I've only just seen this Caryn, and am thinking of you. One of the first things I thought when my son was diagnosed (last Nov) was 'something's got to give -- now!'. We live hugely frantic, busy lives. I work almost full time, but only during university terms, and my husband also works full time (more than me, although he's also on academic terms). Our jobs fortunately mean that we can drop things anytime and be flexible. But when he was diagnosed, I knew we had reached breaking point. I wanted to stop *everything* immediately and attend to everything about him and us as a family. I almost quit my job.
HOWEVER. In time most things have been okay. We watch less television, and are more tired generally. For us, it's like having a baby again, a baby called diabetes who keeps doing unpredictable things and takes up loads of time and head space. Certain things have 'given' in our lives though, and I'm not sure they are much missed to be honest. I've dropped many more balls, as they say, at work. Small things are often not attended to -- but the plus side is, most of these small things actually disappear. We have also decided that dealing with the house all ourselves is the straw on the proverbial back: it's killing us to keep things clean-ish and dealable, and it's one of the only things that someone else can do. So we have decided to make finding a cleaner a priority. We simply can no longer do it all, and are going to use some of our DLA money to get a little help. It won't feel like enough, but it will help.
You can't seamlessly blend the management of diabetes into your previous life, I don't think. And I was so sick of people telling me we would all 'get used to it', 'it would become habit' etc. I could have screamed. Diabetes doesn't blend in! What you can do though is look forward to your life having a different shape, *with* diabetes in it. It will happen. Certain actions will become reflex, for you and for your son, like checking for the testing kit and glucose, for instance. Other things will always need thought, and kick something else out of the way that's in your head...
So, I guess that's my advice. Take absolutely everything off of you that you can take off. Give it to someone else, even if you don't like the way they do it! Even down to the point of having a couple of 'sandwich meals' a week or something if you like to cook. Anything to take just another layer of complication away. And like the others say, make sure that in time you have one or two utterly dependable people to call on if you need, ones you can train up etc...My son is older -- 13 now -- so he could deal with most circumstances, but I certainly have on the back burner two close friends who would do anything if they could. I haven't had to call on them yet, but I know they are there.
Sorry for long message, eek. I'm always doing this.
Let us know how it goes.
xxoo
