Sending kids off with friends...

I was thinking today, as my Superhero is off spending the day with Kris and her Sugar Bugs, that sending a D kid off is SO much different than a non-D kiddo.

I know this is no shock to most of you, but let me explain what I am thinking.

If I were sending my non-D kid off with a friend, it would most likely be HER friend. A friend of HER choice.

On the other hand, with my D kid, I tend to choose MY friends for him to spend time with. These are not HIS choice, though he always has a blast with them. Sending him off with a friend of HIS choice would scare me to no end.

I am sure there there will be a day that he wants to choose who he hangs out with. 

Until then, I am SO thankful to have some friends that he loves too.


*Disclaimer: I am a mom of a T1 Diabetic child and a child with ITP/Asthma/Dysphagia. I am NOT a doctor. I just play one in real life. Please do not take anything in this post or any other post on this blog as medical advice. If you have questions or concerns of your own, please seek advice from your doctor.*

Vacation and The Princess Updates and Pictures

(Day 30 of NaBloPoMo)

I am finally taking some time to update you all on our trip! Enjoy!

• I first want to say THANKS for reading along this month as I posted every.single.day this month. It was easier in the beginning of the month, but, these last few days have been killer to get my post in!

• The Princess did great on the 2 flights to IN. She did not sleep much, just a little on the first flight. She was in a great mood the rest of the time!

• The Princess DID NOT sleep well while we were gone, AT ALL. She had psychotic melt downs where we could not get her to calm down long enough to listen to us. It was HORRIBLE. But, we survived.

• We enjoyed spending time with all of our family there. We went to attend my cousin's daughter's first birthday party. Little Miss L. was adorable for her party AND we got to be there for my cousin's marriage proposal from her boyfriend of almost 3 years. This made Little Miss L.'s 1st Bday that much more special.

• We got to meet up with Hallie and The Princess from The Princess and The Pump (she posted about it here). This was an AWESOME part of our trip! She picked up The Princess and myself to go to lunch. We went to Red Robin, let the Princesses play at the park, and we did a little window shopping. Then we headed back to my Aunt's house to hang out for a bit. You can read more about the visit on Hallie's blog, and see my pics from our time together, below.

• The Princess did great on our first flight on the trip home. She actually slept the whole 2 hours. THEN the second leg of the trip...UGH!...The plane was nice and had video monitors for every seat. I thought GREAT we can watch a movie and the flight time will go faster! NOT! I bought ($6) Toy Story 3 and then found out that our headset connection DID NOT WORK! So, The Princess watched with no sound for a while. Then she SCREAMED for about the last 45 minutes of the flight! It was horrible!

If you remember a few weeks ago The Princess was sick. She had an ear infection about 3 weeks ago. We followed up the next week and they thought it looked like the ears were clearing up fine. I MEANT to take her in again before our trip to double check, but figured they were looking better and she was ok. Boy was I wrong! I ended up taking her to the doc yesterday after she has had too many rough nights of sleep and has been cranky. EAR INFECTION in both ears, AGAIN! One ear looked so bad the doc said it was RED and bulging out! Lots of fluid.

Since The Princess seems to be getting LOTS of ear infections, we are being sent to see an ENT about tubes. I scheduled the appointment for next week. We put her on antibiotics AGAIN. She is becoming resistant to them since she does not have a lot of options due to her penicillin and cephalosporin allergies.

So, we will see the ENT on Wednesday and the GI doctor about my celiac suspicions on Thursday. I will update after both appointments.

And, THANK YOU all again for sticking out the first NaBloPoMo I have done! I am not sure I can do it again, though I am thinking of trying for November. We will see!

Enjoy the picture collages below from our trip!

The flight to IN.

 

Random.

Little Miss L. on her 1st Birthday.

Random.

Meet up with Hallie and The Princess.

Quick Trip Update

(Day 28 of NaBloPoMo)

***SIGH***

We are home. The full update will come after I get some sleep. We made it home late Monday afternoon and The Princess did well for 1 flight, and well, not so much on the other flight this round.

I will blog more later. I can't wait to find out what you have all been up to while I was away. I really missed the friends in my computer!

I am happy to report that meeting Hallie from The Princess and The Pump was just as amazing as I knew it would be. Our meeting deserves its own post which will be coming this week as well.

I have LOTS of pictures from our trip that I can't wait to share with you too!

For now, I am going to get ready for BED and am looking forward to getting some sleep. I have a LONG day out of the office Tuesday for work. Then I can get back to our "normal" routine, whatever that is!

Hugs and Love to you ALL!

Lean on Me

(Day 12 of NaBloPoMo)

So, I am a little behind the times. I just got my FIRST I-Pod for my birthday in May (thank you to my brother and sister-in-law). And I am just NOW downloading more songs for it since I will be taking a long plane trip to Indiana soon. (I wrote this yesterday, don't worry, I am not up at midnight writing blogs and downloading I-tunes, LOL!)

