Our "Family" has diabetes.....

"Kids are affected by diabetes whether it's personally or through a family member. No matter how it touches them, they all understand the disease in their own way."
 https://www.facebook.com/diabetesribbon?sk=timeline

When I read this I really thought about our family...When Craig was diagnosed, we were all learning about it and just trying to cope with everything while trying to keep life as normal as possible (pretty much an impossible feat) for everyone else..

But then a few short moths later when Madi was diagnosed, everything piled up..

It wasnt just our two type 1-ers who were affected.. The whole family was affected..

Our 8 year old had (has, this is very present time..and ongoing) a very hard time with it in his own way.. Lets start with Craig..Craig was diagnosed on our 8 year olds birthday and I left him home..on his birthday to get Craigs blood tests done..then a few short hours later I left him home again..for 4 days while I rushed Craig to the hospital and stayed there for the 4 days... My husband was home, but thats not the same as mom being there...And he was driving back and forth to the hospital to see Craig too..SO not only was I not around on his birthday, I did not get to celebrate with him at all because I was gone for 4 days...then when I came home the stress and craziness of keeping track of craig and learning everything we needed to, kind of put him to the side burner..I really felt terrible....my husband took him out to dinner, but I knew he was still sad that his birthday wasnt as great as it should have been...

The Madi..Well Madi ended up in the hospital and I was again there with her the whole time...while I was there, our 8 year old had his Mothers Day lunch that he was SO excited about..And yes, I missed it..because I was at the hospital..Again, I felt terrible..because although I was not going to leave Madi alone, I really wanted to be there for our 8 year old and his special day....He gets very excited about those things and takes school very seriously..He was just anticipating the fun lunch we would have..and all the other moms were there, but me..All I kept thinking about was how sad he would be without his mom there...

He has been very emotional, has break downs frequently and is very needy..He needs a lot of hugs and crys a lot...I can see how he is affected.. He is completely affected by diabetes..even though he does not have the disease....He has very much been affected by it... Its hard to juggle all of this and make sure no one gets left out..but when you are gone days at a time..and having meetings with Craigs school, and hospital visits when they are sick and buying "special" foods ect, the other kids feel left out and that is totally understandable..

Its just so hard..Its hard to see your kids suffer, and its hard to see your other kids feel not as important....It makes me very sad..

Our 10 year old has not shown too many upsets from all of this, but Im sure it is hard for him as well..he actually is very helpful and helps out a lot..He worries about Craig and especially Madi..

I wish there were some easy way of dealing with everything sometimes, but there isnt... We have to hold on together as a family and just hold on tight.. Just do our best...thats all we can do...