Adding Real Life Issues In Our Novels #MFRWauthor #mgtab #RSsos #DiabetesSucks @jacqbiggar

Sometimes real life issues can leave us feeling as though we’re drowning. Whether it’s health related, monetary concerns, trouble with family, or work, it sometimes seems more than we can handle.

This year my seven year old grandson was diagnosed with a life-threatening disease, type 1 Diabetes.

Life-threatening.

Think that over for a moment.

Our happy, healthy little boy suddenly ended up in hospital for a week of testing, poking, and learning the routine surrounding his treatment. Blood checks every two hours, twenty-four-seven, all done to his poor little finger tips. Learning how to count carbs, fifteen for snacks, sixty for a meal, and believe me, that’s as tough to maintain as it sounds.

On top of that we had to learn to give him insulin shots before every meal and at bedtime. If you’re picturing a human pincushion about now, you’re getting close to understanding how we feel.

 

This is from the American Diabetes Association:

Type 1 diabetes is usually diagnosed in children and young adults, and was previously known as juvenile diabetes. Only 5% of people with diabetes have this form of the disease.

In type 1 diabetes, the body does not produce insulin. Insulin is a hormone that is needed to convert sugar, starches and other food into energy needed for daily life. With the help of insulin therapy and other treatments, even young children can learn to manage their condition and live long, healthy lives.

 

 

And this, from the Canadian Diabetes Association:

Type 1 diabetes is a disease in which the pancreas does not produce any insulin. Insulin is a hormone that helps your body to control the level of glucose (sugar) in your blood. Without insulin, glucose builds up in your blood instead of being used for energy.

Your body produces glucose and also gets glucose from foods like bread, potatoes, rice, pasta, milk and fruit.

The cause of type 1 diabetes remains unknown. It is not caused by eating too much sugar, and is not preventable. The current thought is that type 1 diabetes occurs when the body’s immune system destroys the cells that make insulin.

– See more at: http://www.diabetes.ca/diabetes-and-you/living-with-type-1-diabetes#sthash.sk13bM7C.dpuf

 

 

This will be a lifelong learning process for our family and it’s taught me to let the little stuff go, because compared to your loved one’s health- the rest just doesn’t matter.

 

Update:

Since writing this post we received some great news. Our grandson was approved for the Omnipod Pump. The omnipod is a cordless pod that attaches by adhesive to the body wherever you would normally give an injection. A remote reads his blood glucose and sends a wireless message to the pod which then feeds the insulin into his body. The pod gets replaced every three days so instead of four injections a day = twelve in those three days he’s down to one!!

 

THE PARTS

The small, discreet Pod holds and delivers your insulin while the PDM (Personal Diabetes Manager) wirelessly manages your insulin delivery.

 

This will give him so much more freedom and is a huge relief to his family.

Type 1 Diabetes has no cure at this time, but with breakthroughs such as the Omnipod parents can breathe a little bit easier. 🙂

 

 

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In my novel, The Rebel’s Redemption, Jared Martin returns to his hometown of Tidal Falls, Washington to make amends for wrongs of the past. Instead he finds his mother had been ill and was slowly recovering from a diagnosis of Diabetes. And if that wasn’t enough his old friend, Annie Campbell, had a son. His son.

When an old enemy follows and causes mayhem in the small town of Tidal Falls, can Jared Martin overcome the odds to protect the woman he’s always loved and the child he never knew, or will it be too late for redemption?

BUY LINK:

AMAZON

 

 

Excerpt:

Jared’s world narrowed down to the little black barrel of the gun pointed at his chest. Funny, in all the years of being in the SEAL teams he’d never been in this situation. Not to say he hadn’t dodged his share of bullets. It’s just they’d always erupted like a hailstorm, out of nowhere. This was somewhere. The back alley of his mother’s freaking café in freaking America to be exact. What the hell?

If he wasn’t so pissed off at himself for getting into this situation, he might have laughed. Eight years overseas off and on, and he was going to get shot in his own backyard. How’s that for ironic?

“Look man, why don’t we talk about this?” Jared forced his gaze to focus on Sergei’s steely gaze instead of the muzzle of the semi-automatic.

“The time for talk is past,” the Russian said. “You ignored my advice and instead made a fool out of me with that stupid trick you performed.”

“Advice? You call beating the livin’ shit out of me, advice?” Jared ground his teeth together, and fought to keep a level tone. “You can’t blame a guy for wanting to retaliate.” A crash by the garbage caused both men to crouch into a fight stance. A tabby cat raced away. Jared straightened, his heart knocking against his ribcage, as desperate to escape this mess as the animal. He needed to defuse the situation before someone came upon them; please God not his mom.

“Okay, you’re right. I shouldn’t have set off alarms or caused those slots to pay out. But seriously dude, you can’t go around acting all KGB, we’re in the good old USA now.” Jared kept a careful eye on the guy’s trigger finger and cursed his loose tongue. What part of defuse couldn’t he figure out?

Sergei tipped his felt hat back on his bald head like an old time gunslinger. His hand holding the gun never wavered. “You have big mouth.”

Yeah, I’ve heard that a time or ten.

“Why don’t we handle this like two adults? I’ll call your boss, tell him I screwed up and it’ll never happen again…” There was no doubt on that, if he ever went near a casino again he’d kick his own ass. “And then you can go back to ruling your little kingdom far, far, away.”

Click.

The sound of the hammer cocking reverberated with frightening clarity in the small alley. There wasn’t even anywhere for him to take cover. The garbage can was at least ten feet away. Jared’s jaw cramped from the tension. His skin crawled as if overrun with fire ants. Where was his team when he needed them?

He’d just decided the only alternative was to rush the son-of-a-bitch when the alley erupted with the screams and laughter of children. Two kids rounded the corner at full speed on pedal bikes, racing each other to an imaginary finish line.

Fuck.

Sergei seized the opportunity, stepped between the bicycles and scooped the kids off their seats. The bikes, wheels still turning, fell to the ground in front of him creating a barrier. The kids—God, it was Chris and little Jessica—shrieked until Sergei shook them, then they froze, eyes wide and frightened, hanging under his arms like rag dolls.

“Let them go, you motherfu…” Jared’s voice came out low and lethal. Every muscle in his body prepared itself for the moment of attack. His breathing slowed until he could count each heartbeat as the blood coursed through his veins. Waiting. Watching.

Barnikov laughed. Laughed. The prick.

“Now it my turn to play game.” Jared made a slight move and Sergei’s smile flat-lined. He dropped Jessica to the ground in front of him but kept his forearm wrapped around her neck. The gun nestled the side of her head pointed straight at Chris dangling from his other arm. “Move and I shoot.” He shuffled the trio back towards the mouth of the alley. “We’ll talk again, my friend.”

And then he disappeared around the corner, leaving nothing but the slowly turning tire on a bike and Jared’s heart as it shattered.    

 

 

Have you or your loved ones faced something you thought you couldn’t handle? What happened? How did you overcome and move on? Any advice you could share?

 

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