Last weekend was the Greater Moncton Santa Claus parade. I was looking for a picture that was relevant to today's post topic, but couldn't find one. I didn't bring the camera with me during the parade (it was cold and rainy) so the result is an outdated pic taken earlier this fall. Ah well, I felt that this post needed a pic for some reason... That said, Adele really enjoyed being part of the parade this year on the Moncton Diabetes Outreach Program float instead of spectating. I backed off Adele's supper insulin bolus after an early supper before heading to the parade since she had gone a bit low the few days before. Her blood sugar was trending up a bit when we got to the float. It was 9.0. I gave her 0.2 units of insulin to try to stop it from rising too much and thinking that the supper bolus would peak and bring it down again by the end of the parade. I was wrong. Her sugar was 12.3 after the parade. Whenever our routine changes even a bit, it is difficult to make adjustements since you don't really know how the change will affect blood sugar. One of the other diabetic kids on the float went low. The change in routine seemed to have the opposite affect on her sugar. The Type 1 game is like shooting a gun blindfolded, sometimes you hit the target, often you miss...
Even after over 7 years of playing the Type 1 game, I still haven't really fully accepted Adele's Type 1 life sentence. Upon diagnosis, there was the shock as well as the "Why us" phase. Researching long-term complications certainly didn't help me feel better. But in the beginning you can tell yourself that these complications only apply to those playing the Type 1 game for a longer time period. Now we're in our 8th year. We're no longer "new" players. What do we have to look forward to? Many online support group forums may be helpful for Type 1 players who already have complications and use it as a place to vent and find support, but this only makes me feel depressed. I did manage to find a few more optimistic Type 1 players online who had minimal or no complications after 20, 30 and even 40+ years of Type 1 gaming. That gave me hope.
What can I learn from these gamers that will help Adele stay complication-free as long as possible or until a cure is found? One thing that I found with most of these "survivors" is that they had a positive attitude, incorporated exercise in their lives, tried to minimize stress and ate a healthy whole-food diet. If I could transfer the disease onto myself, I believe that I would have the personality (ok maybe not always the low-stress part :-) ) and self-discipline to live like this and maximize my chances of staying healthy. There are no guarantees. Non-smokers are not immune to lung cancer and even the best controlled Type 1 players still don't have the same level of control as the non-diabetics and they can still develop long-term problems. I can't transfer the Type 1 to myself but I can live like I would if I shared the disease with Adele. This is the reason for me to really, really try to live healthy and be a role-model for Adele. No more binging on too many chocolates during the holidays. No more HUGE deserts at family gatherings. I know that it's totally not the same for a non-diabetic to pretend to live like a Type 1 player, but committing to this at the very least forces me to think before acting or reacting which is the one of the basic Type 1 gaming skills. Hopefully this will rub off. Hopefully, if Adele decides to adopt this way of living when she gets older, she'll have confidence in the fact that it's totally possible!
It may work? Until she enters the "my parents who I once thought were cool are in fact the opposite of cool which means that in order to be cool I should do the opposite of what they do" phase of adolescence... Oh boy, now time to work on reducing my stress level...
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