T1 begets T1 x2

This is my D-blog post and is going to be very short. I have a night full of work to do and it's already later than I would like.

Yesterday I found this video on MSN entitled, Raising Awareness of Diabetes. On it is a short segment about a mother/daughter duo, Karen and Elena Gunter, who both have T1.

Evidently this is much more common than I had imagined. Yikes!

T1 begets T1

Did anyone catch the article in Sunday’s Parade Magazine by James Hirsch entitled, “What I wish for Garrett”? Mr. Hirsch is a T1D and before his eyes began noticing T1 onset symptoms in his 3 year old son, Garrett. This article succinctly captures what I think many parents of CWDs feel, as well as the hope for their children.

This has been one of my biggest fears for my boys; that I would pass on this genetic propensity and it would manifest itself in one of my offspring. While my youngest is a little person and as far as we can determine this is in no way connected with diabetes, they have been spared, at least so far, dealing with the beast of diabetes. They have passed the years where T1 typically manifests itself (statistically speaking) and while this is certainly no guarantee, I can only hope they have escaped permanent detection by this consuming monster.

Faux Blind

If you’ve had diabetes any time at all you’ve probably thought about the possibility of complications. After all, that’s why we try to keep tight reign on our blood glucose levels in order to avoid potential nasty issues down the line. Over time I’ve tried to prepare myself for the possibility of complications even by going so far as visualizing and preparing a response. For instance, if, heaven forbid, I ever lost my eyesight I’d get the best seeing-eye dog I could and try to resume as normal a life as possible. I know it wouldn’t be easy but I think I could do it if I absolutely necessary.

On Tuesday I got an opportunity to experience my little scenario, in a more true to life fashion than I’d wished. Fortunately it was only temporary and non-D related. Somehow, after reading an article in the morning paper about the Google’s acquisition of Jotspot, I was in the process of folding the unruly paper back in shape and promptly stuck it in my eye… OK, don’t laugh… Well I have to admit it is somewhat funny. I have no idea how I did it either, but it was one of those things that made me sit back down in the chair for a moment and say, “Yyyeeeooowww… that REALLY hurt!!!” and it didn’t take long till I realized the pain was going to be with me for a while.

After several minutes passed and the pain subsided somewhat I went into my office to attempt to get some work done and realized the only way I could keep the pain down was to keep my right eye shut. This in itself is difficult as I am right eye dominant. After the pain went on for a while I surfed over to WebMD and searched on scratched cornea. The research yielded that a scratch would heal on it’s own in 24-48 hours… oh great!

To cut to the chase, I was pretty much useless the rest of the day. You probably know this, but if you move the open eye, the closed eye ‘eyeball’ moves along with it, so when I would move my left eye to see anything other than what I was absolutely straight ahead, the right eye would move, thereby being irritated and letting me know in no uncertain terms it was not a happy camper! A couple of times during the day, the pain got very intense and I would close both eyes and attempt to ‘feel’ my way around the house. This can really slow one's daily activities down. During these painful times, I re-realized just how absolutely thankful I am for my eyesight.

Thursday around noon we left the house to vote early. I had been doing much better on Thursday, particularly after a good night's sleep. It was while standing in line (an hour wait I might add) that the eye seemed like it healed. While it was ‘scratchey’ the rest of the day, I could keep both eyes open and function pretty normally. Thank Heaven!!!

This is one activity I hope I don’t repeat for awhile. Maybe it will help if I get all my news off the internet. At least then maybe I’ll be able to keep the monitor out of my eye!