It Depends on your Environment...

So, I have been wondering if my experiences are similar to other siblings of a T1, or if my situation was unique.  What do I mean by that?  Well, MY memories of my childhood definitely are shaped by my sister being T1.  It seemed to always be there, SO stressful.  Getting to a restaurant for a 5:00 dinner reservation only to find we had to "wait" made my mom go into overdrive because my sister had already give her shot, which then made me panic.  I feel like I was always worrying and stressing in reaction to the situation.  EVERYTHING seemed like it was such a big deal.  Maybe that's just me?  But that's how I remember it.

The reason I ask this is due to some reflection recently on my husband's family.  He grew up the youngest of 5 children.  Four boys, one girl.  One of his brother's was born with lack of oxygen to the brain and is severely mentally challenged and now as an adult lives in a group home.  You would think that my husband would have really stressful memories about having such a sibling, and that it would have caused stress on his family.  But, it doesn't seem to.  His family seems to just "roll with it" and not sweat the small stuff.

So, was my experience more taxing because the personalities in my family were more prone to "panic" and escalation?  Potentially.  I don't feel like anyone ever sat me down and dealt with MY fears about it all.  I am not sure I was allowed to have any fears???  It wouldn't have been politically correct??

Probably sounds like obvious observations.  But, when you are so deep IN it, a PART of it....its harder to step back and "reflect".....

I am glad I am starting to...

Is it odd that this NEVER occurred to me???????

Don't ask me why TODAY, randomly, I considered my chances of developing Diabetes since my sister is T1.  But, today I did.....this is what I found:

Just who is at risk for developing type 1 diabetes? Here's a sampling of what Dr. Warram, a Lecturer in Epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health, said is known:

• If an immediate relative (parent, brother, sister, son or daughter) has type 1 diabetes, one's risk of developing type 1 diabetes is 10 to 20 times the risk of the general population; your risk can go from 1 in 100 to roughly 1 in 10 or possibly higher, depending on which family member has the diabetes and when they developed it.
• If one child in a family has type 1 diabetes, their siblings have about a 1 in 10 risk of developing it by age 50.

Hmmm....I am 45.  But those are pretty interesting stats .....


So, does that mean I have 5 more years left of worry to beat this "stat"???  Shesh, I am glad I didn't know this earlier and spend ALL my time worrying....lol....

Always on my Mind...

Been a while since I posted, but, that's not to say Diabetes isn't always on my mind!  I was thinking one of these days that I should count the number of times I think about it a day.  Which, I guess is odd considering I don't have diabetes or live with my T1 sister anymore.  But, it hits me every day in almost everything I do.  I might be just randomly doing something like cleaning out a drawer and I'll have a memory about an insulin reaction my sister had growing up in which she was putting strange things in a drawer and that's how we realized she was low!  And, try as I might, I can't just let the memory pass without having "feelings" about it.  About how much my sister deals with and how I just don't know how she does it.  Then, sometimes I feel guilty that I got off so easy because I am not T1.

T1 is part of my identity.  It shaped me.  Trying to figure out what to "do" with that is the challenge....