About two years ago, I was celebrating a lack-luster birthday. My son had been lethargic for a couple of weeks. He was peeing through diapers, drinking a lot, and he was very cranky. After bedtime, a friend stopped by our house for a birthday toast. What should have been a pleasant conversation devolved into me telling her how I’d scheduled an appointment for my son the next morning because I thought he had diabetes. Earlier in the day, my mother-in-law called to wish me happy birthday, and I quickly switched the topic to Henry’s strange symptoms and my suspicions of type1 diabetes. I look back at these moments and am thankful I acted so quickly; however, now I realize how little we knew about living with type 1 diabetes. Twelve hours after my friend left, my husband and I were in the car with our three-year-old son on the way to the major children’s hospital in our state.

Now, I’m really aware about diabetes, but here’s the paradox about awareness: you can see outlines of what you don’t know. I don’t know how Henry is going to handle T1D in school. I don’t know how his teachers will handle managing diabetes in a classroom as we change grades from year to year. I know Henry can and will rebel against T1D in his teen years, and I don’t know how to walk that with him yet. I wonder how T1D will affect his major friendships and relationships, and potential children, who would have about a 10-20% chance of developing T1D.

November is Diabetes Awareness Month, and November 14 is World Diabetes Day, which is celebrated on the 14th because it’s William Banting’s birthday. Banting and Best co-discovered insulin in 1921. Diabetes Mine lists the many social media campaigns planned for this November. Semisweet is planning some guest blogs and will be participating in Project Blue November’s Instagram campaign this November. We’ll see you here and in pictures.

Now that we’re recovering from Halloween, we’re kissing diabetes goodbye.

#kissdgoodbye & Halloween via Dexcom