If you are anything like me, you will be reading this with a mug of hot tea in hand.  But welcome to the coffee drinkers too.  Tea has accompanied me through many of life's occasions - the hiccoughs, the hellos (and goodbyes) and the hell-weeks.  An aside: I once confessed to a doctor that I drank 6 cups of tea a day, and he told me to give up or reduce immediately.  This was a turning point for me - I realized I had to find a new doctor....  What I have done in the interests of health, however, is to cut down on sugar.  From 3 spoons a cup (gasp, I know, but I was a skinny youth with no insight into tooth decay and sugar highs and lows...) to now having none. At a tearful airport goodbye, my sister-in-law,J, challenged us both to cut out sugar, and we clinked airport mugs and agreed to do this together. But, as we live on different continents, I sneaked a spoonful in every now and then.  I did let her know.  I am, generally, the honest sort. (OK - I do sometimes have more than 6 cups a day.)

But I gave it up completely two and a half years ago, when my daughter, then aged 11, was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes (T1).  So that is what this blog is really about: being a mom to a beautiful, talented, sensitive teenager who lives with needles and glucose test and a backdrop of angst about hypos and hypers*

Having sugar in tea has nothing to do with diabetes type 1.  Nor does eating sweets, drinking fizzy drinks, a sweet dessert tooth or any other life style factor.  It is an auto-immune disease; the body attacks it's own pancreas and insulin production is halted.  This means that the body is unable to unlock the cell walls to allow glucose (energy) to reach the cells.  So there is a build up of sugar in the blood stream, and a lack of energy in the cells.

There is an important distinction between type 1 and type 2 diabetes, and not too many people get that, unless you have stumbled across these diseases in a personal way.  Type 1 people are insulin dependent, the onset is sudden and life threatening.  Type 2 has a slower progression and can usually be controlled with diet, healthy lifestyle and if necessary, some insulin.

But you probably know that.  In fact I am hoping to find people who know all sorts of things about diabetes and mothering and compassion and well....anyone really, who has time to join me on this journey.  So - if you have Time for T, let me know and we can chat.


*more on hypers and hypos another time...