Best Decision We Ever Made

My daughter was diagnosed with type 1 on December 10, 2018. About a week later, I was sitting in a Mexican fast food restaurant because it was easy to carb count, and started google searching about type 1. I came across Kerri Sparling’s blog, “Six Until Me,” where she wrote her thoughts about living with type 1. I totally went down that rabbit hole for hours. She had so many diabetic recommendations from medical ID bracelets to glucose tabs, which had me in a buying frenzy. I was so new I didn’t even think about needing any of those things. She also posted about Children with Diabetes and Friends for Life and I was intrigued, but typically this was not something my family would ever do – Disney in July, at a medical conference. It kept nagging at me, so on New Years Eve, right before midnight, we decided to take the plunge and found ourselves signing up just in time for the early registration discount.

I did think we were being a bit nutty attending a conference like this, but we decided we wanted to do anything to feel more normal in our life with this new diagnosis.

My thoughts after we attended FFL: Best decision we ever made.

With the meals provided at the conference and purchased at Disney, it made life a breeze! Best food ever, at the conference it is carb counted, and for my daughter (who was also diagnosed with celiac) so many gluten free options.

It’s cheesy, but we totally found our friends for life. We planned to attend a water park meet-up before the conference officially began. We made fast friends with all who attended with us that day, and even with the craziest thunderstorm ever, it was so much fun!

The exhibition hall was INSANE! Seriously, it was incredible how these companies catered to children. I have never witnessed anything like it.

Since we are fairly new to diabetes, our daughter also got the opportunity to do 2 pump trials to narrow down which one she wanted. It was incredible getting to talk to all the pump manufacturers and find out their features/benefits and what is their projection for new innovation.

Getting to meet Kerri was an absolute highlight. She didn’t know me from Adam, but I wanted to share with her, her impact on me. I was unprepared for the floodgate of emotions as I was brought back to that very scary time in those first few weeks of diagnosis when all I really wanted was my old life back with my daughter who didn’t have to worry about blood sugar levels, but Kerri was my source of light and hope. Through her I was able to see a new and better life for my family with Friends for Life, and for that, I will be forever grateful.