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The Stiefer Family

9 Comments on “The Stiefer Family”

• Barb I. Jan 31, 2011 (1 year ago)
  My daughter was diagnosed the day after Christmas, 2009 at 10 years of age. I was shocked when I figured out what might be happening, then when we took her to urgent care everything was confirmed and we had to drive her to the hospital. It was horrible and while she was in intensive care for DKA a girl died from injuries from a car accident. We think another child had a leg amputated. You can just figure these things out. I remember saying "this is a horrible place" about the hospital, and the treatment saved my daughter's life. I was just in such shock and disbelief.
  
  It's been a year now, and the anniversary date meant so much knowing that the girl who died while we were there was most likely an organ donor (you figure these things out) and I had hope knowing that she save other's lives.
  
  We are on a pump and CGM, and it makes a huge difference in quality of life. I had to really fight for the CGM... i think every diabetic should have one that wants one. I think they need to really improve them so they don't let you go so long if the BS is not rising.
  
  I worry every day about my daughter. This is a spiritual issue with me and I try to give her to God every day and not think about her dying and such. It is so hard though and I try to remember that God is in control and he has the best for us in mind.
• Lori Jan 26, 2011 (1 year ago)
  My daughter Katie was 22mths old when she was diagnosed. Her father is also a type1 as well as her older sister, both of whom were diagnosed at age 8-9. She is now 11 1/2 and has been pumping for 3 yrs. When she was diagnosed, it was devastating. I had lived with her father and knew the general ideas of daibetes, but I had to learn everything. Before she started pumping, we had to alot of number figuring and balancing. It was tough, I would not allow her to have anything sweet....every once in a while was ok, but not everyday. Since pumping she can be a normal child, she tests frequently, she changes her own site, she is independant. We all know she has this disease, but we don't let that stop us. We can do what we want when we want! And we are prepared in the event her younger sister develops diabetes....life goes on!
• Tamera Albert Jan 26, 2011 (1 year ago)
  I hve two daughters with diabetes and one also has celiac. My (almost) 13 year old was diagnosed 12 years ago at 10 months and her sister now 15 was diagnosed at age 13.
  Life is stressful at times and I feel like my head is spinning. Both my girls wear an insulin pump which makes life a little easier. Our biggest challenge is health insurance. I feel like I bang my head against the wall all the time. It really drains you at times but my girls need me to fight for them. So many people don't understand the difference between type1 and type 2, which makes it even more of a challenge. Even people who work in the health industry are not educated about the differences.
• Stacy Jan 26, 2011 (1 year ago)
  My son was dx at age 9 on Nov. 6, 2009. He is a fraternal twin, but the twin does not have it.
  
  We try not to let D change our life much. We just are mostly the same, except we are always counting carbs.
  
  I like your vacation idea of taking short trips and staying in places with your own kitchen. Cool. :)
• Therese Balistrieri Jan 26, 2011 (1 year ago)
  Hi, Welcome. My grandson was diagnosed 3 years ago, right before his 2nd birthday. My daughter learned everything she could about type 1, and had him on the Omnipod and CGM before a year was up. he is 5, in 4k, doing great. My son Joey was diagnosed in May, 2009, on Mother's Day. He was 8 years old. He has been on the pump for 3 months now and loves it. Type 1 took away a lot of his independence for awhile. Now that he is able to manage it on his own, he is doing great. Having the freedom of dosing himself at school, for lunch, snack or a party, is fantastic. It's changed his life.
  
  It is crazy that my grandson, and now my son both have type 1, but my daughter and I couldn't be more blessed to have the support of each other. We can babysit for each other with ease. That's priceless. I feel for you, having two kids in the same family, I pray that you have someone that is supportive enough to help you out when you need a break.
  Sincerely, Therese
• Samantha Jan 26, 2011 (1 year ago)
  My dd was dx 7/17/07 at age 9, I also have a younger brother that was dx at age 8 in 91, and my niece was dx at age 10 in 10/17/07. Our life didn't change a whole lot just because I had been living with diabetes since I was 15 with my brother, for us it was more educating others. The biggest issue we have had is adjusting to the pump, since my dd was the first in our family to get one
• Erin Jan 26, 2011 (1 year ago)
  Stiefer's.....in response to your question, my daughter was diagnosed when she was 4, my boyfriend (not blood related to my daughter-but is raising her) was diagnosed type 1 almost exactly 1 year after her, at age 25!.....and I was dx'd with graves disease about 2 months after him...that left the doc's scratching their heads for sure. they can tell me it's hereditary all they want, i'm not sold.
  I'm glad you have each other for support, family strength is one of the most important factors when going through all of it....and I can't even find the words to explain how different our lives are now.
  There are both good and bad changes.
  Good is that we are closer as a family, and more careful about food, exercise and scheduals.
  the bad is mostly that my daughter can't always have the sleepover's and outings that she would like. I would love to leave her at her grandmother's for a weekend of fun, but her nana is too nervous at the moment to handle giving shots to her.
  And I get an ulcer everytime a school field trip is upcoming, we've had some incidents with the school or chaperone not handling things that well, but she's a great child, and i know she will handle things on her own someday very well, she's 7, and she's giving herself shots already, and knows what her bg #'s should be.
  
• Natalie Jan 26, 2011 (1 year ago)
  JoJo was dx age 4 and we adopted Nick after he was dx age 6. Life, well I feel a real loss of freedom. A complete switching gears. It seems lots of time is spent managing diabetes. I view things differently, maybe even appreciate things more. Things that bothered me before seem so silly now that I have two of my three children with type 1 diabetes.
• JoNell Dec 29, 2009 (2 years ago)
  Hey! I live in Washington also. Both of my D-kids have attended Panther Camp in the past, and it was a great experience. A few years ago we discovered Camp Stix, on the East side, right on the Pond Oreille river - beautiful side, overnight camp for a week, VERY affordable. Look into it; your son would probably love it.
  
  I don't know which pump your dd has, but both of mine refused to pump as long as there were all those tubes and awful looking insertion methods.
  They were introduced to the OmniPod last summer and were both immediately interested.
  My dd's had hers for a few months and LOVES it. She's 18 and so has a different endo than he. His doc hasn't been incredibly encouraging about the Pod {his office deals primarily with a different company and they are resistant to change :-( }, but we have the box of Pods here for my son and are waiting our start appointment.
  NO tubes and an automatic, essentially pain-free insertion were very attractive to both my kids.

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