I'm so glad J.J. is comfortable with his diabetes because the scenarios last Saturday reminded me of a freak show at the circus!!
First, J.J. decides to get out all (and I mean ALL) of his diabetes paraphernalia to show one of Jessica's friends while she eats breakfast. I was quite impressed at his knowledge and understanding of all of it. He even knew the exact names of his insulins and why he uses them. I don't believe she was quite interested, but I let him do his thing because he was SOOOOOO proud of all of it. The entire family sat and watched with jaws to the floor!! He didn't miss a beat....although later in the day he says to me "I forgot to show ***** the cotton balls." I told him it was o.k., that she would know what a cotton ball was for.
Later that day he's outside playing with the neighbor kids when one of the girls comes in and asks if they can go over to the neighbors to jump on their trampoline. Hmmmm......a new situation. You must understand our "next door neighbors" are about a 1/4 mile away. I said they could go, but I needed to check J.J.'s blood. So she goes out to tell J.J. I need to check his blood. Next thing I hear......
"Come on in everyone!!! Do you want to see me get a finger poke....check my bl-0-0-0-0-d?"
I tried to tell him, that it's o.k. they didn't need to etc, etc. But he insists. So the two girls come inside and watch him get a finger poke. The girl his age asks why he has to do it. He tells her he was sick and vomiting and that's why he has to do it now!! Ummmmm.....I don't want this girl to freak out the next time she gets a stomach bug...... so I tell her there's more to it than that.
His blood sugar was in the low 70's so I knew I couldn't send him without some carbs and a recheck in 15-20 minutes.
Jump ahead 20 minutes......I drive over to the neighbors with "the kit", and begin to check his blood. But before I do, both he and the girls call to all the other people around (siblings, father etc) to come over to see him get a finger poke!!! MORE PEOPLE!!!
And unfortunately in that short of time he was down in the 50's. I quickly had him drink a juice box, and asked him to sit on the tramp and "rest". YEAH RIGHT!!! A five year old just SIT on a tramp!! Not happenin'!! (It was also cold and windy that day!!) I ended up telling everyone he had to go with me and sit in the van because he was low, and what all that meant.
FREAK SHOW OVER EVERYONE!!!
So, yeah....the situations were a little uncomfortable for me....but on the flip side, they made me proud of my boy. He is going to be very outspoken about his condition, so I better get used to it!! If he's not uncomfortable then I'm not going to be either!!!:-) So......
COMMENCE WITH THE NEXT SHOW!!!
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3 comments:
Lynnea - I think it's so cool that JJ knows so much about his diabetes & doesn't feel weird about sharing it. I always didn't want people to know. Very few people knew I had diabetes - just those who absolutely had to know. But those were different times...
JJ sounds like he will be much more comfortable about his diabetes & will be better off because of it. He certainly doesn't have a social anxiety disorder, does he? I love it!
JJ Owns his diabetes at 5 years old, very impressive!
The fact that he's open is a wonderful thing.
Not only is he educating others, but he's building his own confidence in the process!
k2
Aw, it's not a freak show. It's pretty cool to show off blood and show how brave he can be.
I've always said, the more you make people familiar with something, the more accepting they'll be.
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