by Leslie Larivee

Created on: May 03, 2007   Last Updated: May 14, 2007

Our family has lived with Type 1 Diabetes for about 9 1/2 years now. My son was diagnosed with Diabetes when he had barely turned three. I can remember that day like it was yesterday. What the weather was like, the exact happenings of the day, and even what everyone was wearing. I was kind of in a fog for the first few days and I don't know how we all got through it with a four month old daughter at home too. Still, somehow we did.

We have lived through lots of trials and tribulations since that fateful day. We have survived preschool, birthday parties, a tonsilectomy, and even trips back to the hospital because of stomach flu where we had given him insulin and he couldn't keep his food down and his blood sugar was dropping into the 20's! We have also researched and learned about which diabetes supplies were best for children, how different foods effected his blood sugars, how to draw up insulin and give shots in the tummy of a three year old, what the many complications of Diabetes could do to our baby, and we have even attended a Diabetes Family Camp where we learned about Diabetes and had fun too.

Strange to say, but we have also benefited a little from our situation. Our son was awarded a wish from a foundation that catered to chronically ill children, and so we all enjoyed a wonderful, much needed, Disney Cruise. We have also been able to choose exactly which teachers he would have in school because he needed to be 100% comfortable with them in case he did not feel well. And, lastly, we were able to bypass all the lines at Disneyland one year due to his regimented schedule at the time. All it took was a doctor's note explaining our situation. Of course, I would give up all these things to have my child not have Diabetes, but, hey, if we do have to live with it, we may as well milk it for all it is worth!

My son has still done great in school, sports, and is an all-around great kid. He has always played a very competitive level of soccer, baseball and basketball and has managed to excel at all of them. He is very healthy now and because we have learned so much and have taught him everything as he has grown, he is now a 12 year old little boy who is very independent and trustworthy with his disease. I know the years to come will be challenging, from teenage years to college years, but all I can hope is that we have taught him and raised him well. I will also worry like crazy and pray that his guardian angel will be watching over him at all times.

We have come a long way since all this has began and now he wears an insulin pump, which gives him much more freedom. He can eat when and what he wants, within reason, and merely has to push a few buttons to administer insulin versus have to give a shot each and every time. He only has to change his pump site every three days, and anyone would agree that it is much better to be poked with a needle once every three days than four times a day!

It was not an easy road, but we have overcome many obstacles and now our little boy is growing into a young man. We have learned to not let Diabetes control our lives. We control the Diabetes. Still, I look back at those first days and I can still hear my little boy ask, "Mommy, why did God give me Diabebes?"

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