New to the group (and page)

Hi all,

I'm the mom of a semi-newly diagnosed Type1er, and we just started on the OmniPod two weeks ago. Not exactly sure why I hadn't signed up before (never found the time, probably)

So glad to find this group....although we live in a huge populated area, we're still so very alone in this journey. Our lives changed last July, and haven't felt "real" or "normal" since!

Thanks,

Ali

Welcome Ali,
Our 6-year old son was diagnosed at the end of November 2009 and we haven’t felt “real” or “normal” since then. It’s amazing how our lives can change in a day. We feel pretty alone too, we live in a small town in Canada’s Arctic and we are the only family in our town with a type 1 diabetic child. Feel free to add me as a friend, we can vent, chat, support each other. How old is your child? Wow, the omnipod, we don’t have that one in Canada yet. We are still doing injections. Just had our first follow-up and my son’s a1c went down…since our appointment, we have been dealing with constant high blood sugars…frustrating…hope today is a good one for you and your family.

Maureen in Inuvik

It is a new “normal” to have a child with diabetes. My daughter was dx’d at 10 months and will be 11 in September. It helps to meet other parents and children through support networks, playgroups, camps, etc., then you don’t feel so alone! The further you get away from diagnosis, at least for me, I felt less shell-shocked. Welcome to the group and I hope you are encouraged and feel less alone because of it!

our son is 6 as well, he’ll be 7 in June

We live in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, and STILL feel alone. No support from either of our families (even though my half-sister’s older son also has T1D…you’d think she’s be the most support…alas…). The only emotional support we got from our blood families was from my mom, who died two months ago (huh, two months ago today in fact, now that I think about it).

thanks!
He went to camp over winter break and loved it, and felt wonderful about everything. He’s going to the 3 week session in summer, and we all are going to a family weekend in April. I’m looking forward greatly to meeting others like us. No support groups locally that I’ve been able to find, or playgroups :frowning: but we’re going to keep at it!!

just having an extra rough go of it the last few weeks

Welcome Ali,

Our 12 year old daughter was dx on Sept 30. This is a great place to find support. Our daughter has to wait 6 months for our insurance to approve a pump which is just around the corner. She has selected the OmniPod as well. How has the first couple of weeks been for your child?

Welcome again,

Larry

Hi Larry!

My really crappy insurance surprisingly didn’t give us any hassle about getting it…

The first two weeks have been beyond stressful. They say that when you get a pump, it’s like being diagnosed all over again. I would wholeheartedly agree with that. We were seemingly kind of getting the hang of it all. We LOVE the PDM part of the pump, doing all our math calculations for us. We’ve been having a heck of a time with the pods though. I’m hoping it’s just the newness of it all, and that it will get easier. As of right now though, I’m pulling my hair out…

Hi Ali - My 9 year old daughter was diagnosed in Feb. of 2009. One year down, so many more to go. We are also using the OmniPod system and hoping to use a CGM as well. Life ceratinly does change for everyone. This is a great site though, it helps so much with somany different issues. Welcome!

I’m a pod user near you. If you want to contact me, I’d be happy to meet up with you guys some time. I’m an administrator here at TuD and active in diabetes advocacy. I’m 30 and was diagnosed with type 1 at age 10. I live in Allen. And I know a couple other diabetic families here in the area. We have an “insulin users group” that meets monthly in the metroplex, too.

There is a JDRF type 1 parent mix & mingle in Dallas on April 8th at 6:30pm, btw. You might meet a lot of other type 1 families there.

ooooh! could you send me whatever information you have on that? I’d love to go!

Hi Ali,
So sorry to hear that your mom died…add that to dealing with Type 1 diabetes and I’m sure you’ve been dealing with alot. I’m finding lots of support and information on here and on Facebook. Weird how you can get overwhelming support from virtual friends and nothing from family. We do not have any family support in our town either. My sister lives 8 hours away by jet and she supports as much as she can from a distance. My family lives on the east coast. We are hoping to get a sitter for a couple of hours and go out for dinner without the boys to just be a couple again! My son will be 7 on May 17 and is in Grade one, his name is Jacob. I have another son, Jesse, who just turned 5 on March 17. You can search for me on Facebook and add me as a friend as I seem to check it more often than tudiabetes…don’t know why! :slight_smile:

Ali - My daughter was diagnosed in November 2009 as well. She is 10. We’ll be at the family weekend in April. She is upset because she can’t go to Girl Scout camp this summer but doesn’t want to go to Camp Sweeney. :frowning:

My condolences about losing your mom. I lost my dad to D (T1.5 ) almost 13 years ago and I still miss him every day. You’ve had a lot of grief to deal with in a short period of time. There is no shame in seeking help - medical or psychological or friends to commiserate.

