Day 22 – Ellie
in Awareness
Our beautiful, sweet daughter, Ellie, has had T1D since December, 2011. She tests her blood 6-10 times a day. We carry juice, snacks, a change of insulin pump site supplies and a life-saving glucagon shot everywhere we go. I pull insulin, prick fingers and insert tubing like the best of them. Sometimes she misses a party, a gym class, a family holiday. Mostly she feels like just another kid – because she has a team of people who are supporting her, helping her count carbs, carrying around the life- saving drinks and shots and insulin viles for her. She doesn’t yet know about kidney failure and nerve damage and comas and blindness. We all do our best not to dwell on those things. What would be the point?
Soon after her diagnosis, Ellie was in the school cafeteria eating her lunch. She was distracted by something and dropped her sandwich on the floor. She knew she had already taken her dose of insulin. What did she do? She picked her sandwich up off the cafeteria floor and ate it – the whole thing. I only learned of this incident two days later, during a casual conversation about school cafeteria shenanigans. And my heart broke.
Ellie recently overcame one huge challenge – she changed her own site for the very first time. HOLY COW! SHE DID IT!! This is HUGE. This was a giant step towards independence. She had been talking about wanting to do it for so long, but it’s not an easy thing to count to three and squeeze a big needle filled with a little tube into your own body.
My good friend’s daughter was diagnosed with diabetes right before this and Ellie spent a lot of time reminiscing about the old days when she would cry from every needle. Ellie really feels for this child and then, right after this, she told me she was determined to conquer a fear of her own in solidarity with her. And she did it!
This is why we support Breakthrough T1D. Since Ellie’s diagnosis we have raised more than $40,000 through the kindness and generosity of our friends and family, and their friends and families. My daughter shouldn’t have worry about things like ketones, A1Cs, or feel like she has no choice but to eat food that has fallen on the floor. She shouldn’t have to worry about conquering fears of shooting herself with a needle and tube. No child should have to worry about these things.
Please help us support Breakthrough T1D’s efforts to find a cure for Type 1 Diabetes.
Please consider making a Fund A Cure donation in honor of Ellie and others living with T1D by clicking here.