Well, I’ve arrived safely at my new destination, which is
quite exciting. I hope they have plenty of mulled wine and mince pies ready,
it’s been a hard couple of months for this fairy and about time I wound down for
Christmas. My rather frazzled and annoyed-looking host Michelle (she says
telling everyone that is quite rude, and she’d much prefer to be described as
svelte and lovely, but as my description is closer to the truth she’s going to
let it go) says they’re only 5 months diagnosed, so I’m confident I’ll be
teaching my host something for a change. Standing a little taller, and
preparing to dish out my very best lecture I politely ask whom I might have the
pleasure of teaching the finer arts of carb counting, insulin ratios and
injection technique to, when she laughs, points down and says ‘Meet
Adam’.
That’s knocked the wind out of my wings a bit, I had no idea
diabetes could affect people that small! Michelle says that’s not uncommon: lots
of people don’t realise children can have diabetes, and many parents don’t know
to watch out for the 4 common warning signs, also known as the 4 T’s – thirst,
toilet, tired, thinner. Most people also don’t know that the onset for Type 1
can be quite sudden, and that the relatively rapid onset coupled with a lack of
knowledge means a lot of children are quite poorly by the time they are
diagnosed, especially since the symptoms can be attributed to so many other
things in pre-schoolers! She says that it was purely by luck that Adam was
caught while still relatively well – because he was diagnosed on his birthday
weekend (she’s not very impressed with me for that, I may have to watch my
wings…) - the out of hours doc dismissed her concerns as party fatigue and it
was purely down to a wonderful nurse suggesting a test for a urine infection
that he was diagnosed.
While my adult hosts may be glowering a bit, Adam and his
sister are quite delighted to see me! (I have been informed that Michelle had to
sign a non-aggression pact to host me given my ‘dust spillage’ with Adam, but
she says if I sprinkle my fairy dust over his sister while I’m here then pact or
no pact my wings are going in the fire! Yikes!)
The children are excellent hosts thankfully and are treating
me in the manner I was expecting when I began this couchsurfing trip – they have
given me a special place to sleep in their room, I’m getting introduced to all
of their many toys, they have planned some outings for me and I get cuddles on
tap! This is more like it. I can hear the adults muttering ‘don’t get used to
it’ but I think if I can just keep away from them this could be quite a good
week….
DF x
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