Comments on: Control Issues

By: Julia S

Julia S — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 03:15:41 +0000

I can so relate with this. My 7 1/2 year old son was diagnoised at 3.
I hate hearing the words “sickness and disease” also. He is very open about having type 1. Now sadly he is experiencing the evils of childhood. He is now getting picked on because he has diabetes. Now he is coming home depressed and doesn’t want to go to school because of it. Our very small support group keeps trying to tell him to shrug it off. That he is not different and he can still do anything that he wants to in life. I just wish there were some people around the Lansing, Il area to get together with for him to meet other kids going through the same thing.

By: Michael Hoskins

Michael Hoskins — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 17:45:09 +0000

That is heart-breaking. Like Cara, I was diagnosed many years ago (nearly 26) at the age of 5, and don’t recall much of life before my diagnosis diabetes. But I’ve never had to personally endure what a parent goes through in having a child with diabetes – just can’t imagine that. My D-Mom (diagnosed herself at age 5) dealt with this for years when I entered elementary school, as I was the only diabetic child at the time. She battled these issues, and only since my adult-hood have I been able to realize what she went through. Kids are just so cruel, even outside of diabetes. You’re absolutely right about describing this as a condition, not a “disease” as we often understand the word. Your point impacts my thinking about diabetes as it relates to education and description to the outside non-diabetic world, particularly to children, who might not know any better. While “disease” might technically be accurate, the connotation is incredibly powerful and can wrongly be used to crush the needed hope. Thank you for sharing this insight, though I am so sorry to have to read about it. I trust your daughter will go on to such an incredibly productive life of whatever she wants to make of it, and I look to everyone in the Diabetes Online Community as well as my own mom, who’s managed her diabetes for 50+ years and is doing well by all worthwhile accounts. Thank you for giving her that hope and inspiration, despite all those in the world who might unfairly, unjustly, and ignorantly try to knock her down.

By: Cara

Cara — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 16:52:59 +0000

Though it was 24 years ago, I was diagnosed at 4 also. I don’t remember too much about that time in my life, but I can’t begin to imagine what my parents went through. If anyone ever said anything to me like that little boy said to your daughter, I don’t remember it. So just know that her age will her wipe the bad parts from her mind.