My name is Kristi. Maybe we’ll run across each other in April!

Melissa - We live in Lucas (outside Allen). My daughter was diagnosed last November at 10. I’d love for her to meet you. The night she was diagnosed, as she laid in her hospital bed, she said to me “Mom, what kind of man would marry a woman with diabetes?” She’s always wanted to be married and have kids. It would be great for her to meet a vibrant, beautiful woman living a normal life with T1.

oh that poor thing!!
how old is she?

Did she say why she didn’t want to go? My boy was a bit hesitant, then when he went to the winter session, and saw how much fun they were, he said he wouldn’t miss it for the world. We definitely should get together in April. I’m not sure who’s more excited about the April session, him to go back or us to go and meet people like us LOL.

Thank you…she was actually my grandmother, but she raised me after my birth mom died when I was 3 (to lung/brain cancer, the same thing that ironically and sadly killed my adopted mom). We knew she had headaches, but they couldn’t figure out why. They found the cancer, and she was gone a week later. I had enough time to drive to Austin to see her one last time, but never got that chance to wrap my head around it. I wish I could say that the one-two punch of my son/mom was all I had going on. Those are just the icing on my stress-filled cake sad laugh

Oops, didn’t mean to hijack this post lol

never mind, I obviously hadn’t read down far enough :slight_smile:

There are two reasons she dosen’t want to go to Camp Sweeney summer session. (1) We went to the Diabetes 101 class @ Children’s 2 weeks after dx. They showed a video that had a picture of little boys sitting on the floor at the end of bunks testing their glucose with counselors looking on. She thought it looked like ‘barracks’ and was turned off on that for some reason (2) She went to girl scout camp last summer (before dx) that we dropped her off on Sunday and picked her up on Friday afternoon. She thought that was a long time to be away from home and doesn’t want to go for three weeks. In all honesty, I wonder if she has the stamina for CS summer session. I read on the website the schedule is up at 7 am lights out at 11 pm. She’s a kid who doesn’t function well on lack of sleep (meaning at least 10 hours per night). Of course, I haven’t told her about that concern. I’m hoping that she’s more open to attending camp - if not this summer then maybe a winter session or summer 2011 - after going to the family weekend. She is going to Camp New Horizons this next summer (she whines about that one but I’m really hoping she’ll be more positive when the time comes). So, there you go…probably more than you ever wanted to know!!!

Did you say your son was dx in November 2009? He’s on a pump now? Is he seeing an endo that isn’t at Children’s? I’ve not met anyone yet going to Children’s who’s endo will consider a pump at this stage :frowning:

Our endo is at Cook Children’s in Fort Worth. We live just down the highway from them, so they were much closer to get to than Children’s. He was diagnosed July 09. When we went for our first 3 month follow up, his A1C dropped from 11.6 at dx to 8.0, and we had good logging. They said they’d consider it. We took a long time trying to make up our mind on the pump type, and hadn’t done so till our next 3 month in January. His A1C dropped to 7.6 at that point, and they said we could go for it. They had a checklist to go through before they’d agree to it, and we did each thing on it. We had to do a saline test for 3 days, then go to a pump class (which frankly I found a bit useless), then insurance approval, then the OmniPod training, then the followup 3 days later to confirm we knew how to change a pod.

They said typically they don’t consider it for a year unless you can go through all the steps on the checklist, and I guess we did? We also haven’t even seen the DOCTOR except for the two week follow up right after the diagnosis. After that, it’s been one of the practitioners or educators instead. Which frankly is just fine with me, we got off on the wrong foot with the endo when she saw him in the ER the first day. We were busy panicking and freaking out, and she was very lax and curt about the whole thing. We found out that that DAY ALONE there were 7 new diagnoses in addition to him, so I can understand now the attitude, but still…

if a pump is the way y’all want to go, and Children’s won’t consider it for a while, Cook’s might be the answer to that?

The cabins at CS ARE a little barrack like. My husband the Marine said it reminded him of his barracks. But instead of being turned off by it, he said it made him feel semi-nostalgic. Our son, who would have loved nothing more than to follow Daddy’s footsteps and be in the military, was just fine with them. It also seems like they have very little time in them anyway. Is New Horizons a sleepaway or day camp? There’s also Camp Aurora in FtW that’s a weeklong day camp that Cooks is involved with