So I'm a little behind on my blogging. Life has a way of doing that, I suppose.
Back on August 11th, I went to Omaha for their JDRF Walk. Why? To help Kim with the You Can Do This Project booth, of course! Kim wrote about this a while ago. See her post here.
How much do I love this project? Enough to get up at 5am. On a Saturday. Ew.
But it was so totally and completely worth it! The weather was beautiful, and we met so many amazing people. And once again, the response to the project was fantastic! Most people I talked to thought it was a great idea, and will hopefully take a look at some of the vlogs. The bracelets were a hot ticket item too.
There was one woman I talked to that I don't think I will ever forget. I was down at one of the pump company booths saying hi to a rep I knew. A woman and her son walked up to the table. I recognized her as someone Kim and I had talked to a few minutes ago at the YCDT booth.
She smiled and said hi, and starting talking to the pump rep. The rep had some candy out on the table. The boy picked up a small box of Nerds, and asked if he could have them.
"I don't think so, hon," said the mom. "I don't know what the carb count is for those."
The pump rep then proceeded to dig through her things until she found the bag that the candy came in, nutrition labels and all. Well done, pump rep!
The rep then asked the mom how long her son has had Type 1.
"He was diagnosed three weeks ago," she replied. My stomach sank, and my heart hurt for her.
"You must be feeling so completely overwhelmed," I said.
"That's why we're here," she said. "We're not walking. We're here to talk to people at the booths and see the different pumps."
At this point, I excused myself as she talked to the pump rep and ran back to the YCDT table. Thankfully, I had some blog cards in my purse, and Kim had some of hers as well.
I ran back over to the pump table.
"Sorry to interrupt," I said, "but here's Kim's card and mine. Our email addresses are on them. Please let us know if there's anything we can do."
She took the cards and smiled.
"And I really encourage you to check out the YCDT site. There are videos made by other moms, and videos of kids that he can watch. There's a whole community of people out there. You're not alone."
"Thank you," she said.
I apologized again to the pump rep for interrupting and went back to the YCDT booth. I haven't heard from this woman, but I hope things are going ok. That's the closest encounter with a recent diagnosis that I've had in a long time. And it's something I won't soon forget.
So to that mom and her sweet 7-year-old son, please know that you are being thought of, that you are loved, and that you are never alone.