Tonight my husband told me to check out my mother in laws blog ... what a surprise, but I wanted to share it... here is the link as she has other valuable articles of course... but here is the link and the article about diabetes, a whole family diagnosis :
But also a 'thank you' to our family... for being such a great support.. with out all of you ... who knows if we could even sail this ship!
Diabetes-a whole family diagnosis
It’s been said that it’s not just a child who gets diabetes, it becomes a whole family diagnosis and as a grandparent we had to deal with the same emotions and educate ourselves quickly with the whole diabetic process. We learned to deal with our emotions from anger, frustration to acceptance in knowing that for now this is his life so we provide him with all the love and support to helping him maintain good blood sugars.Some days are emotional rollercoaster’s where my husband and I cry, laugh and hug each other and feel helpless in watching our children go through the “diabetic ride”.
Emotions for not only our grandson but for our son and daughter in law who face challenges everyday with their precious son. Equally important is the sister who is not a diabetic and making sure that she is emotionally looked after as well. Then there are the other grandchildren who need to be educated about diabetes and helping them understand what is happening to their cousin and how they can all help each other. We are all very much in each other’s lives and diabetes is part of our family, for now… we pray and just believe that the cure is coming soon….Educating ourselves with diabetes gave us the tools to provide the best care requirements for our grandson and understanding that this education has to be ongoing. Just as things can change quickly, what worked yesterday may not work tomorrow. We were taught how to do the testing, injections, about low sugar reactions and what to do if one occurs.We learned that at meal times it is important that he eat a consistent amount of food at each meal and snacks which all should be on a schedule. Since there are 3 other grandchildren all with different eating preferences this was easy to do, the only difference being we now count carbs and measure everything, this is leading to us all trying for healthier eating.
As grandparents we want to reward our grandchildren with special treats, often “goodies.” We have learned that special treats can be in the form of games, toys and family trips. One treat that all our grandchildren love are backrubs, we call them “bunnyrabbits”. This is quality bonding time that I can spend alone with my grandchild. talking to them, find out what they are feeling, what happened that day etc. Often sharing some of this information with their parents will give us a clue as to what could be going on inside their little body. It is all about trying different methods that could work and sharing this information with the family.
Our diabetic grandchild needs our love and support as he adjusts to having diabetes. He continues to be very active with his friends and family (diabetic or not) just as he was before his diagnosis. This has encouraged us as a family to become more active as well.As a family we all strive to treat each other with respect and normalcy.It is all about changing our mindset to make better choices for all our grandchildren.We are so proud of our son and daughter in law, they have been the keystone to helping the whole family come together and become an even stronger family unit.
Please check out the invaluable blog that my daughter in law has for her diabetic experiences, she would love to share them with you and hear from you.She is not a doctor but a wonderful intuitive person who makes our diabetic grandson’s life so much richer with her insight.Check out her site; working together in sharing information will benefit not only the diabetic child but the whole family unit.
Love and hope to every diabetic child and their families
Posted by frances bergen at 10:28 AM
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