My daughter Maeve says that Extreme Makeover: Home Edition should come to our house.
"I mean look at this place, "she said, kicking the baseboard.
"The heat doesn’t work good."
"There’s a hole in the wall."
(Editor’s note: For the record, the hole in the wall she’s referring to is from a picture frame and is no bigger than a pupil in a guppy’s eye.)
"And plus, we have a kid with diabetes!"
Susanne and I nearly choked on our breakfast.
"What? Extreme Makeover always goes to houses where kids like have diseases and stuff," she said with a crooked grin.
It is amazing how the Extreme Makeover team customizes these "smart homes" so that people with physical and mental disorders can live more comfortably. I remember one episode in which the builders designed a home with paints and flooring that resisted bacteria and a special air filtration system to allow a boy with a rare disease to breath cleaner air.
A far cry from the "House of the Future" I remember visiting in Coral Springs, Florida as a kid in the early 80s - a solar-powered ranch with lights that turned on when you entered the room. At the time, it was mind-blowing.
So, what if Maeve got her wish and Ty Pennington and his Extreme Makeover crew came to our house? How could they design a modern home for the modern diabetic?
Maybe a panel on the refrigerator which digitally displays Charlie's blood sugar when he places his hand upon it. Or air that circulates in his room that could detect the fruity scent of hyperglycemia while he sleeps, setting off an alarm on our bedroom.
What would your Diabetes House of the Future look like?
While having our D son's CGMS reading displayed like a wall clock in every room may be appealing, the fact is we as diabetics and parents of diabetics need to leave our homes for school/ work/ life so all it would do is make us D parents sleep better, or save us trips down the hall when our son isn't playing loud enough, or when he is making strange noises that are "funny" but sound way too much like a seizure to ignore. Unless Ty can teach my 5 yo son not to "pretend faint" just to get a rise out of his mom I think we would skip the remodel.