I know not everyone is going to agree with me on this one; that is perfectly fine.  Sure, I’d like it if you saw my point of view and appreciated it and every now and then you could come over and agree, but I’m okay if you don’t.  I’d love to hear other sides to this one, too, so please feel free to comment and share your thoughts.

I don’t understand the point of the fighting.  Type one diabetes isn’t like cancer: fighting (more specifically the stress of fighting) doesn’t make living with diabetes any better.  In fact, the blood sugar swings stress can cause will in fact make living with type one more difficult.

I see the ones promoting “stick it to diabetes” really more the parents of type one kids than the kids themselves.  It makes me wonder: what are you fighting against?  Are you fighting against the considerable added work that having a type one kid involves?  Are you fighting against the type one kid being somehow different than her friends or siblings?

How is that fight helping the kid with type one?

I can understand fighting against antiquated notions of what living with type one means; shoot, that’s part of what I’m doing with Diabetes Outside.  I can understand fighting against limits uniformed people think a life with type one diabetes involves.

But the “I hate diabetes” campaign to me doesn’t achieve any progress on those fronts.

To me, celebrating a fight against a child’s type one diabetes takes everyone, child included, further from the goal of healthy living.

Diabetes isn’t like a tumor that can be excised from the body and, once removed, life returns to what it was before diagnosis. 

It just isn’t.

I’m not saying to stifle any fight; all emotions are useful to a point.  I just see so many people, again a lot of parents in this category, stuck in the fighting stage.  Being stuck doesn’t solve anything or make anything easier for the type one kid.

How can a child grow into a healthy strong teen, young adult and adult if something about them is something their parents visibly and vocally fight at every turn?

Look at the type ones you admire.  Listen to their messages.  Look at how they treat their own diabetes.  Do they fight the fact they have diabetes?  Do they fight the fact their pancreas doesn’t work? 

Or do they do their best, move past the uninformed person trying to use the disease to limit opportunities available, and: climb mountains, sit on the Supreme Court, sing on American Idol, travel the world to win a million dollars, advocate for equal treatment in the workplace, quarterback for the NFL, play major league baseball, write award-winning novels, make others smile and laugh, earn multiple graduate degrees, give back to the globe, care for the sick, and educate everyone around them.

See, there is a load of living we have ahead of us.  Make sure you are supporting those efforts and not spending too much energy stuck in one unproductive spot.

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