Our new favorite craft....not really by choice, although we enjoy it. Before Abby left the hospital she and her friend Lucas went to the craft room to make a new bracelet.
This is by far the most important bracelet she will ever have. When she came back to the room to show me her new bracelet I had all I could do to not break down. When we have little girls we think of all the fun of buying her pretty necklaces, earrings and bracelets, playing dress up and just doing all those girly things. I never imagined that she would need to depend on one of those bracelets to save her life. Everytime I look at her wrist it is just another reminder of this unfair disease. What many people don't realize is that when your blood sugar gets very low (learn more here: Hypoglycemia, Low Blood Sugar) you don't have this flashing beacon over your head saying "Hey, I need help". Abby learned about a 17 yr old girl (with Type 1 diabetes) who was at a party where there was drinking. The girl was not drinking but others were and they were all underage. Well, this girl was stumbling around and slurring her speech and the other kids assumed she was drunk. She passed out but no one did anything about it because they just thought she was drunk and no one wanted to get caught for underage drinking. She died the next day. This is why these bracelets and education are so vitally important. So that leads me back to BEADS...
Yes we are now the owners of lots of them!! This is our new craft these days and Abby is quite good at this and we are learning more everyday. She has a little case of bracelets that she has made that simply clip onto her diabetes plaque. We were originally going to purchase them online but I was floored when I saw that people were charging $30 - $40 each for these! Really?? I can buy the supplies for about $3 and a plaque for about $6. They really don't take any time at all to make and now this is Abby's gift of choice to give. So when you see a BEAD think of it as more than just a pretty stone remember...BEADS...Being Educated About Diabetes Saves.
