Taking His Lead

Being open about having diabetes is something I find to be important. As long as Brendon is comfortable, I don't encourage him to be discreet. It's all out in the great, wide open.

To that end, when several of his baseball team mates circled around him in the dugout as he assembled his meter, craning his neck to watch the plays being made in the field, I thought, maybe I should get the boys to back off. But, Brendon seemed oblivious to the attention. He seemed oblivious to even performing the glucose test as he's done it hundreds of times already and sometimes he doesn't realize he's done one. At times he says, "Oh shoot! I forgot to test myself", with me reminding him that he tested himself seconds ago.

The boys look on as he squeezes blood from his finger.

"Ew! Lookit, blood! Does that hurt?"

"No", says Brendon distractedly because he's too busy watching the game and performing the test at the same time.

"BOYS! GIVE HIM SOME BREATHING SPACE! LEAVE HIM ALONE!", Brendon's coach bellows to the boys from the field.

A mother I was talking to catches what's going on and says, "Do you think they should give him some privacy?"

And then I begin to wonder if I should get them to back off so that Brendon doesn't have an audience.

From then on and long after the game, it nags at me that I probably should've protected Brendon from the onslaught of rubberneckers.

I asked him later that night if he was bothered by the boys watching him do the test.

He says he wasn't.

I ask if I should've gotten them to back off.

He says I don't have to. It's fine.

And so I let him take the lead in all of this. He's eight years old, but he has a right to conduct himself the way he wants when it comes to how he handles his diabetes management.

If he isn't bothered, then I will stand back. If I see him struggling, I'll lend a hand.