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Northern Mum

Crossfitting, pancreas acting, single mum to three

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Type 1 diabetes: Being more than just a number…

Since the October diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes twin girl and I have both started to refer to her in a numeric form.

This morning started with the following conversation;

“What are you Molly?”

Quick prick of the finger, a sucking of blood, a lick away of the excess red gloop and then a flashing number.

“Oh, I’m 5 mummy, all fine.”

I then relax a little, 5 is a good number.

Later when Twin girl complains of a headache I ask again, “what are you Molly?”

The needle jabs in again, the blood struggles to come so we squeeze and push until a droplet appears, the machine eats it and the magic number appears.

14

“I’m high,” she says flatly, “what did I do.”

I pause for a moment, reflecting quickly on what just happened.  She is 14 (a non diabetic has blood sugar levels of between 4-8; twin girl tells me at 14 you tend to feel crap) she didn’t make herself high, her diabetes is to blame for that.

Still she feels worse.

In some way I have turned her into a number.  Imagine if someone referred to you by your weight all the time?

It could go like this…

Mummy : “oh I am tired,”

Twin Girl : “jump on the scales mummy”

Much reluctance would come from me,  and I would shed of every scrap of clothing, pull my stomach in and then eventually I would stand on.

The scales would bleat a rather high figure at me.

“I’m high, I’m fat” is what I would mutter, feeling no better for the experience.

Twin girl  would nod at me, “maybe you should cut out the chocolate and wine, eh? Try and get to a 9?”

I don’t think I would like to be a number, certainly for something I can only exert a certain amount of control over.  Weight is a poor comparison to Type 1 diabetes, I can get my number down, diabetes is known to bend the rules, it dislikes to be controlled.

It’s time for Twin girl to be Molly again, not a 3, 9, or 15.

It’s bloody challenging this diabetic game; bear with me though, I will work it out.

The  mornings conversation ended like this…

“Your blood sugar is 14 honey, you have done nothing wrong. Now let’s have a run around the garden and get rid of some sugar, if that doesn’t work the extra insulin at lunch will scare it off.” I may have also patted myself on the back for my calm, measured, loving reaction whilst looking again for the man from Tesco’s to rock up with my Mother of the Year award.

My darling daughter looked at me with red eyes and said…

“So you are not cross?”

“No, silly it’s not your fault.”

Twin girl grinned at me cheekily.

“I know mummy, but that chocolate biscuit properly didn’t help!”

It would seem she is typical of a number – a cheeky little 7 year old.

Comments

  1. Richmond Mummy says

    January 22, 2013 at 8:27 am

    Sounds like you’re both coping with it remarkably well – not sure I’d do so well, I’m struggling to deal with a toddler and her bad cold at the moment, hardly comparable… x

    Reply
    • northernmum says

      January 23, 2013 at 1:08 am

      Oh it is, I hate bogeys….

      Reply
  2. Patch Mum says

    January 22, 2013 at 9:14 am

    I know exactly how you feel. After a few months our daughter asked “when can I stop the injections?” – sorry this is forever. It is rubbish, but the good days are good

    Reply
    • northernmum says

      January 23, 2013 at 1:08 am

      True! the middle of the night blood sugars checks are an arse tho!

      Reply
  3. Molly - Mother's Always Right says

    January 22, 2013 at 9:49 am

    Gorgeous girl, beautiful post. You’re all doing an amazing job. I love that girl! xx

    Reply
    • northernmum says

      January 23, 2013 at 1:08 am

      Cheers mrs

      Reply
  4. Coombemill says

    January 22, 2013 at 10:15 am

    I can’t imagine how hard it must be to manage, I really hand it to you how well you all cope will keeping family life going.

    Reply
    • northernmum says

      January 23, 2013 at 1:10 am

      Thanks x x x x x

      Reply
  5. LauraCYMFT says

    January 22, 2013 at 11:37 am

    Nice to read she can still keep her cheekiness about her.

    Reply
    • northernmum says

      January 23, 2013 at 1:10 am

      It is her dominating feature

      Reply
  6. Middle-Aged Matron says

    January 22, 2013 at 4:24 pm

    On behalf of the Blogosphere I hereby present you with a top-quality Mum of the Year award (Tesco’s one would probably have required you to be half mare to qualify)

    Reply
    • northernmum says

      January 23, 2013 at 12:02 am

      Mwah! as they say x

      Reply
  7. liveotherwise says

    January 22, 2013 at 11:56 pm

    I think you’re doing brilliantly. And if you run around the garden with her you can probably get your numbers down too 😉

    Reply
    • northernmum says

      January 23, 2013 at 12:01 am

      Thanks Jax! good idea x x x

      Reply
  8. Monika says

    January 23, 2013 at 12:34 am

    wow! I admire your calm and sense of humour in the situation. I’d be flying over that brink.

    As for Chocolate biscuits… banish them to the far corner of someone else’s house to make their scale and monitor numbers climb. It’s all their fault for being so tempting.

    Reply
    • northernmum says

      January 23, 2013 at 1:05 am

      Ha! good plan but BB would never forgive me x

      Reply
  9. Casper Baseball says

    January 23, 2013 at 5:10 am

    Like it. My thanks for posting that. I’ll definitely check back to see what’s new and tell my neighbors about this website.

    Reply
  10. Sarah says

    January 30, 2013 at 10:15 pm

    As a type 1 myself I say don’t banish anything, everyone needs a sweet touch every now and again and in my case that led to binge and secret choc hoarding. Exercise and a slightly higher injection if the biscuits might be eaten are best case in my experience

    Reply
    • northernmum says

      February 4, 2013 at 10:23 pm

      Wise words, thank you for commenting

      Reply

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Jane is a working Mum of three and has great hair. One of these things may not be true.

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