“Oh come on… It’ll be fun!!”

How can this quite possibly be fun? I think to myself as I read the text that has just come in from my mom. It’s 11:30pm and I am sitting at my desk in my dorm room in Washington D.C. texting with my mom who is 2,300 miles away in Seattle. Together we are trying to figure out how to get my blood sugar down and flush ketones out of my system. As anyone with T1D or a supporter of someone with T1D knows, of all the things diabetes requires, testing ketones is probably the least favorite task of anyone, or at least for me it is. But here is my mom cheering me on from all the way across the country trying to make light of a frustrating situation.

As an 18-year-old college student who has been living with Type 1 for nearly 12 years now, I had been dealing with a particularly challenging blood sugar day. Since I had eaten lunch my blood sugar had been over 250 and nothing was making it better. So, after one more test being over 300 I decided it was time to get out the dreaded ketone strips and for the first time I had ketones. Seeing that red square made my heart start pounding a little faster and my brain running through what I was supposed to do. My first thought, after realizing I needed to get started chugging water and probably get more insulin on board, was to call my mom.

Together we sat on the phone as I ran through my day of blood sugars explaining what was going on. I didn’t feel sick, just sick of my blood sugar being high. She confirmed my instincts to drink water and give a bit more insulin in hopes of flushing out the ketones. For the next hour, as I went back to my homework and periodically checked my blood sugar to make sure it was coming down, we texted just so we had each other there, and then came the text. “Oh, come on… It’ll be fun!” I was skeptical of testing for ketones only an hour after I had started treatment but my biggest cheerleader and supporter of me and my journey with T1D was there to put a smile on my face. And sure enough, the ketones had vanished.

This is my mom, Gwen Malone. Moments like this exemplify why she is my greatest T1D supporter, but she does not just support me with my diabetes alone, she also is there for many other Type 1 Diabetics and their supporters as the Outreach Chair of the Northwest Chapter of JDRF. The next day she was on the phone with another mother who has a young daughter with T1D and was looking for support. When the other mom commented about how much longer we had been living with this disease in comparison to she and her daughter, my mom just chuckled and talked about the previous night’s events and how living with diabetes does not get easier to manage as the years go on, but the way you manage it does change.

In her role as the Outreach Chair, my mom oversees seven different groups who are connected with JDRF’s Northwest Chapter, supporting the Young Leadership Committee (YLC) as they host different events for young adults with T1D in the Puget Sound Area, being able to go back to my old elementary school to see Jordan Morris talk to students about T1D at a school that now has one of the highest amounts of students with T1D, helping the College Diabetes Networks (CDNs) in the area grow and connect with JDRF, and coming out to Government Day where she and I got to be advocates together on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C.

My mom does not just support me, she is a supporter of so many other people with T1D and that makes me so proud. This disease is tough to live through coming from the point of view of someone living with the disease, however witnessing your only child rapidly mature because she is now pricking her fingers with needles 8-10 times a day, going through the algorithms of an insulin pump to make sure her blood sugar is being managed as best it can be, this is almost more mentally taxing. For most parents, once they become empty nesters, they are able to breathe a sigh of relief and put their feet up, but as a parent of a T1D I don’t think those feet ever will go up permanently as now that your child is out of your sight you worry even more, feeling your heart race as you get a low blood sugar notification from your child’s CGM but no response from your child, or making sure your child has all the supplies they need. My mom did something more though when I moved out, she adopted an entire community of people living with T1D when choosing to become the outreach chair. She is tackling this disease head on for so many of us making sure that those who need support the most have it. Having her as my mom is such a blessing and I am permanently indebted to her for all of the support, encouragement, and love she has given me through the highs and lows, but I am so glad I am able to share my mom with other T1D’s so they can have the same support in their journey that I do.

written by: Caroline Malone