Anyway, I was looking up songs from Glee, one of my new favorite shows and came across this one. I don't know why exactly, but it made me start crying thinking of all of the other D Mama's out there and how we are always there for each other.

We can lean on each other and at one time or another one of us will always need that. And lately, I have definitely been leaning on all of you for support during my D-funk.

So, HUGS and LOVE to all of you...

If I had a "normal" child...

(Day 5 of NaBloPoMo)


I would not have to worry about dropping him off at school.

I would not have to worry about how EVERYTHING he eats is going to affect him.

I would not have to worry every time The Superhero goes swimming.

I would not have to worry if my baby will come home from school ALIVE.

I would not have to worry about him waking up every morning.

I would not have to worry about him running, jumping, playing, skipping, etc.

I would not have to worry every time he is crying, throwing a fit, or acting out.

I would not have to worry if he falls asleep in the car unexpectedly.

I would not have to worry if he says his tummy hurts.

I would not have to worry if he doesn't want to eat breakfast, lunch, dinner, or his snack.

I would not have to worry about leaving him with friends/family for a few hours or overnight.

I would not have to worry about anything other than what "normal" moms worry about.

BUT

I would not have met SO many WONDERFUL moms/dads. I would miss out on some of the BEST friendships I have EVER known in my life.

I would not have the INSTANT family. There are MANY D Moms I have NEVER met in real life, but we have such a strong connection and an instant bond to each other. It is really amazing.

One email/FB message, one Christmas card in the mail, or a phone call from a D Mom (thanks for the chat JoAnne!) can make you feel so connected. They all feel like friends I have known my entire life, yet it has only been a short time.


And the fact is, we do not live a "normal" life. I cannot go through one day, one hour, one minute without some sort of worry about what Diabetes is doing to my little man. The highs, the lows, the in between.


And while life in Italy would be awesome, I am really trying my hardest to enjoy my time in Holland.


(Disclaimer: This does NOT mean I REALLY want to come live in Italy, it is a metaphor people!)

Fun play date at the mall (mostly fun anyway)

Yesterday, we met up with Wendy and her girls at a local (sort of) mall that has a decent sized play area and a full size carousel.

Before Wendy got there, because I was EARLY, the kids and I went over to some ride on toys. I got out my 75 cents and was getting the kids in. Another kid got in before I could get The Princess in and I had to ask him to get out. It was only a 2 seater and both of my kids were GOING to ride since I was paying for it. He eventually got out and I started the ride for my kids. THEN the boy's mom came over and WENT OFF. She was so mad that I would talk to her kid "that way" and he was only "3 years old and we don't talk to him like that". Needless to say, I was not a happy mommy. I did nothing wrong. If it were my kid getting in the way of paying customers, I would be fine with another parent asking my kid to move. I was very polite to this kid so I don't know what she thinks I should have said. I am not sure exactly what I said back to her because it is all a blur now, but I did let her know that my son was 3 years old and I would definitely ask him to move if he were in the way! I was FUMING!

My kids had their ride and then we walked away! As fast as I could! :)

Then we met with Wendy. We all ate our lunch and then walked over to the play area.

Cute picture of The Superhero with all the girls...

The kids played. I kept an eye on The Superhero's Dexie, since he tends to drop while playing. With each check, he had decent numbers. I had to keep a close eye on the Princess as well because she kept escaping the play area. At one point I brought her over and she was eating a snack in my lap.

I looked up and saw The Superhero CRYING like never before, in the middle of the play area. I put The Princess down and closed her snack while my little boy ran over to me. He was inconsolable. His nose started bleeding. Checked Dexie and it said something in the 80's with double arrows DOWN. I do a quick finger check and he was 79! DOUBLE ARROWS DOWN. Mind you, he was in the low 200's not minutes before! He is in complete meltdown mode. He refused the juice I opened.Threw himself on the floor. I put the juice down for second, picked him up, and offered the juice again. He refused! I mentioned marshmallows and he gobbled them up. I am SO thankful Wendy was there with me, another parent who "gets it". I did not worry about weird looks from parents around me because she was there, I felt comfortable taking care of my screaming, sweating, melt down mode T1 Diabetic 3 year old boy!

Then another parent comes over and explains that The Superhero and another little girl were going in the tunnel in opposite directions and ended up hitting faces, her forehead and his NOSE. (not sure if this is what really happened or not, The Superhero was so upset he could not explain it to me) He was in so much pain. His nose was a little puffy at first, but once we got the bleeding to stop he was fine. He ate his marshmallows and was working on coming up.

