I believe Invisible Illness week was last week, but better late than never, here are my responses to a meme I found over on Six Until Me: 

1. The illness My Daughter lives with is: Type 1 Diabetes

2. She was diagnosed with it in the year: 2002

3. But she had symptoms since: Maybe a month or so before. We should have bought stock in a diaper company.

4. The biggest adjustment we’ve had to make is: Being unable to leave the house without a bunch of diabetes supplies, even for a quick walk around the block.

5. Most people assume: That her diabetes is “under control” and that her day to day care runs on autopilot. 

6. The hardest part about mornings are: Making sure she gets out of the house with lunch, snack and a note for the school nurse. Too often, we’re 2 for 3 on that one.

7. My favorite medical TV show is: I can’t watch them.  We’ve got enough medical drama at home.

8. A gadget my child couldn’t live without is: A glucometer. 

9. The hardest part about nights is:  It’s maddening, and also quite challenging, to give a sleeping child juice at 2 a.m.

10. Each day she takes 0 pills & 1 vitamins: And infuses insulin constantly. That’s really the most important part, no?

11. Regarding alternative treatments I:  Roll my eyes.

12. If I had to choose between an invisible illness or visible I would choose: Invisible. It’s nice to be able to hide it as long as your pockets are big enough.

13. Regarding working and career: I think child labor is still illegal in our state.

14. People would be surprised to know: That I could tell them how many grams of carbohydrate are on their plate.  And that I think this would make a fun party game.

15. The hardest thing to accept about my new reality has been: That it’s not new, and that the cure in 5 years they told us about has been 8 so far in the making.

16. Something I never thought we could do with my daughter’s illness that we did was: I’ve always said nothing’s impossible, but our trip to Europe with its many changes in routine and loss of control over menu plans was an extremely fun accomplishment.

17. The commercials about my illness: Always feature a glucometer with a blood sugar of eighty-something. 

18. Something I really miss doing since my child was diagnosed is: Having the phone ring and not always assuming it’s because my child is having a medical emergency.

19. It was really hard to have to give up: Leaving the house empty-handed (see #4)

20. A new hobby I have taken up since my daughter’s diagnosis is: Blogging.

21. If my child could have one day of feeling normal again I would: Stick a wad of cash in my back pocket and go to a county fair where she would proceed to eat herself silly.

22. My daughter’s illness has taught me: Incredible math skills.

23. Want to know a secret? One thing people say that gets under my skin is: “She can’t eat that, right?” 

24. But I love it when people:  Call me and tell me their food plans before a party so that we can plan ahead.

25. My favorite motto, scripture, quote that gets me through tough times is: To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under Heaven.

26. When someone is diagnosed I’d like to tell them: Diabetes is now going to tag along wherever you go, but you’ll be fine as long as you never give it the job of navigator.

27. Something that has surprised me about living with an illness is: How many really great people I’ve met because we live with this.

28. The nicest thing someone did for me when my child wasn’t feeling well was: Santa visited our hospital room a few days after my child was diagnosed.  Santa is the best.

29. I’m involved with Invisible Illness Week because: I can’t have an invisibility cloak like Harry Potter, so this was the next best thing.

30. The fact that you read this list makes me feel: Like maybe diabetes is a little less invisible, even though there are still days we’ll want to keep it in my daughter’s pocket. 

And grateful that you put up with my inability to fix the weird formatting.