My name is Nancy and I am a mother of a 14 year old son who was diagnosed with type 1 on January 2009. Because we live in a community of about 5000 there are only a few children here with type 1. Most of our support comes from the Diabetic Clinic 6 hours away. Needless to say I think I am only now starting to really understand the need to talk with other parents dealing with this. My son’s last A1C was 9.2 and up until this past Christmas, he was doing very well. But I think the reality has hit him that this is not going away and he is angry about that. I am not sure how to help him and we are worried. I want him to go to the diabetic camp they offered this summer so he can meet other kids his age like him, but he thinks it will be lame and that it would be like me punishing him if I make him go. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I have many friends, but none that are dealing with anything like this,
I will leave this up to the younger T1s on this site. But I just have to say, I was diagnosed September 2009 and I’m still angry and don’t always want to count carbs, test, test, test, inject, etc. He’s going through the grieving process and right now he’s at the angry stage.
Also, as with any teenager, the fact that you want him to go to diabetic camp automatically makes it a bad idea. (my daughter, who is not diabetic, reacted to same way to volleyball camp a few years back).
i’m 15 and have diabetes. i’ve had diabetes for 7 years now and i hate everything about it1 i’ve just learned to live with it and make sure i take care of it like testin counting carbs and taking insulin. the pump helps alot! the only time my a1c was high was when i first started using the pump and didnt test and just boloused for food but i got back on track and my latest a1c was 5.9
the only good thing about having diabetes is camp!! i’ve been going ever sense i was diagnosed and it has been amazing it’s not all about diabetes it’s kinda where you don’t even have to worry about having it and even forget you have it!
Thank you for that Alyssa, I will be sure to pass that on to Mathew. I really hope he goes to camp as I also think it will be somewhere that he can just be himself.
Hi Nancy,
Welcome! Do you think your son would consider joining? Maybe he’d think that’s lame also, but there are members here his age. We all need to not feel alone.
I was diagnosed T1 as an adult. Difficult at any age, but I can’t imagine how badly I’d have dealt with diabetes as a teenager. From reading people’s stories, their teenage diabetic years were pretty out of control.
I’m a 13 year old, almost fourteen, with type one. I think anyone who has diabetes can relate to this. Some days are just tough, especially just after being diagnosed.
Honestly, I wasn’t too sure about diabetes camp, either. What were we going to do- sit around and test all day? Compare blood sugars? It wasn’t like that AT ALL! It was like a TuDiabetes Town. It was really cool to see kids just like you, kids who’ve had diabetes for a long time, kids who have just been diagnosed and everyone in between. We didn’t focus on diabetes- we focused on everything a normal camp would. It was amazing, and the friends I made from camp and I are still e-mailing, facebooking and sending postcards.
I’ve had diabetes for a year and a half, and some days are just awful. On those days, you just sit there thinking about what happened… what’s going to happen… what’s going to change… what people think. But on the other days, I feel the support. Joining TuDiabetes was the first time I had ever met another diabetic. It changed everything. Having someone who asks how you’re doing- who knows where the test strips hide in your house!- makes all the difference in dealing with diabetes.
There’s so many things I could go on and on about (the pressure about blood sugars, the fact that my parents don’t think I feel sick when I’m high, the way other kids sometimes look at me when I randomly beep or poke my fingers) but all of that feels so much smaller, less of a burden, when you have support.
There’s a lot of teenagers on TuD- if he joined, he’d be welcomed!!
Thank you Wendy for replying. It sounds like you went through a similiar period where I am now and it gives me hope to know that we will get through this and that we are not alone in what is happening. I do agree that Mathew needs some councelling as well as myself even if we have to drive 6 hours to Winnipeg to get it because right now I am feeling just as made about this disease as he is.
I am 31 now and have been T1 diabetic since 13. I know that i am a generation ahead of him. My first suggestion is not to force him to do anything that he doesn’t want to. More than that you have to be mentally strong before you can boost his morale. As a family see if you can enjoy some physical activities with him at home. Get him involved in extra curricular activities like painting, playing musical instruments. What he needs is a hobby to keep him distracted from D. This will allow him to concentrate on some thing other than D. Its very important to keep his thoughts away from diabetes. You need to create trust in him that everything is normal with him, except that he has to take a little extra care of him self.
Tell him that lot of kids get frustrated in their initial stages. It is easy to give up the battle and walk away. But instead of giving up, he should take care of himself so that he can set up himself as a role model for other D kids. Tell him not to worry about occasional highs. All this needs discipline and let him know that if he can hang on there, in 10 years he will grow up to be a lot wiser than his peers and a lot more successful than any of his normal friends. By taking good care of D, he will learn the true meaning of life and in the process learn the true meaning of happiness and success.