A Difficult Week

insulin injection diabetes

On Friday, my wife and I learned that our son – six years old – is a type 1 juvenile diabetic (the insulin injections for life kind).

Needless to say, we all have a lot to learn and adjust to. I don’t have the energy to post much else today.

Right now, I’d say if there is a god, his name is Frederick Banting.

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July 19, 2008 · Filed Under Family Matters

Comments

7 Responses to “A Difficult Week”

  1. Kent Chesnut on July 20th, 2008 at 8:27 am

    Mark,
    I saw your post on Technorati and found your blog.  I am so sorry to hear about your son… our youngest was diagnosed in early 2005 (he was 7 at the time).  This was a very tough time in our lives, and I can still re-feel the pain as I respond to your post.
    Please trust that your son and family can do what’s necessary for him to have a long and happy life.
    If I can provide any information about type 1 or how our son and family dealt with the changes, please feel free to e-mail.
    As I don’t share your un-faith, I’ll be praying for your son. 
    Regards, Kent

  2. newbie atheist on July 22nd, 2008 at 9:19 am

    You’ll probably have too much info already, but the blog at http://www.diabetesmine.com/ is excellent. It is well respected among physicians and has a wealth of information

  3. Belief In God = Misplaced Hope & Comfort : 40 Year Old Atheist on July 25th, 2008 at 10:29 am

    [...] shock and fear of my son becoming a diabetic shook me very deeply. So deeply, that I found myself reacquainted with that frightened little voice [...]

  4. Greg on December 2nd, 2008 at 3:39 am

    Mark,

    Sorry to hear of your son’s diagnosis last summer. I was diagnosed at age 6 and I am approaching 40 without significant diabetic complications, so although it’s a lifetime hassle it can be managed. Good control is important to deal with a lifetime of diabetes successfully, but so much is due to the crapshoot of genetics and luck, or whatever people want to call it. My advice to parents and anyone recently diagnosed is so simple it sounds stupid – do your best and don’t blame yourself. Even after 33 years I will have blood-glucose levels swing out of control, and I can become angry or frustrated. Doctors will give diabetic patients advice and set expectations that make parents and kids feel guilty when they can’t be met. Just relax and do your best. Blame diabetes, not yourself.

    I found your blog after surfing around on a diabetes networking site. I was getting tired of reading profiles and posts by people who were uber-Christian after getting diabetes. You know how it goes when people face a setback or tragedy – God has a plan for me, this is done to test us, my mission is to help others with diabetes. I guess that’s a nice way to stay positive, deal with the randomness of life or ascribe some meaning to it, but I don’t see many people who had a rational/atheistic response. But no one – including me, unfortunately – really has the courage to be more of a closet atheist on the site. Someone was blogging on about how diabetes proved to her that God was in her life, etc., and I grew disgusted and responded that “diabetes doesn’t prove the existence of God; it proves the existence of insulin. Diabetes is a strong argument that there is no God, or at least not one that is caring or omnipotent.” I think that’s what I posted anyway – it was removed by a moderator. And I thought I was pretty restrained by not opining that she was arrogant to think an all-knowing God was interested in her life and how her pancreas functioned.
    So after a little Googling on “diabetes” and “atheism” for an alternative perpective I found your site. I have read Dawkins and Hitchens already and I am interested in checking out the links and recommendations you have here. Thanks, and keep up the good work.

  5. Joy on December 10th, 2008 at 8:14 pm

    Mr. Chesnut’s comment above is classily done, in response to your good post.  I also struggle with how to not just be scornful. I grew up alone among religious people, many of whom were so very scornful of me and my family. (We tried to be closet secular people, but they nagged us about where we went to church.) I tried so very hard to become a Christian so I could “fit in.” Ultimately, my way of thinking and reasoning through things just didn’t require a god to explain things. So, I’m both a #1 and a #3 type.

    I recommend Dale McGowan as a very reasoned and respectful atheist voice (Parenting Beyond Belief), if you want to see more of “how it’s done” in terms of not being “us” vs. “them.”  I am raising a small child, and it is essential to me that I help her learn critical thinking and discernment, while NOT teaching her to be pointlessly combative, or to endanger herself. So, really, it is practical to be diplomatic down here in the the suburbs, where my little one needs to have peace and friends.

    I hope you and your little child have got the whole injections routine down.  This must have been so tough. Have a wonderful holiday season. Mine is 6 also.

  6. Melissa on December 17th, 2008 at 11:10 am

    I know this isn’t a new post here, but I just got directed to it from a friend.  I’m 29.  As a Type 1 diabetic (since age 10) and committed atheist and humanist (since age 21), I just wanted to extend a hand of friendship and say that while your son may have some bumps in the road, I expect he’ll have a strong and beautiful life.  Diabetes can kick your a&& some days, but I feel like my life has been wonderfully happy and successful regardless.

  7. Mcnealy on December 9th, 2010 at 8:32 pm

    Backlink ve Pagerank Rehberi

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