SubscribeFrom time to time we feature sibling stories. This weeks story is about Annie and her two boys. After reading her story feel free to leave her an encouraging note at the bottom of the page.
On July 20, 2009- my 9 year old son was diagnosed with cancer (acute lymphoblastic leukemia). 3 1/2 months later my other son (age 11) was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.
Needless to say, we have had a VERY difficult 16 months! Andrew went into remission after 8 days (THANK YOU GOD!) but Christopher has to live with diabetes forever.
Every single day I pray that Andrew's cancer never comes back and that Chris manages and controls his diabetes and that he will not have complications later in life.
I end that prayer with "God, please help my kids live long, healthy happy lives".
Hopefully Andrew will be declared cancer free (we have 2 more years of treatments/procedures/chemo, etc) but diabetics deal with their illness every single day (several times a day) for the REST OF THEIR LIVES!
At first, I had to listen to my kids fight "I have cancer" vs "Well, I have diabetes"...I was in tears daily!
As a mother, I just wish I could be the one to have cancer and diabetes so they could be NORMAL kids...guess God had a different plan for us!
We sure have learned to be grateful though and my kids have grown closer :) I always tell myself...it COULD be worse!
I’m Natalie. I’m a mom of three kids, two with type 1 diabetes. As you know, parenting children with type 1 diabetes is a journey of long nights, lots of work, and seldom much support. There’s not much I can do about your long nights, but I hope our website and blogs offer you some support. I look forward to blogging with you.
feeling sorry for myself because my almost 22
year old son has Type I diabetes since age 7.
This is a disease you can live with. Unfortunately
for my son, he cannot join the U.S. Marine Corp.
For your family, I pray. The road ahead is long and
treacherous.