Dear Pancreas

This month I will be posting as part of National Health Blog Post Month. I will be posting for 30 days about different topics in regards to parenting a Type 1 Diabetic and Social Media.

Today's topic is "Write a letter to your health" 

Dear Aly's pancreas,

My name is Katrina and for the last 5 years, 9 months, 20 days I have taken on your job as full time pancreas for Aly.

You decided that you would take an early retirement after only putting in 2 1/2 years at your job while keeping your full benefits but not having to do the task you were supposed to be doing. I truly wish any profession here in the real world that we could only work for 2 1/2 years and then have that company provide us with full benefits for the rest of our life.

Now just like when someone retires or quits their job, that job does not no longer exists, someone else has to pick up the slack where the previous person let off to keep the factory working ... Well pancreas the someone that had to pick up that slack was Aly, myself, Alys Dad, Alys Grandma, Alys school nurse, and many other family members and friends that help take care of Aly. For the 1 thing that you were supposed to do it takes a village to make up the slack that you left behind.

When you quit your job it meant even more jobs became available and needed to be filled because now instead of you just automatically releasing insulin into Alys body when needed we now had to lance her finger 8-10 times a day to see what your friend glucose was doing at that time, at times she was not playing fairly and had to take a seat in time out while we fixed it being mean and not playing fairly .... It meant that someone had to count all carbohydrates being consumed while also taking into account exercise, stress, illness, and many other factors (seriously I was a C student in math class, so not cool by the way!!), it meant that someone had to become an unregistered nurse and give injections upto 5 times a day and sometimes more, it meant that someone had to become a counselor to talk to their child about their diabetes and the emotions that come with this diagnosis, it meant that someone had to become an endocrinologist to help patients manage blood sugars to try to mimickthe amazing job that you did before you retired (guess what, you are the best, no one can be JUST like you.)

Some days are better than others but it still comes down to the fact that you quit, you retired, your a quitter, but in the end we will do our best to do your job just like you would have done.

Sincerely,
Alys Mom