Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes is no joke. It sucks. It completely takes over not only your life, but your family's lives as well. We fear every single day that it could be moments from a hospital trip or worse. But, even in all of the sadness and anger from this disease, we, as siblings, can still get a little bit of humor out of this, it's what we do.
1. Find Waldo? More like find your kit.
Where oh where has your kit gone? Did you leave it in the car? The playhouse? The bathroom? Downstairs? Friends house? School? Store? Doctors office? "First one to find it gets 10 dollars" - Mom
2. I would rather step on legos than your plastic needle covers.
I understand that sometimes they fall on the ground because of the animals, but seriously needle companies? These things hurt more than legos. I would rather walk on legos that are on fire than step on one of these.
3. YOU DON'T GET TO HAVE ORANGE JUICE!
YES! Mom finally bought orange juice! The good kind! Yes! *Go to get a cup* "DO NOT TOUCH IT, IT IS FOR LOWS!" - Mom. Instead, we get the nasty Walmart brand.
4. We know when you are high before you even check your blood sugar.
Wow, all of a sudden you are the devils spawn, worse than you were before. You have an attitude worse than a teenager. And you probably are a teenager which just makes this whole situation worse.
5. We don't sleep when you are at the hospital or even the doctors.
We wait and wait for an update from mom or dad, we stay up all hours of the night to wait until you get home. We make your bed and clean up your room, we make things easier for you when you get home. You don't have to do your chores for that day.
6. We have probably stabbed ourselves more than you.
Late at night when our parents ask us to give you 15 units, our half-awake selves try to put the needle on the pen and BAM, now we have injected ourselves with the 2 units to clear the needle. Now my finger is numb.
7. We don't follow you around because we want to.
Mom said you have been running high today, so you want to go for a walk? Guess who is your walking buddy. You want to play in the yard on a blazing summer day? Guess who is getting sunburnt?
8. Our new friends come over and see a jug of needles and probably think we are addicts.
No matter how many times we try to explain what it is for, we still get looked at weird. I swear-- it's not what you think!
9. Normal people have dust in their houses, we have test strips.
Trying to sweep all of these up onto the dust pan or even into the vacuum could be an Olympic sport. These things stick to the ground to where my nails hurt from trying to get them up.
10. We learn new words.
Correction. Units. Insulin. Pens. A1C. Glucose. Meters. Dexcom. Pumps. We have our own language.
11. We do this because we love you.
No matter what you are our sibling, we will stay up to make sure you don't go high or low. We will not drink your orange juice (all the time). We will share our sweets with you, as long as you do insulin. I will give you a part of my pancreas if need be. We do all of this and pick on you because we love you more than anything and even though we hate something about you, it does not change our love.
Now, go check your blood sugar.
