Friday, June 5, 2009

A new life of questions


We had a new baby girl brighten our world on April 27th!! Hailey Grace is her name and she's a wonderful little girl. The nights are long but there's always coffee in the morning to make sure the day goes smoothly.

My conversations with people take a turn that I suppose I didn't foresee. The first question people ask me is: "is there any sign of diabetes?". It's a totally fair question I suppose. It highlights, at least partially, the misunderstanding out there about the disease. Many people, through no fault of their own, don't know that there is a difference between Type 1 (Juvenile) and Type 2 diabetes which is often a result of lifestyle issues. Many don't know that Type 1 diabetes a silent disease and there are no warning signs of any kind. Cadence is a perfect example of that in that she was healthy one day, within 24hours she was fighting for her life...both of her parents, who are physicians in their own right, had no idea what happened to her system in that time span until the ER doctor told us.

So, are we concerned about Hailey? No more than any other parent of a new born would be I suppose. Right now she's perfect and we have no reason to think that she'll ever be any different. There's no question diabetes will be at the back of our minds as she grows but we don't expect that she'll contract it. What's funny right now is that feeding is so easy with her in that we sort of feel like we're missing a step. So....no blood checks or pre-bolus...we don't have to weigh the breastmilk and count carbs?? Kind of seems all to easy!

Welcome to our family baby Hailey! :-)