Diabetes sucks. I have a 6yr old son who was diagnosed in oct of last year. It has been a wild ride, i’m just looking for some hope and inspiration from everyone to get through the hard days. I don’t sleep, reminding myself to eat has been difficult. Everything has been hard. Im a single mom and all this weight i carry is beyond what i could imagine,
Hi @laurengliwa welcome to TypeOneNation. I suppose it is the hardest thing watching your little guy have to deal with diabetes. The next hardest thing is that on top of everything else, all of the work and responsibilities that life throws at you… and you now have to be his pancreas too.
Things that helped me: on the diabetes side, tech and medicine has improved and helped me with managing blood sugar. Once the 800 pound swamp monster is understood, and as each high and low blood sugar is dealt with, this monster shrinks and becomes less scary. It takes some years but it does get less scary. It just needs time.
The big thing I learned with type 1 is to enlist the help of others, especially other people that understand. That’s why community like this one is important. Yes of course diabetes sucks. There’s more than a thousand years experience here and we know the depth and degree of suck, for sure.
Take care of yourself. You are all he’s got so your mental and physical health has to be top priority. You can’t help anyone if you are also drowning, so make sure you are doing everything reasonable to keep your head and body good. It’s ok to need a break. There are camps for kids with t1 that can give you a little relief you truly need and deserve, and the community is important for him- he is also not alone!
He is going to adapt and overcome. He has to. So he will. This site is full of kids with T1 that grew up. Now we help each other because we’re not all good at the same time. Helping others also helps our head and wellbeing, in fact helping people helps me more than the people I’m trying to help. You can try this, with a year experience I am sure you could be a huge help to a parent with a recently diagnosed child!
Try to get involved with people in your area, maybe a JDRF walk could introduce you to other parents in your area. I recommend you get a team together of others that share a common interest. This site is great don’t get me wrong, but we can’t help you out with babysitting for example.
I’m logging in with 45 years successful and continuous treatment of my T1, I was a kid and now I have a job,house, and kid of my own. My story is not unique, and many others were successful before me, which gave me something to strive for. T1 is background noise for me now. That 800 pound monster is long gone. And I’m not special, if I can do it then you can too, but I’ll still wish you good luck 
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@laurengliwa Lauren, Welcome to this TypeOneNation Community Forum!
Yes, diabetes is a beast! And right now you are the one carrying the heavy load and there is hope and hopefully the members here will provide you with inspiration. We will share tips from what we have learned for leading a full life and suggestions that may ease some of the stress.
Diabetes management involves lots of work and at the beginning the worry and work IS overwhelming, but you will survive and 6 year old kids are strong and resilient - somehow I’ve survived 67 years of this diabetes thing.
Please share with us any of the diabetes challenges you face and maybe someone here will share how s/he worked that out. Be strong for him and, more importantly take care of yourself.
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You’re right. Diabetes is a royal pain. It’s exhausting because there’s never any breaks.
The first year of diagnosis is whiplash. It gets better as you find a new normal and figure out what works for you and your son. Keep going!
If it’s any encouragement to hear my story, here it is. I’m 17 and the way I see it, diabetes was my 13th birthday present from God. Definitely not the birthday present I would’ve asked for!
Since my diagnosis I’ve done all the normal teenage things- homecoming, mall days with friends, sleepovers, school dances, etc.
I also lived for a year on my family’s sailboat in the Mediterranean- hiking, swimming, snorkeling, sailing, eating all the carbs, etc with my dexcom and insulin pump.
Once while eating at a restaurant in Athens, right next to the acropolis, when I was feeling really down about this whole diabetes thing, one of the Greek waitresses spotted my CGM. Turns out she had T1D too and she chatted with me about diabetes and offered encouragement and tips. Just seeing another person with a CGM on their arm was so encouraging- this can be such a lonely disease sometimes.
This year my family just moved from the USA to Europe. I’m taking a full load of IB/AP classes and I’ve just learned to bike without hands so that I can treat dropping blood sugars without having to stop.
This summer I’m planning to go to summer camp with friends back in the states- we’re gonna be climbing to the top of a mountain. I’ve never climbed to such a high elevation before but seeing as people with T1D have climbed Mount Everest, I don’t see any reason why I can’t climb this one.
T1D sure ain’t easy. It’s so not fun. But I’m so thankful that I can still do almost anything I want to do as long as I pay attention to my body. I’m also thankful for the lessons it’s taught me. Unlike most kids my age, I have a sense of the value of delayed gratification, I’ve got more self control, I’m tougher than I would be without T1D, and I value the perspective that this disease has given me.
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