World
Diabetes Day is celebrated every year on November 14th, the birthday
of Canadian Sir Frederick Banting who, along with Charles Best, discovered
insulin in 1922. They gifted the patent
rights to the University of Toronto, with the intention of making the treatment
widely available to diabetes sufferers.
Sadly, I cannot see such a willingness to help patients happen with
today’s pharmaceutical companies if a true cure were discovered. Thank you very much Sir Frederick Banting and
Charles Best for saving Adele’s life.
Leading
up to this day of celebration, I have been thinking about our personal journey
playing this Type 1 game for just over 12 years now and how it has molded us.
Ten
years ago, I understood that for everything that we’d lost, that there was also
something gained. I knew this to be
true, but in my heart I still couldn’t see any gains at that moment with
Adele’s Type 1 diagnosis. I really just
felt broken. It was less than 2 years after Adele’s immune
system mistakenly attacked and destroyed the cells in her pancreas that produce
insulin and regulate blood glucose levels.
I was
mourning how this chronic disease had tarnished Adele’s initial clean bill of
health, the quality and potentially shorter quantity of her life and the
selfish part of me was mourning the loss of a simpler life as her father. I was bummed for all of the extra that we
needed to do now as Type 1 parents thinking that this wasn’t what we signed up
for. I knew that sometimes things like
incurable chronic illnesses just happen.
I understood this to be true, but my subconscious mind kept telling me
that it still only happened to others like it always had until then. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. I felt sad, cheated, afraid and vulnerable. I dreaded the upcoming work that we needed to
do from now on. I resented that there
would never be any closure, that this was never going away unless a cure was
found.
Fast
forward to 2014 and I have been asking myself if anything was indeed gained
during our Type 1 journey since then. Kind of like a “Where are they now” reality
show where they profile people or families ten years after winning the lottery
jackpot. Was this the best thing that
ever happened to our family or the worst?
Was the aftermath growth or destruction or a bit of both? So as I sit here writing this, I must ask the
question: How has Type 1 gaming affected my life path? There is absolutely no question that Type 1
Diabetes has changed me (as well as our entire family). It has surely deepened the wrinkles on my
face as well as darkened the circles beneath my eyes. But it has also undoubtedly been a catalyst
for growth and positive change…
In
2009 I wrote a few posts that many didn’t agree with (http://thetype1game.blogspot.ca/2009/11/i-love-type-1-diabetes.html
and http://thetype1game.blogspot.ca/2009/11/love-part-two.html). Five years later, I still believe that the
key to living well as a Type 1 is that we need to learn to LOVE it. Like siblings, we tend to not always get
along, but between these fights, I do think that there is an ever present underlying
amount of LOVE that needs to continue to flourish. I can’t always access it, but I feel that it
is there. Type 1 hatred will surely
eventually make us sick. And still won’t
make it go away…
Type
1 Diabetes has made me appreciate how truly amazing my body is. Having studied biology in university, I had
learned a lot about how we constantly adapt, thrive and survive as living
beings, but trying to be Adele’s pseudo-pancreas every second of every day has really
put these things in perspective. I have gained
so much respect for my body and everything that it does in order for me to be
alive. I also realize that all of this
awesomeness can go away in an instant. Type
1 Diabetes is a constant reminder of life’s fragility. It can never be forgotten. Completely ignore Type 1 Diabetes for even
just a few hours and the Type 1 gamer will surely become very sick. Keep this up a few hours longer and the Type
1 gamer slips into a coma, eventually ending up in a coffin.
Without insulin, a Type 1 gamer dies.
Facing death like this surely has a way of forcing you to focus on
what’s important since you’re constantly just one insulin injection away from
the Grim Reaper. We’re all going to die
one day. Type 1 Diabetes is a constant
reminder that it could be any day.
This
past year I have also come to recognize a certain irony with chronic
disease. Yes, they are very serious but
at the same time, if we take them too seriously, we become consumed and paralyzed
by them thus leaving us in a less than ideal state to be able to give the best care possible. By trying to control too much,
we end up being too tired to control what can be controlled.
We also end up enjoying too little. Being human, I still get caught up in this, but I really do think that I
appreciate the little things that much more.
Society and marketing teach us that joy is in the big things like once
in a lifetime trips and expensive material possessions, but in reality life’s
deepest joys are in the simple everyday moments that are too often overlooked. Things like family movie night,
going for a run with Adele and sitting down for a family supper on a Wednesday
night talking about our day. I know that
we often realize these things as we get older if we’re paying attention to what
life is trying to teach us, but I also believe that Adele’s Diabetes has been a
catalyst for changing my way of seeing what’s really important in life and to not take things too seriously.
After
over 12 years of hard work, I believe that I am now beginning to recognize some
good that has come out of our Type 1 journey and find that it is important to
recognize and honor this even if it not the path that I had chosen. Does this mean that I do not wish for a cure
someday? I think it actually motivates
me that much more to do all that I can to be part of a cure…
Again,
thank you Sir Frederick Banting and Happy Birthday !!
