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Finding Reasons To Be Thankful

Nov 16, 2000

November marks two and a half years since my son's diagnosis. The initial shock and grief of the diagnosis is behind me and leaves me at a point to where I can reflect on the experiences since then and look at life from a much different perspective than the one I had before May of 1998.

I will never totally accept this disease as something that my son will have to live his lifetime with. By not accepting this disease in that way it helps to keep my hatred for juvenile diabetes alive and forces me to keep believing that a cure will soon be found for my child and all the other children.

Despite my hatred for the disease, I try to reflect on the things that I am thankful for as we approach the Thanksgiving season.

I'm thankful that Corey was able to live his first five years of life without the diabetes. So many children that have the disease were never given that amount of time free from it's clutches. As rough as the first months of his diagnosis were, how much harder it must be to be for an infant or a toddler. How heartbreaking it must be to be the parent of such a little one with diabetes.

I'm thankful that my son was born when he was. Eighty years ago a diagnosis of juvenile diabetes meant certain death within weeks, months, or at most, a year.

As unpredictable as it is, I am thankful also for the insulin that keeps my son alive as we wait for a cure.

I'm thankful that we live in a place were we have quick access to doctors that can make the diagnosis. Many people in other countries do not.

I'm thankful that here, insulin is readily available to those that need it. Last year I donated insulin to children in a country where it was scarce or not available and had a hard time imagining what it would be like to be the parent of child with diabetes knowing that the insulin needed to keep my child alive could only be bought on the black market at the cost of a month's wages.

I'm thankful for health insurance that allows me to keep my child healthy and alive. Many others, even in this country don't have the luxury of health insurance.

I'm thankful for modern devices and cringe at the thought of boiling glass syringes or using test tape.

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