My Human Has Type 1

“Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom!” I bark and jump up and down. I’m trying as hard as I can to jump up on her bed to say good morning. She’s sleeping right now, but last night she was awake a few times. She doesn’t usually sleep through the whole night, and she has a lot of things that beep and make loud noises. Sometimes she even has a snack in the middle of the night (I always try to get her to share, but she won’t!) I can tell she doesn’t feel very good today; I can always tell when something’s wrong. I don’t know how, but I know when she needs extra snuggles and love! Today seems like one of those days, so I am going to try extra hard to jump up onto the bed and snuggle.

My human mom Mary has type 1 diabetes, and that is why she doesn’t feel good today. I think her blood sugar was high all night—her breath always smells different when she has a high or low blood glucose (BG)—and this morning it smells fruity. When mom’s blood sugar is high for a while, she doesn’t feel good either. I can tell because sometimes she might drink a lot of extra water or have to take special pills so she doesn’t feel yucky anymore. Sometimes she likes to go and sit in the hot shower and eat ice cubes (she says that hot water helps bring her BG down and the ice cubes are fun to eat—I love eating ice cubes!) I always go and sit right next to her outside the shower, so she knows how much I love her and want her to not be sick.

My mom doesn’t always feel sick from her type 1 diabetes, but she does have to take care of it every single day. She sometimes has low blood sugars and can’t take me on a walk or play because she has to eat a special snack and wait to get sugar back into her body. I get jealous of all the yummy food she gets to eat all the time—I love treats, too! My mom does a lot to take care of herself. Every day is different, but every day she has so much stuff to do! Here is what an average day looks like for me and my mom:

7:00 a.m. – I wake up and I always go and try to snuggle mom. She sleeps with two devices on her—something she calls her insulin pump and Dexcom Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM), but I don’t really know what that means. I just know that sometimes when I jump up I get tangled in this long clear cord that is sticking out of the pump, and sometimes I knock her Dexcom device receiver onto the floor. Hey, I can’t help it! She sleeps with the little pink machine right next to her!

7:15 a.m. – I see her poke her finger and then put the little blood drop on a machine. She does this every single morning! Sometimes she gets upset when she sees the number, but sometimes she is happy. Mom says there aren’t “good” numbers or “bad” numbers—they are just numbers—but I can tell that there are certain numbers she likes more.

7:20 a.m. – We go outside to go potty. I do my Frenchie stretches (mom always laughs) and then I always want to run around afterward, sometimes I get a treat after we get back home!

7:25 a.m. – I like to go lay on the couch while I watch mom get ready for work. She always has so much stuff to pack up, I don’t know how she fits it in her bag! She says she likes to be prepared and have everything she needs, including extra snacks (yum!) and extra pump supplies in case something happens. One time we were over at another house and her pump stopped working, but she didn’t have any extra supplies, so we had to go home.

8:45 a.m. – Mom runs out the door and I am left free to roam the apartment! Woohoo! I have lots of toys I like to play with, but I also love sleeping and being lazy. That way I have extra energy for mom when she gets home!

11:16 a.m. – Is she home yet? Oh, no—shoot. That’s not her, just someone walking by the window.

2:23 p.m. – Is that her? Is she at the door? Oh poop, that’s just a man delivering her medicine. It’s kinda cool that she can have supplies just appear outside the door! She is so magical—sometimes she comes home with new toys or treats for me! I don’t know where she finds them, but I love them!

4:25 p.m. – Is that you Mom?! Oh, just a squirrel outside. I’ll go back to sleep now.

5:30 p.m. – Mom? Is that finally you? Hooray! She’s home! I run up to her and start jumping up and down and giving her kisses and love. Now we can play!

5:40 p.m. – Ooh … we are going outside! Is it playtime? Oh poop, she just took me potty but doesn’t want to play outside yet.

5:45 p.m. – When we get back inside, mom makes her finger bleed again (Ouch! I feel so bad that she has to do that!) and then gets a drink. Usually we go for a walk right now, but we can’t because her blood sugar is low. Oh well, maybe we can go later. Mom sits down on the couch to drink her sugar, so this is a perfect time to play fetch! I bring her a toy in the hopes that she will throw it for me or play tug-of-war. Ooh … she does! Yay! I run excitedly off to get it and bring it back immediately. I love this game!

6:15 p.m. – Yay, I think we are finally going on a walk—I see her getting out my leash! I love going on walks, and I think Mom likes it too. She says it’s important to stay active and healthy so she can take care of herself and her diabetes, and so she can take care of me too.

7:00 p.m. – When we get back I eat some food and drink water. Whenever my mom eats she punches some numbers into her insulin pump—it looks complicated and I’m glad I don’t have to do that every time I eat.

7:15 p.m. – I watch my mom as she takes a bunch of stuff out of a big drawer and a bottle out of the fridge. She put a big needle into the little bottle and fills it up. The stuff smells weird! Apparently, it’s called “insulin,” and my mom needs it to stay alive though, so I try to ignore the smell. She refills her insulin pump—I can tell she is doing this because of all the beeps that are happening and all the stuff she is throwing away and recycling. She has a special red box she puts needles so that I don’t accidentally eat them. All of her stuff for diabetes takes up so much room, she could be using all that space for extra toys for me if she didn’t have to have it! Or more food—I like food.

7:35 p.m. – The rest of the night I spend snuggling with Mom on the couch while she works on her computer or watches TV. My favorite show is RuPaul’s Drag Race, but I also like football. Every once in a while I grab another toy and try to make her throw it for me and play with me, and sometimes if she hasn’t pet me in awhile I go and climb onto her lap to make her notice me. I love snuggling!

10 p.m. –  Mom checks her BG and then we snuggle up to bed. I know that we will probably wake up again soon from the boxes beeping, or if she has a high or low BG, but for now we sleep. Goodnight world!

She says that with diabetes a lot of people have other things wrong with them too, and if she doesn’t take care of herself she could have even worse health problems later. I don’t want this to happen, because I love my mom and I want her to be around to play with me and take care of me! I wish she didn’t have type 1 diabetes anymore. She has had it for almost 20 years now! My mom is so brave, but I can see how much diabetes affects her. She has good days and bad days—I have seen her be so upset and cry about her disease, and I wish I could help her more (even though I know my love and snuggles help her feel a little better). My mom is super awesome and I want us to be together for a very long time, so she needs a cure!

Help my human by donating to Beyond Type 1 here