you can do this

So Kim at Texting My Pancreas was inspired by the It Gets Better project, and decided to start a similar movement in the Diabetes Online Community (DOC). Today my blog reader is filled with videos to watch, posted by people putting themselves out there in an effort to help someone on the other side of their computer screen.

I sat down to record my own a few days ago and it quickly shifted from me making a heartfelt and encouraging video to me pulling faces and using funny voices, which is how I cope with feeling nervous or anxious, apparently. So instead of a video, I'm putting it down in text. I hope it still fits the spirit of the project.

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Dear parent of a child recently diagnosed with type 1 diabetes,

You know how when your baby was born they sent you home from the hospital after a couple of days, without so much as a pamphlet on how to raise your kid? Well, when my daughter was discharged from Children's Hospital after her diabetes diagnosis, my husband and I joked that at least this time around, we had been trained on how to care for her. We had just graduated from several days of diabetes boot camp and they even gave us a massive binder to take home with us that outlined everything we needed to remember.

Much like the first few weeks of dealing with a newborn, the first weeks and months after L's diagnosis passed by in a blur. We were in the trenches, just trying to get to the end of each day alive. But once we fell into a routine, the fog began to lift and I realized that it wasn't enough to just survive. I wanted my daughter to thrive.

So I decided to search the internet for other people in the same situation. Since I began keeping an online journal in 2002, I knew there had to be diabetes bloggers out there. Maybe even other parents of kids with diabetes. But what I found was more than I could have imagined. And I have received support I never even knew I needed, from every different type of person and background and situation you can think of, and even some you might not.

Moms, dads, single parents and grandparents of diabetics; teens and adults with diabetes; some families with only one diabetic in their entire history, and others with 2, 3, 4 or more diabetics in their immediate family; newly diagnosed and those who have been dealing with it for decades, and on and on.

We all have different voices. We all have different stories. But beneath the noise, below the din, it all comes down to this:

Of science and the human heart, there is no limit
There is no failure here, sweetheart
Just when you quit.

Whatever you're going through. Whatever you're feeling. You are not alone. Someone has been through it before, and they can help you find your way out. Here's a story:

This guy's walking down the street when he falls in a hole. The walls are so steep he can't get out.

A doctor passes by and the guy shouts up, 'Hey you. Can you help me out?' The doctor writes a prescription, throws it down in the hole and moves on.

Then a priest comes along and the guy shouts up, 'Father, I'm down in this hole can you help me out?' The priest writes out a prayer, throws it down in the hole and moves on.

Then a friend walks by, 'Hey, Joe, it's me can you help me out?' And the friend jumps in the hole. Our guy says, 'Are you stupid? Now we're both down here.' The friend says, 'Yeah, but I've been down here before and I know the way out.'

Yeah, I just linked to a U2 video and quoted an old episode of "The West Wing". That's how I roll.

So, dear parent of a child recently diagnosed with type 1 diabetes:

I don't know how you found me, but I'm glad you did. You can do this.

Shannon :)

P.S. Thank you, Kim.