Wednesday 31 July 2019

What would happen if I was no longer around?

Before I start this post I want to make something very clear. I am not planning on not being around, as far as I know I am 100% healthy, I run several times a week and my diet is ok (ish). I'm not planning on 'checking out' anytime soon. That said with the best will in the world very few people know when their time is up and this got me thinking.....
I will often joke with people that if I was no longer around that my husband would not know what do with regard to his own diagnosis as he doesn't know how to even order his repeat prescription!!! I do it for him. As a mum I never want to think about not being around or any of my four children but what would happen to them if something happened to me? Especially the two with type 1 diabetes. I do all of the ordering of supplies from the pharmacy and the pump supplies from Medtronic. I do most of the set changes on both children (although Victoria can do her own, Samuel is too lazy), I sort out the hospital appointments with The Prof, and in fact go to all of the appointments with the children. I know how to set the pumps up, carb count the meals and work out the insulin doses if needed. Part of this is a control thing for me, I want, no need to feel needed. In reality though, surely I am setting them up to fail. If something were to happen to me tomorrow, what would they do? I know that my dad worries about this all of the time and has spoken to me about it in the past. Obviously he doesn't want anything to happen to me, but he worries constantly about the children ad their health.
How many of you parents have things in place? I keep all of  their hospital letters in individual folders, but I really should put all of their information, phone numbers, prescriptions etc together in a folder so that they know what to do.
Its a sobering thought really.

Saturday 16 March 2019

10 years on - Samuel's point of view.

March 15th 20019 marked Samuel's 10th year of living with type 1 diabetes. I asked him a few months back to write something for me to post about what having type 1 diabetes meant to him. He didn't want to do it then so I didn't push it.  I thought I would ask again  and  this is what he wrote:

" 10 Years with diabetes: My name is Samuel Warrington. I was diagnosed with diabetes at the age of 4 on March 15th 2009. It changed my life completely. I had to be driven to hospital in the back of an ambulance. However, the support that I had from my mum and dad made me feel a little bit better about having it, but it did mean that I wasn't allowed sleepovers or a lot of sweets or sugary stuff. When we moved to UCLH it made life easier for my mum, me and my family. Prof Hindmarsh is a really amazing consultant who knows everything about type 1 diabetes and who set up and manages my insulin pump. I also got to meet a cool diabetic person who is now my diabetic pump buddy. Her name is Kita and on August 7th 2012 we got our first pumps together. It was really nice that I didn't have to go through it alone. 4 years later we got a pump upgrade that we were super excited about. Then on January 13th 2018 my sister Victoria was diagnosed. The family was a bit confused as it had come out of nowhere. She is very lucky that she has me as a brother as I can fully understand how she feels when her sugar is high or low. I am now currently 14 years old and I am happy that I have such caring people around me. "

I am really proud of how well Samuels deals with his condition. He plays football, is excelling in school and doesn't let him stop him doing anything he wants to.