Although most of my remembered life was after being diagnosed with D…and started out on a darker note, I still had many happy memories…some involving D directly but the majority it only played a small background role.
Near the end of my hospital stay, I received a gift from parents … a fabulous pink skirt… which was perfect for a 5 year old girl who loved pink and all things girly…but the best part of this skirt was that it would twirl up whenever I jumped, especially down stairs… I also received my first medic alert bracelet…which not only was a cute accessory…but also easily let me distinguish between my R and L hand (the bracelet was on the R)…which we were actually tested on back in kindergarten (“Raise your right, now your left, and…left again”)
Also during kindergarten, I ate lunch with my mom everyday…I think because back then (1980s) there were no rapid acting insulin and timing of meals and shots was much, much stricter… so I had to eat lunch before going to daycare…I didn’t appreciate at the time how much of hassle that probably was…especially when I didn’t feel like eating anything… I was super picky back then but it did let me spend time with my mom that I wouldn’t otherwise…
My mom was also the one who took the day off (her workplace was more flexible) and drove me to the pediatric endo in Hershey, PA…a town dedicated to chocolate and other candies… somewhat ironic…but I loved the trips…small things like the street lamps were Hershey kisses…and the few times we went to chocolate world…cause the place smelled really good…but the ride where you see how chocolate is made was really fun…especially the part where the beans are roasted cause they heat up the car your riding in…even though I couldn’t get the candy…it was still fun and more time with my mom (and later youngest sister).
My dad was the one in charge of the morning testing and injecting…and usually he let me watch My Little Ponies while doing this… He also drove me and my younger sister to school …and in the mornings we listened to this series (on cassette tapes!) for a while… about food groups and diabetes info (I think)…I found out later that it was for some study…but not sure what … but I remember there were a lot of animals …who explained how insulin was the key to giving your body insulin and the different food groups (in particular there were these two mice named twice and thrice who would yell out fat, fat for different types of food…) not sure what it accomplished…but it did create some good memories between my father and sister and me…
One of the things that I did learn about food (maybe from the tapes :)) was that starches/carbs were not necessarily the same as the food groups on the food pyramid…I was shocked and indignant in 4th grade when we were going over the food groups…and saw that things like potatoes and corn were considered vegetables…(which technically I guess they are)…but I had considered them starches (like bread and other grains)…
One of my best memories of childhood and D, though is the day I successfully gave myself my own injection…I was so happy and proud that I even wrote it down on my calendar…and would tell people about it
And I never stopped once at the time to consider whether other people might think that that’s weird to be so happy about something like that…or whether other kids with D had done it sooner than I had… such are the thoughts (or rather lack of thoughts) for a somewhat innocent child… and I wish that I retained more of that mindset now…i.e., being proud of even smallish accomplishments….and not belittling them by comparing myself to others…because it’s an attitude like that which makes managing D a little bit easier…
純真無垢 な子-pure/innocent child
