Here is another sad story of a child with diabetes who died needlessly at the hands of her parents. No - they didn’t beat her. But they did withhold medical treatment & insulin from her that caused her to go into ketoacidosis which caused her death at the tender age of 11. This breaks my heart.
I do have faith in God and I believe in the power of prayer. I pray -- a LOT! I also have faith that God gave us medications, doctors, CDEs, insulin, etc. to treat our diabetes. It's the same in that he expects us to work for a living - He doesn’t want us to sit around waiting for money to fall from the sky. He expects us to work for it. He also expect us to use the gifts He's given us to provide for our families. In this case - the gift was insulin.
He has blessed many of us with children to care for & do what we can for them. I pray for my children all the time - for God to keep them safe, happy, and healthy. When they were little & in my constant care, I did my best to do everything I could for them - especially when they were sick & needed medical attention - just as you do. That's what good parents do.
I feel sorry for these parents in that they have lost their beloved daughter. But I also feel sorry for them in that they didn’t have the faith that God gave us insulin to treat type 1 diabetes. That's so sad. I feel bad for anyone who loses a child - especially if it's because of something the parent(s) did or didn't do. They have to live with this guilt for the rest of their lives. All they had to do was use the sense God gave them to take care of this little girl. Mostly, of course, I feel sorry for this poor child. She didn’t have to die. All she needed was insulin & parents that had sense enough to provide her with it.
I thank God for all you parents out there in the Diabetes OC who are doing all you can to care for your children - those with & without diabetes. I believe God appreciates all the love you show your children by doing this. Your children are blessed to have you. It's too bad this little girl didn't have parents like you.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Having Faith in God & Insulin
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Perfect Timing & Hope
A few days ago, I wrote about how Amylia sent me this wonderful sussy when she knew I wasn't feeling well. She sent me some great gifts which you can read about here.
But one of the gifts I didn't elaborate on was this lovely plaque.
It says,
The Potter's Wheel
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
-- Jeremiah 29.11
This is such a comforting verse. It tells us to have hope - something those of us with diabetes need to have. Hope for the future, hope for good AICs, hope to be complication-free, hope to get through the day-to-day struggles of diabetes, hope for a cure.
This verse also comes in handy in other situations - which I found out last week. Things are changing where I work. Personnel are being let go, people are having to retire early, a lot is happening. Last Friday was a bittersweet day for us.
We had two ladies retiring so we took them out to a really nice restaurant for lunch, reminisced, laughed, cried, hugged - yeah, that's right - I actually hugged them. For those of you who know me - I'm not a huggy kind of person - it's that social anxiety thing. I can hug my family - but that's about it. So that should tell you how special these ladies are to me. When I hugged one of them, she said that was the best gift I could have given her. She knows how I am.
It was also a very gloomy day because one of our other co-worker's job was eliminated & Friday was her last day. She's a single mom with 2 kids & 2 dogs at home. Sad. :( When I told her goodbye, it was really tearful. We cried & told each other to take care of our puppies.
The verse on the plaque from Jeremiah was so appropriate for all of the situations these three women were having. The two who were retiring are going into uncharted territory - retirement & everything that comes with it. The one who was being let go - unemployment, uncertainty, loss of income, loss of health insurance, loss of security.
When Amylia sent me the plaque, it made me feel good. It reminded me to have hope. That was so appropriate for all three of these ladies, too. This all came to my mind on Thursday afternoon. I didn't have time to go find a plaque like this for each of them. So I decided to make them myself. I ran into Walmart, bought some pretty frames, and typed this verse on some nice paper. I put them all together & wrapped them in pretty tissue paper. Then I gave them to these three ladies on Friday. They loved them & loved the verse.
Who knew that Amylia sending me the plaque could be so appropriate at this time? God did. Again, thank you Amylia, for listening to God's leading.
For those of you who pray, could you please remember these three ladies in your prayers? The two who retired have been planning it for a while so they are a little more prepared. But the one who was let go didn't know it until a few weeks ago. She could definitely use our prayers. She does have a good attitude about things & knows that God has a plan for her. And that's good. Now that's what I call HOPE.
Friday, March 14, 2008
She Knows What She Has
I have a bad habit of not reading the magazines I receive in the mail on a timely basis. They usually sit on my kitchen table for months at a time before I get to them. Well, I was only running a month or so behind on this one.
But I finally caught up and read an article about an actress who know what type of diabetes she has. No, not HER. LOL!!!!
The article was the February Issue of Diabetes Forecast and there on cover was a picture of Elizabeth Perkins.
I immediately thought of the movies, Big (with Tom Hanks, of course), The Flintstones, and the remade version of Miracle on 34th Street. She's been in many other movies since then & currently on the show Weeds (which I haven't seen).
But she wasn't on the cover of Diabetes Forecast for her acting accomplishments. She has type 1 diabetes. And unlike Ms. Berry, Elizabeth knows which type she has. Yay for her! I was very impressed with the article about how she was diagnosed & how she makes her diabetes work while being a busy actress.
What I really liked, though, was the fact that she wants to get an insulin pump - but is nervous about it. That's the way I was. I had thought about it for years before I finally gave in & did it. I'm glad to hear that even a confident, accomplished actress like Elizabeth Perkins feels the same way I did about getting a pump.
Diabetes is no respecter of persons. It can hit anyone at anytime. I'm sorry Elizabeth & all of us have had to experience diabetes. But I am glad that there's a celebrity out there that actually understands the disease she has and speaks correctly about it. And she has the same feelings about it that the rest of us do. It's kind of refreshing.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Tiny Bubbles
No, I'm not talking about the song by Don Ho (God rest his soul.) But I'm talking about the tiny bubbles in the infusion tubing attached to the pump. They are not the happy kind of tiny bubbles as Don Ho sings about in his song. They're pretty irritating, actually.
Monday, March 3, 2008
What is That Noise?
A few nights ago, I was upstairs, working on my IIMCs & watching DVDs of my favorite TV show, Friends. I hadn't started using the sewing machine yet so there was just the sound of the TV.
But I kept hearing a beeping noise that sounded like it was coming from the right side of the room. Now my sewing room is my daughter's old bedroom. Some of her stuff is still there - softball jerseys, cheerleading uniforms, stuffed animals, toys, her bookcase, her bed, etc. But I couldn't figure out what would be making this faint, beeping sound. It would beep three times and stop. Then a few minutes later, it would do it again.
At first, I thought maybe it was an old smoke detector needing a new battery or an old toy where the batteries were going dead. But since it only beeped three times, I didn't have time to find the source before it stopped.
Note: I take a LOT of medication & just started on a new anti-anxiety drug. So I was really starting to worry that I was losing it. 
Then it finally dawned on me. I took my pump out of the pack and it said something like Battery Off - No Power. Oooops! I did it again. I let it run out of juice. Luckily, it had only been doing this for a few minutes (but it seemed like much longer). So it hadn't been stopped very long. So I ran downstairs & changed the battery. Voila! The beeping stopped. Imagine that.
