When I dropped Riley off at my mom’s this morning she told me that she had gotten a call that one of my relatives with Type 2 diabetes was in the hospital and was going to have his foot amputated today. This same relative had his other foot removed a few years ago, but due to some problems ended up with a below the knee amputation a little while later. He now walks with the aide of a cane and prosthesis.
Anytime I hear of someone with diabetes losing a limb a small knot forms in the pit of my stomach. I pray every day that Riley will be spared of complications and that he will continue on the same responsible path on which he has started.
On the day Riley was diagnosed there was a long one hour ride to the doctor’s office. I’m a nurse and the only people with diabetes I had ever dealt with had Type 2 diabetes. And, to be honest, 9 out 10 of them had some form of complication, be it blindness, amputations, or kidney disease. All the way to the doctor that is all I could picture for my little boy. I could only imagine what complications would face him since he was diagnosed at such an early age.
I’ve learned a lot over the past 3 ½ years. I’ve “met” many, many people who have lived with Type 1 diabetes for 20+ years with nary a complication. And, most of them were diagnosed when insulin therapy was primitive to say the least. There was no carb counting and there were no blood sugar machines. And, yet, they stand, on their own two feet, complication-free. They’ve lived long, happy lives. Many of them are not only parents, but grandparents as well.
Still, hearing of a PWD developing complication brings up those fears I’ve tucked way back in the back of my mind. And, it makes me long for a cure more than ever before.
Anytime I hear of someone with diabetes losing a limb a small knot forms in the pit of my stomach. I pray every day that Riley will be spared of complications and that he will continue on the same responsible path on which he has started.
On the day Riley was diagnosed there was a long one hour ride to the doctor’s office. I’m a nurse and the only people with diabetes I had ever dealt with had Type 2 diabetes. And, to be honest, 9 out 10 of them had some form of complication, be it blindness, amputations, or kidney disease. All the way to the doctor that is all I could picture for my little boy. I could only imagine what complications would face him since he was diagnosed at such an early age.
I’ve learned a lot over the past 3 ½ years. I’ve “met” many, many people who have lived with Type 1 diabetes for 20+ years with nary a complication. And, most of them were diagnosed when insulin therapy was primitive to say the least. There was no carb counting and there were no blood sugar machines. And, yet, they stand, on their own two feet, complication-free. They’ve lived long, happy lives. Many of them are not only parents, but grandparents as well.
Still, hearing of a PWD developing complication brings up those fears I’ve tucked way back in the back of my mind. And, it makes me long for a cure more than ever before.