The downside of the "support groups"--too much emotion!

So this diabetes journey truly is sort of a lonely venture...and it's not even really my disease. You have to have the disease (or be a caretaker for the person who has it) to truly "get it" and that's not to imply that those who do not have T1D are not sensitive....but it's just they can't relate and so that is one part that gets lonely.

The other part is the people that tend to truly think of this disease as such a cross. Although sometimes of course, it can be a cross and a suffering. But like anything out there that challenges us, it can be difficult and lonely.

I left one support group and joined another. This is my 3rd group that I have tried out. I still feel in need of one, however, not for emotional reasons. Only for information. They are good resources for the questions you have while you are waiting for your next appointment. Google takes too long to do research and sometimes doesn't even answer your questions. But the group does, so in that way, it's helpful.

The way it's not helpful is how so many people are so EMOTIONAL over their T1D children. Ugh, I do get it, at least I think I do. But the amount of anger and emotion is really hard to listen to. One lady posted an angry post how she felt that other parents should be more courteous of her T1D daughter and not send cupcakes to school for birthdays since her daughter can't have cupcakes (which she can, I'm not sure why she just doesn't bolus for it??) She wanted to send each parent a letter asking them to not send carb snacks for birthdays. If I did something like that, that would be social suicide. Why on earth would you set yourself up for that? Or for your kid???

Another lady posted a very angry post (against diabetes) saying "F---- Diabteses, F---- what they do to our kids..." and on and on she went. I wondered what on earth happened to make her so angry. Reading on, it sounded like her 4 year old was throwing a fit over having to insert the Dexcom (it has to be replaced every 10 days.)

Well, I'm not saying Dexcom's are easy to wear, (although I hear that pumps are much harder to wear as they do actually hurt when inserted), they do insert with a needle, afterall, and I'm sure it's a little more difficult for the younger children to understand. But from what I've heard (and seen with Max) is that the Dexom barely hurts. And I don't mean to be insensitive to this child, but I couldn't help thinking of how my kids have thrown a fit over having to eat food they didn't like, or take a nap when they didn't want to...and I didn't sit there thinking, "F---- childhood! It makes our children suffer so much when they have to do what they don't want!"

I had just commented on a post when someone complained of their school nurse helping too much with her daughter's diabetes. A bunch of people actually applauded this nurse and I chimed in with saying that it sounded like the nurse was a little "over-zealous" and just really wanted to help her child, but should of course be respecting the parents wishes for how fast they wanted their daughter to become independent.

Oddly enough, out of all the comments on there (over 70 of them), this commenter got on my case for "defending" the nurse, saying that regardless of her intentions, this nurse overstepped her boundaries and so on. Even though i pretty much had said the same thing, she just didn't like that it came off like I was defending the nurse.

So much drama!

This is the stuff that ends up making me leave,  the crazy emotional upheaval that comes with people. I know we are all different, come from different places and everything. But I don't want to fall into that sort of thinking. I don't want to be angry or depressed. I do not want to fall into self-pity. It would be so easy to do. I would gladly be done with a support group--and hopefully that day is coming soon--but I still need their help from time to time.

Anyway, this post is just a vent. Things with Max are going fine--great, even. He still has been falling a bit low every day, but nothing horrible (just 70s.)

I am teaching him to count his own carbs but this is a work in progress. Not to say Max can't do it but he gets overwhelmed easily. And the more food he has, the more carbs he has to count. Sometimes it's just easier to do it yourself, but it's good that he learns to be independent.

I can't wait for the day when we will feel pretty self-sufficient with diabetes and can handle everything on our own (with the exception of the doctor of course.) And I hope that some of these very angry people will eventually find peace with their diagnosis.