half as much as I thought I did. I wondered why I didn’t know more and soon realized it was because he didn’t want me to. All of this is not to say that I can’t hope that the people in our lives will take an interest but trying to “teach’ them is a plain waste of time, I’d rather show them. I treat diabetes education the same as parenting - I teach by example.
We test in public, speak openly to anyone that is interested and generally just don’t hide any aspect of this disease. What I’ve seen is that people start to catch on when they are exposed a few times. That exposure builds interest, the interest spurs understanding and just like that I’ve created an advocate for Arden (and hopefully your children too). Moreover, the exposure creates another person with the knowledge of how to fight a low blood glucose, choose a healthy meal, look for signs and symptoms and all of the rest of the stuff that comes with having diabetes.
That’s all I have - be transparent even if it’s embarrassing, even if it breeds “stupid” questions. You never know, one day Arden may need help and one of the people that this fantastic community touches may be there to lend a hand.
**
The following are archived comments from this post. You can post new comments below.
I'm really grateful that you took the time to read my post. I understand your reaction and I'm glad that you are reconsidering it. I've had it myself in the past but it's so emotionally based that it does no one any good. Best of luck to you and your daughter!
Thanks for the D-Day post today!
Class Demonstration
Arden’s class was assigned a home work project recently, she had to pick a task that she knew how to accomplish and break it down into four steps - First, then, next, and last. She was to write out the steps and then perform them in front of the class. Thanks to ex Governor Corzine passing a few diabetes friendly laws before he left office, Arden was able to test her blood glucose as her project.
She got her grade back today and she did very well!
I was super proud of Arden for wanting to test herself in front of her classmates and gratified that our notion of not raising her to be shy about her type I is working out so well.
A+