This blog is dedicated to all the saints who are our husbands, wives, children, parents, siblings, and any other family members who live with us diabetics and look out for our well-being day in and day out.
Sue from Pennsylvania is a contributing blogger here. She has shared the work involved with trying to get her husband approved for a Dexcom CGM which he had been on for years until Medicare denied payment. She and her husband had a telephone hearing with an administrative law judge while in their endo’s office. They are anxiously awaiting the judge’s decision. She lives in daily fear that her husband, who suffers from hypoglycemia unawareness, will have an accident or otherwise get hurt. Sue has been contacting her senators, representatives, other Type 1 diabetics, Diabetes Forecast editors, as well as federal judges. She is even planning on sending a letter to President Obama. This advocacy has turned into a full time job for Sue; she is truly her husband’s earthly saint.
I am also an online friend of Mary who has both an adult son and daughter with Type 1 diabetes. Her son lives on his own, while her daughter who is mentally challenged requires almost constant supervision to control her diabetes. Mary has been a longtime member of the DOC, and has gained and shared much wisdom in the fine art of managing the day-to-day details of her daughter’s diabetes. Mary has been working on having her daughter live in an assisted living arrangement in her own home which she will share with two other mentally challenged women. Mary’s children are truly blessed to have her as their mother.
My husband has had to live with the stress of keeping both my son and me safe. My son has lived with Type 1 diabetes for 39 years, and I for 25 years. My husband has had to bring both of us out of comas when we went hypo during the night, as well as give us glucose during the day.
Last night while our son was visiting, he decided to return home. When he went to get his stuff, I noticed that his blood glucose meter was on the table and I told him not to forget it. He just stood there, so I told him to check his blood sugar. He got a reading of 38 mg/dl. My husband immediately got him a can of soda to drink.
After he drank the soda my son took off and got in his truck. He got his keys out and tried to start the truck. My husband pried the keys out of his hand. My son got another key and tried to put it in the ignition. At that point my husband ordered him to sit in the passenger seat and then drove him home. I followed in our car. My husband and I were still shaking on the ride back home.
My son uses a Medtronic pump and CGM. His CGM read 128 while his meter read 38 and it never gave him a warning that his blood sugar was dropping. It is my hope that I can convince him to begin using a Dexcom CGM which I feel is more reliable. My husband has been my and our son’s guardian angel all these years.
Who are the saints you call your family?
Test Guess and Go 
It takes a village, doesn’t it? All of us that have such supportive family and friends can thank our lucky stars for them each and every day. My heart goes out to anyone that has to deal with this diabetes crap and doesn’t have that support system.
That’s for sure. I’ve heard of people whose parents didn’t support them when they were children with type 1, they were pretty much on their own.
Just loved your blog. Thanks for mentioning me and saying that I am my husband’s earthly saint. They say that G-D never gives you more then you can handle but to be truthful, somethings this is such a huge challenge that it’s hard to handle. Aside from the daily worry, there’s also those times when a diabetic is low but not out of it, and that person can be very verbally abusive and words do hurt even though you know that the diabetic has no control over what he or she is saying or doing. But when you love someone, you make the best of bad situation. Still, being validated means a lot and I thank you Sue for such a wonderful blog. And I thank you also for the weeks that we’ve known each other and our wonderful phone conversations and the insight and support that you’ve given me. You and Laddie have become my new and blessed friends.
Thank you Sue. And I’m glad that we made that connection on the ADA board, it was the start of a friendship!
Wonderful post, Sue. It comforts me greatly to think of my family watching over me and I love the idea of thinking of them as earthly saints.
Thanks Laddie! We are blessed to have family watching over us.
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