Guts Over Fear #DiabetesAndFear

In celebration of the seventh anniversary of Arden's Day, I'll be talking about Diabetes and Fear.

Now I know that diabetes and fear don't sound like celebratory topics, but they are the very words that we should be talking about. Too many blogs are about the good stuff, too many talk about just the fear – not nearly enough talk about being afraid and getting past it.

Hearing the words, "Your daughter has type I diabetes" was decimating. It felt like a universal force ripped me from my body, fundamentally changed who I was, how I saw the world and what I expected from life – then shoved me back into an unfamiliar corpse to live out a numb existence.

Even though I was never the type of person to wallow in a moment, that feeling didn't leave me for years. I was stuck, couldn't move forward and diabetes wouldn't let me move back. Most days I knew that I was doing the wrong thing as I passively allowed myself to not try and escape. I would tell myself that all I needed to do was move forward, I believed things would be better if I kept moving... but I just couldn't make myself do it. There were too many new unknowns and I was afraid of every one of them.

As much as I knew that moving forward was the only answer and even though I could feel that my inability to do so was going to have negative long-term effects on our lives; I spent every hour of every day trying to pretend that I was building a strong defense, but in reality, I was only allowing myself to be trapped by a specter that only existed in my new fear-formed heart. 

I knew. I KNEW that Arden was going to die, I could feel it. I constantly kept my eyes on her when she was awake, as if that would stop a low blood glucose from surprising us. I taught myself how to stay alive without sleeping and at one point had myself convinced that I could tell if she was high or low by looking at her.

Today, I know how wrong I was. Today I can tell you with the utmost certainty that I should have kept moving forward. That all it took to not be mired down in the fear, was the guts to not be afraid and the sense to focus on living instead of not dying. 

“Don’t stop and don’t give up. Some days will bring the weight of the world to you—don’t stop. There will be times that those days turn into weeks—don’t give up. There is a wonderment of understanding on the other side of your struggle, and it’s worth getting to. These days and weeks that seem as though they exist only to torture you and the people that you love—they teach. The pain strengthens you and the dings in your soul aren’t as deteriorating as they initially seem. In the end, they are reshaping it, and it’s up to you to decide what shape it will take.”

- from Life Is Short, Laundry Is Eternal 

When I look back, it's unbelievable to me just how much fear was able to change who I was and how adamantly I was willing to defend my position. I really believed that diabetes was going to kill my daughter either today or in thirty years. Diabetes and fear had taken the place of reason. I had lost myself and the human desire to enjoy life to the diseases and in the process, forgotten why we had children. I was no longer a loving father who wanted to show his children the world, now I was but a well-meaning jailer trying to protect Arden against the one thing that none of us can guard against. 

One day I was lucky enough to fail at my job of never letting anything 'bad' happen to Arden and then the process of moving on was finally able to begin. 

I was saved by the very things that I was trying to avoid... they are my topics for the remainder of this week.

#DiabetesAndFear don't have to go together.

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Diabetes and Fear

Arden was diagnosed with type I diabetes on August 22, 2006 – just a few weeks after her second birthday. One year later, having never read a blog in my life, I began to write Arden's Day. My goal back then was to share with family and friends what living with type I was like so that they could hopefully understand our new life a bit better. 

Before long someone shared the site with a person outside of my circle and a month later I received my first email from a mother who lived in England – she was thanking me for sharing our life with type I diabetes and wanted me to know that my blog was helping her family.

It would be an understatement to say that I wasn't expecting that.

At the end of her note the woman offered me her support should I ever need it... that was my first interaction with someone in the diabetes community. That email reshaped my intention for this blog. I gave it a name, bought a url and set about sharing our days with the hope that our struggles may make yours a little easier. 

In honor of Arden's last eight years of living with type I diabetes, I will be dedicating all of next week to stories about diabetes fear – with the hope that our struggles may make yours a little easier.

Beginning on Monday I will post five blogs - one each day - about how I overcame the biggest problem that diabetes brought to my life. I'll talk about the specter that arrive at the moment Arden was diagnosis, tell you the stories of how we escaped it, muse a bit about life since I got rid of it. And talk about what to do if it should comes back.

Come back Monday and we'll talk about #DiabetesAndFear

JDRF Partner ViaCyte to Immediately Initiate Type 1 Diabetes Clinical Trial

From JDRF.org

JDRF’s partner ViaCyte recently announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is allowing them to move forward with a clinical trial of its innovative type 1 diabetes (T1D) encapsulated cell replacement therapy called VC-01™ product candidate. The company plans to immediately initiate the first ever clinical evaluation of a stem cell-derived islet replacement therapy for the treatment of people with T1D. The trial will enroll approximately 40 people at multiple clinical sites.

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Trials on people, not mice.

read the entire article on JDRF.org

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Vote for Sierra Sandison so she can #ShowMeYourPump on Television

People's Choice: Miss America

There will only be 15 contestants featured on television during the Miss America pageant next month and WE have the ability to vote for one of them... 

It takes less than 5 seconds to vote: Let's use those five seconds to propel Sierra Sandison, our favorite insulin pump wearing pageant contestant, into the top 15!

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VOTE, VOTE, VOTE!

Just click on this link and check the only option you will see (it says, "Click here to vote for Miss Idaho 2014 Sierra Sandison), then press the "Finish Survey" button and you are done, it's that easy. Voting ends on September 12th.

Let's all help Sierra take #ShowMeYourPump from the Internet to your television and give her the chance to tell the world what that thing on her hip does.

After you finish please share the People's Choice news with your friends any way that you can. Use my social media share button below, write a note on your favorite social media platform and include this link - http://bit.ly/SS-AD - or shout from the highest mountain!

#DOC 

#ShowMeYourPump

Coco and Friends are now Digital Books!

As a writer, I normally prefer when people buy books -- but I'm very happy to make an exception for this!

From: t1everydaymagic.com

Lilly Diabetes and Disney have joined together to create special materials for type 1 families, including popular books that cover real-life issues. Now, you can experience them right here on your desktop or tablet! This site also features inspirational videos, carb-friendly recipes and other useful resources for type 1 families like yours. As you explore, find out about all the other supportive Lilly Diabetes programs and initiatives for your family

There are currently six titles available to read online: Coco Goes Back to School, Hannah Montana: Uptight, Running Interference, Up for the Challenge, Coco and Goofy's Goofy Day and Power Forward.

You can also access the recipes of the 'Dishing It Up Disney Style' cookbook.

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