One Great Thing! - Diabetes Blog Week

   

It's the 3rd Annual Diabetes Blog Week!

Thanks to Karen Graffeo of the wonderful blog Bitter-Sweet for putting it all together. If you would like to participate in this week, head on over to Karen's blog and sign up! (There's still time!!!!)

Today is Day number two and the blog post is entitled 'One Great Thing'.

Grace's One Great Thing

Grace is a do-er. I mean, the girl DOES things. All the time. In full-on speed. And she's a whirlwind of doing. From this thing to that thing. From this topic to that topic. Not because she's got a limited attention span, just because she's always got a lot going on. She talks about a lot, has opinions about a lot and just generally, well, she has a lot to say. It's one of the things I love about her.

Grace, changing her Pod site. She leaves the old Pod 

on til she puts on the new one. She made me 

take a picture of her with two Pods. 

Somehow, it was 

incredibly cool to her.

Want a conversation with her? She's there.

Want to talk about art, school, dance, music, movies, books, the sky? She's there.

Want to just listen to her tell you about something she loves? She is SO there.

Want to laugh until you almost pee your own pants? She loves that. She will be there for that.

For me, Grace's one great thing is that she is totally herself. Take her or leave her, she abides by the motto 'to thine own self be true.' She rocks her individuality. She tells it like it is. If she likes it, you will know. And if she doesn't like it, you will know that too. She will tell you how she feels and she will be honest. She will wear a jean vest with a striped top, glitter skirt and hightop sneakers, all bought from Goodwill, cause that is her FAVORITE place to shop!  She will tell you how she thinks it will all go down, and usually she's right. She can tell you what she thinks of certain people, and damn it, she is spot on. She is a bullsh*t spotter a mile away. Gotta love a little girl who can do that. 

When it comes to diabetes, she's herself too. She didn't want a pump for a year, until it was on her terms. Then, she wanted the one she wanted. And there was no turning back, or asking her to see another one or asking her to wait. She, indeed, asked the woman at the OmniPod table where she spotted the pump that day she decided it was the one for her, if she could load the sample and take home the PDM. That's my gal. 

When it came in it's box, she couldn't wait for pump start day. Came home from school, and bam! it was on her within an hour. And she didn't start with saline. I told the pump trainer - 'You honestly think she's gonna want to start this with saline????' and the pump trainer looked at me and said 'Yeah, uh, she's not going to go for that.' Pure insulin from the start. Grace told me it would be fine. And I believed. And it was. Crazy? Maybe. But that's how this girl rolls.

And diabetes comes along for the ride with Grace. She rolls with most of it. She accepts, she doses, she's honest, she's realistic. She wants to know why she goes to get her blood drawn and she knows why she gets her eyes checked each year. And you know what she says as we head to each appointment 'Just another day in the life, Mom.' And when she has bad days, she had me buy her a 'Just Do It' t-shirt from Modell's, one that says to her what I always actually DO say to her - 'Some things Grace, we just gotta do. We don't have to like it, we just gotta do it.' And she makes me buy her the t-shirt and when she has a bad day, she comes down the stairs in the morning wearing it. She looks me in the eye and says 'Mom, it's one of those days' as she reaches for her meter.

Grace's one great thing is that she is totally herself.