@Eric’s impact on our lives has been so significant in the past year. I feel the need to express publicly what I think about him!
You all know how difficult a moment it is to see your child diagnosed with this disease. It touched us hard, as it has all of you. That first weekend, when Mary Pat and I were still groping for what to do, there was only one thing we could think of to direct us in the months to come – we wanted our son’s life to be unlimited by his disease. We decided that, whatever came through, we would always make decisions inspired by this principle – UNLIMITED.
It’s easier to say than to do, of course. The next few months were difficult to us. We wanted him unlimited, AND, at the same time, physically undiminished by the disease and its possible complications. Our endo clinic quickly lost its expert status in our eyes. A few months after my son’s diagnosis, we found @Eric.
Since that time, @Eric has become a part of our family.
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@Eric is my son’s greatest inspiration in diabetes: @Eric is truly UNLIMITED, and feels UNLIMITED. Seeing @Eric behave and talk about it has given my son the true perspective that it is how he can live his life.
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My son is much into sports, and probably spends 12-15 hours per week or more doing some dedicated sports activity. Seeing @Eric do what he does as a marathoner has been another source of inspiration to him, in the world of sports. It has removed, in his eyes, any sense of excuse or crutch that diabetes may ever be for lack of performance in sports. There are few things that my son wants more than going to attend one of @Eric’s marathons. We’ll do that yet!
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@Eric’s deep understanding of what underlies the physiology of diabetes is almost an everyday source of information: “Eric, why do you think xxx? How would you deal with xxx?” Practically daily texts going from my phone to his and back.
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@Eric’s sense of self-reliance and experimentation is key to why he is the person he is. He is the person in charge of his own diabetes, and he experiments on it like a scientific experiment, a philosophy that has now penetrated my son. Here is an example of how this impacts my son: he has a puberty peak this morning at school. I text him that I feel his correction was too little. He answers that it is an experiment: “we’ll see.” This is straight from @Eric. I love seeing my son ready to experiment and find the right answer for himself – possibly a different one every day
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@Eric’s extraordinary readiness to help others has been a source of reassurance to us that I cannot describe. He and my son have never met – yet @Eric is mentioned at our table every day. He has, numerous times, gone so far above and beyond the simple sense of helping a fellow diabetic that I find it difficult to even express my sense of gratitude to him.
I know he has been to many what he is to my son and my family. Thank you so much, from the bottom of my heart, @Eric!
