Type I has a habit off effecting your life in ways that you could never dream of. If you know us you’ve undoubtably thought on at least a few occasions, “Kelly and Scott look tired” and one of the reason that you’ve thought that is Arden’s leg pain.
Often after a day of activity or a day that controlling her BG was difficult her legs will begin to ache terribly in the evening and they don’t stop aching all night long. The only thing that makes her feel better is when Kelly rubs her legs. The trouble is that when the rubbing stops the pain returns almost immediately. We can’t share the rubbing duty because Arden only wants her Mom to do it so Kelly stays awake most of the night trying to assuage Arden’s pain. At this point I couldn’t tell you how many sleepless nights that Kelly has logged rubbing Arden’s legs but if I were to guess I’d say it’s easily thirty, probably more and there is definitely more to come.
It doesn’t seem to matter how well she stays hydrated during the day... if the pain is coming, it’s just coming. I’ve watched Kelly begin rubbing at 8 p.m. and only be able to stop for short stretches once in a while. When Kel is able to get Arden to fall to sleep, the sleep doesn’t last long, inevitably the pain wakes Arden and the process starts over. The stress that accompanies all of this is compounded by Arden’s pleas for Kelly to help her.
It seems that many kids like Arden get this ‘type I ‘side effect’. The leg cramping is apparently pretty common amongst kids with type I diabetes.
You’ve heard me say before that type I is a 24/7 disease, it doesn’t care what day it is, what your plans are or if you’re parents are exhausted, it just keeps coming. This is the part where I ask you to please keep the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation in mind the next time you want to make a charitable donation. Please donate as generously as you can.
