Diabetes is Scary

Our trip to the endocrinologist went well today.  Alyssa's A1C was 7.9 (recommended between 6-8 for her age) and there was no change to her regimen.  We did discuss the pump and we both agreed that Alyssa will let us know when she's ready.  They sent us home with a sample OmniPod (without the connection) so she could try wearing it and see how it felt. The omnipod is tubeless, but they also gave us information about the Paradigm Real-Time Revel and the OneTouch Ping.


Right now Alyssa is dead set against the pump.  Her biggest concern was wearing it during gymnastics, cheer, or when she swims; but, we have found out that some pumps can be removed during these activities and some are also waterproof.  She doesn't know anyone that has a pump, so I'm hoping once she meets someone that has one, she'll be more open to it.  We are going to a pump class next month so that we can have some hands on time with different pumps and also for her to meet others that are considering getting the pump.



Alyssa rarely complains, but on occasion, she asks 'why does she have diabetes?'.  On a recent FB post, I shared my answer "Its His plan and maybe its because one day you'll help other T1 kids".  And then we discuss how her beta cells in her islets of Langerhans do not produce enough insulin to turn her food into fuel....she thinks the islets of Langerhans is a funny name.   So she laughs and that's usually enough.  However today, sadly, while we were waiting for the endo, Alyssa said to me that she thought she was going to die early.  Diabetes does not run in our family, but my (step) dad was diagnosed with T2 many years ago and is insulin dependent.  Currently he is suffering with complications of the disease.  He has been recently diagnosed with diabetic retinopathy and moderate chronic kidney disease (stage 3).  She may not fully understand these conditions but she knows they are terrible and this is very scary to an 8 year old little girl.  My reply to her statement was that she is going to live a long healthy life and that the reason I make sure she checks her blood sugar, eats healthy, and gets insulin injections is so that will happen.  This is a double edge sword, on one had you want to shelter your child from the scariness of this disease and on the other, you want to stress how important it is that she take care of her health.