email messages

I never check the email associated with this account.  I hope my readers will understand and start posting comments directly to this blog.  I think it's really important that we share and support one another.

Got this one a month ago:

Hey so great to see your blog. Am out here in Africa and my husband has been diabetic for nearly ten years now. Am at an all time low as he is on insulin twice a day but still drinks like a fish .I feel sorry for our kids and myself as he has mood swings from extremely happy one minute to yelling like mad the next. Am now tired of being married to him as he does not make an effort to watch his health. Am frantically seeking a job as he is currently the sole bread winner. Want to leave with the kids and perhaps give them a more normal life. Love him very much but i think have carried him around for too long. He will not even see a urologist to help in that department....   

Another Diabetic Wife

So, ADW, you aren't alone, even if you are in Africa!  Your expression, "I have carried him around for too long" is very good.  Perhaps that is what all of us do - we carry them around.  But I'm not so sure what else to do.  I have often said that if I had children still at home, I would be gone.  I would not allow them to suffer through this.  But as alway, be careful not to make a rash decision on the spur of the moment.  All my life, I have always given myself 2 weeks to make sure I feel the same way about any decision I make.  If for 2 weeks, I know I need to do something and don't waver in that knowledge, then I usually proceed.  

Being married to a diabetic can be difficult.  Explain to the kids that it's not really dad yelling, it's his diabetes.  Or better, it's what a sugar low/high does to a person with diabetes.   Teach them to walk away.  Get them counseling.  Train them to know when they need to go to a safe place.  Have a plan in place for when the rage gets out of control.  Heck, I have that plan in place for me and I don't hesitate to walk away, leave the house, go to Walmart, walk around the lake, do whatever it takes to get me out of the harmful situation.  But it is so much easier as an adult.  I can't imagine being a child in the middle of all this.

Know that you have support here among us.  Many prayers,

DW