The Repole Family

Stick this needle into your 4-year-old daughter four times a day for the rest of her life. What?! That was one of the things we had to overcome when Lia was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes (T1D) nearly three years ago. It’s one of the things that scared me the most. Mostly the unknown was keeping me up at night in the hospital with my wife trying to rest in a chair and Lia being woken every few hours to test her blood sugar. It’s terrifying at first but reading and learning about the support out there and that we were not alone was like someone throwing me a life preserver while drowning.

To keep our daughter’s blood sugar in range my wife and I have to work harder and more consistently on this than most of our daily tasks. We’re doing our best but it has been a daily, sometimes hourly, struggle. If it was just counting all the carbs she eats (luckily there is no restrictions on what she can eat, especially at all those kids’ birthday parties!) it would be more controlled. However, multiple things affect her blood sugar from sports, adrenaline, hormones, anxiety, and sometimes a kid just being a kid.

We have technology that alerts us to any dangerous lows and this has been helpful overnight. There have been countless sleepless nights for the last three years where we have been up several times giving her glucose tabs or juice to correct a low. Last November when there was a virus going around I had to bring Lia to the ER at 3 a.m. for fluids and help bring her blood sugar up.

As much as our lives have changed we strive for her to do everything anyone else can do. She is very active socially and plays softball and soccer. We continue to do the best we can with the tremendous support from her school, friends, and family.

That’s why I continue to do the most I can with fundraising and talking to everyone I meet about life with T1D. I feel if we all continue to advocate, fundraise and get the word out, this won’t be a lifelong disease. Lia’s Lifeguards will again be walking in the JDRF One Walk this year at the Bolton Fairgrounds on October 4. The Walk is a terrific family friendly event with a lot of activities. Please consider donating to Lia’s Lifeguards page on Facebook or her team page on the JDRF website.

-Joe Repole, Lia’s father and Family Team Chair for JDRF One Walk Central Massachusetts