Jealousy

When you think of Type 1 Diabetes and the multiple daily injections... chances are the first things that come to mind are NOT jealousy. But believe it or not, there is one person jealous of Ellee and that person is Danica!

I feel so bad for both of them. For Ellee who has to get the shots because no one in their right minds LIKES them, and for Dani who has no idea what is going on but knows that Ellee gets lots of attention with the shots. In a child's world, this would be along the lines of bad attention is better than no attention.

Not sure if its because Ellee is doing such a good job of tolerating the whole process, but she really does make it look easy and painless. Even if she kicks and cries about it, Danica still watches her in amazement and interest. One of the books that I picked up to read in the hospital when El was first diagnosed was written by a mother. She said that many parents often comment that they may not like what is going on (shots and finger pokes), but they like the fact that they are actually getting attention. And on that same token, I think it's the same thing for the siblings, it may not be positive attention, but some is better than none.

Danica really is fascinated by all of this. I often catch her trying to get into the "poodle bag" and get the test kit out. Or if I leave the test kit too close to the edge of the counter, she sneaks it and tries to poke her finger. One morning, shortly after diagnosis, the girls and I got up and I started making breakfast. I gave Ellee her kit to check her sugar, so she sat down on the step between the living room and kitchen with Dani anxiously watching her, or so I thought! I hear the beep of the meter and Ellee call out:
"Mom, what is Dani's number?" El is learning her numbers, but doesn't always recognize them in digital form.
"Your number is 86"
"No, it's Dani's!"
"What do you mean it's Dani's?" No sooner do I get those words out, Dani is proudly holding up her finger to show me the blood still left on there!

Dani is also fascinated by the shots, even more so since she has started counting! When we give El her shot, we count to five after pushing the plunger in before removing the needle. We do make a game out of this to take her mind off of any pain there may be. My dad is the best with it, as he doesn't count right and gets her laughing as she tries to correct him! I think it's because of the laughter that Dani thinks she's missing out on something fun. The first couple times she's indicated interest, she held her arm out and said "tickle"! Again, not sure if it's a good thing or a bad thing, but its so darn cute! I knew right away that this may not be such a good thing, so I capped the needle, pinched the upper part of her arm, then "jabbed" her fairly hard and started counting. She rubbed her arm a little and walked away! I didn't do it hard enough to cause her great pain, but I wanted to make sure that she understood that it "wasn't nothing" and that there was pain involved with it.

We check Dani's sugar every so often. As a parent (and the grandparents too), it's always in the back of your mind to wonder if she will get it. Type 1 is mysterious because no one knows what exactly (or what virus) triggers the immune attack or if it was genetics. Because of that, I like to know where her levels are. The funny thing is that often when I check her, both of the girls have very close to the same numbers! Ellee's is of course with the help of insulin, but it's comforting to know that we have it under control!