Who's your biggest supporter?

My biggest supporter has been my mom. She's a retired, registered nurse and has been the one who has been at my side the most through the ups and downs of diabetes.

I guess it's only fitting that she was there the day my son was diagnosed since she was also there the day he was born. She was the one who held my hand during my C-section, rather than my husband. She's my "matter-0f-fact" mom. For example, when my husband walked into the hospital after my C-Section and wanted to know if it was a girl or boy, she said, "Well, you'll have to go find out yourself." It was her way of chiding him for taking the easy way out and letting her be there during surgery while he calmed his nerves with a cigarette outside.


Like I said, she was there on the day we got the diagnosis. For that story, see my very first post on this blog. Short version: she was in town to help us pack/move across town...yes, which was scheduled for the next day. Instead of packing the day before our move, we were at the hospital for about 7 hrs and when we returned home at 4 p.m. my mother was waiting in the driveway wondering what had happened. It didn't take more than one look at the large red sharps container to figure it out. It was shortly after that when my "matter-of-fact" mom who IS my biggest supporter caused me to gasp when she uttered the words, "Did you ever get life insurance on him?" I know she didn't think she was being negative, but I wanted to hit the ground and cry because I thought she was saying the gig was already up.

She wasn't and we moved on. Literally.

• She was there that first night to pack up my kitchen things and get a carload of those things over to our new house.
• She was there at 6 a.m. as I rattled around packing more items since I couldn't sleep to say, "You know he will live and he WILL be o.k."
• She was there when I did the first injection at our new house and my 5 year old son threw a chair against our new patio door in anger.
• She was there to say I was doing a good job when I told her it was o.k., the Child Life Specialist said to stay calm to help him through the storm.
• She was there to stay for a few more hours so I could go back to the old house and close it up and say goodbye not only to the house I had lived in for 7 years but goodbye to life as I had come to know it.
  

Books about mother/daughter relationships fill library shelves. It's hard to put into a blog. Ours is as complicated as any. By the years, here are the Cliff Notes:

• At 64, she was there for my son's birth.
• At 65, she was there to relieve me as I battled thru his first year of life and colic! I've always worked full time, and during that year, I would literally count the days until she came to relieve me and I could sleep.
• At 66, she was there as I started a new job where I traveled from Nashville to Alburquerque to San Antonio in the course of one month to handle media relations and trade shows with a 2 year old at home. She was great support for my husband in these adventures.
• At 68, she was the one my husband and I left our son with as we escaped to Florida for a well-needed vacation...just the two of us.
• At 69, she was there when we got his diabetes diagnosis and our world came crashing down.
• At 70, she was there as I now traveled with my job at an ad agency that had me meeting clients on their home turfs of Alabama and North Carolina and trade shows in Atlanta.
• At 71, she was there as I continued to travel from Connecticut to Chicago.
• At 72, she was there as our son started Little League. She traveled 3 hours to see many of his games that summer.
• At 75, she was there as our son played in the All Star Baseball game. She witnessed his adrenaline rush, his subsequent extra shot of insulin and his winning pitches.
• At 76, she was there beside me freezing her bottom as we watched her grandson play in the 6th grade championship football.
• And at 77, she's been there to see him make 7th grade honor roll with straight A's. She also stayed with our son this past year when I finally escaped to Vegas for a much needed 5 day break.

As I mentioned, it hasn't always been a bed of roses...I'll leave that for another blog. For now, I'm counting on her:

• to be there at 82 to see her grandson graduate from high school
• to be there at 86 to see her grandson graduate from college and
• to be there at 94 when he conquers the world:)
  

So, it should be no surprise that when a few other D-moms talked about getting together for a cruise a few weeks ago, I said I would want my mom along. She's been there for me during the high seas and the low tides of diabetes...so she needs to go cruisin with us to celebrate how far we've come!