All of this is happening at the SAME time that the mall security officer was telling us the play area was closing and we needed to leave. I waited a few minutes while The Superhero's BG was coming back up. Then we looked up and had to FIND The Princess. She had wandered off, again! Wendy asked the mall security officer what to do about a lost child since she could not find her. He had NO IDEA WHAT TO DO! Seriously? He told Wendy to "look harder". Really? That's it I guess, just look harder and find the 1 year old little girl amongst the chaos that came from kicking everyone out of the play area! Really? Wow!

Thank God she was found rather quickly after that. She was out the opening and following other families. I am so thankful I had Wendy there too, or I might have gone crazy!

We also had to deal with a kid who refused to share the "Nemo"' fish with Wendy's girls. His mom finally came over and got him off. Then the mom let him walk around the play area eating his pretzel. And we dealt with kids who would NOT move off of the ride on toys again. Wendy was trying to pay for her kids to ride the ice cream truck and had to force these other kids off!

All I can say is, I am SO glad our kids were SO well behaved and NOT like these other kids!

We went and had some gelato before riding the carousel. The Superhero picked his gelato based on color, of course it had to be green. So he had mint and little Maya picked based on color too, white, so she had Butter Pecan. Must be a 3 year old thing. The other kids picked. We ate. Then a group trip to the potty before the carousel and long drive home.

At the end of it all, we still had a GREAT time and will definitely make the trip across town again.Although, next time, I can do without crazy parents, mean kids, bloody noses, DROPPING blood sugar, missing children, and clueless mall security officers!

Seriously, THE BEST PARTY EVER!!!

I have been lucky enough to meet D mom Megann in the past when she visited AZ. She lives in Idaho but has family here in AZ. So, when she comes to visit, we like to plan some sort of get together.

This time around, we decided to include a few other D blogging moms. Donna was gracious enough to invite us all to her house and we had the BEST party EVER! And I am not joking! I have NEVER felt so comfortable to just let my kids play and run around.

I felt like everyone watched out for all the kids, not just their own. We all had small kids, so everyone REALLY GETS IT! It was AMAZING.


We started at Donna's house with playtime before dinner, then we ate dinner, more playing, we went to the park for some pictures, and OF COURSE, some dessert! Enjoy...

The whole group!

D- Moms, From Left to Right: Danielle, Tracy(me), Megann (with Libby), Donna, and Kris

Seriously, I think the kids (and adults) would have stayed FOREVER! We left there around 9pm. It was THE BEST gathering EVER. (in case you didn't get that already!)

I CANNOT wait to do it again! Thanks Donna (and Brian) for hosting! The Superhero keeps saying "I can't wait to play with my Diabesee friends again!"

Diabetes Blog Week - Day 3: My Biggest Supporters

Well, I am one of those lucky people who have multiple support people. I cannot pick just 1, so I will list my top 5. If you did not make this list, please don't be offended. If you are reading this, you are in some way a huge support to me. And even with the list of support people, there are times when I feel alone in all of this. When I feel that no one I know "gets it".

With that, here is my list...

1) My husband, The Daddy. He is amazing to say the least. Sure I do most of the adjusting and carb counting (most of the time), BUT he does almost ALL of the night checks. He figures I take the day shift so from the time The Superhero goes to bed until morning, The Daddy is on duty. Sometimes I will take the 2am check, but I usually end up making him get out of bed to check anyway. He checks the BG/Dexie and makes the decision on what needs to be done. Is The Superhero high? Low? Just right, needs monitoring?

The Daddy has also started taking over some/most of the site changes for the pump. I will admit I was getting a little lazy and as long as we were getting good numbers, I would not change the pump for 4, 5, even 6 days a few times. I knew this was not ok, I just could not make myself do it. I was in a Diabetes rut if you will. So now it is The Daddy’s job, unless one gets pulled out early (like yesterday).

He also is the one to stay in the hospital with The Superhero. He stayed with The Superhero when he was diagnosed and again when he was in the hospital in October and in February. I don’t know how I could do any of this without him. So, THANK YOU to my awesome hubby!

2) My younger brother, S.. When The Superhero was dx S. was at the hospital everyday. He learned how to check BG and even how to give a shot. Though he does not watch The Superhero much now, he is not afraid to give him insulin or check his BG. I would completely trust S. to take care of The Superhero.

And a side note…One night my mom and S. were watching the kids while I did a work event. The Superhero was in the middle of (we thought he was over) a stomach bug. He threw up while at my mom’s house and S. did not freak out. They dealt with it and moved on. I am very impressed with this!

3) My mom. Though she was very reluctant when The Superhero was first dx to do any of the D care, she has really turned around over the last 2 years (almost). Once we got Dexie she felt better about bolusing The Superhero with his pump meter because she was able to watch what was happening with his BG. She is a HUGE help when I need to take just The Princess somewhere or when I just need a BREAK from The Superhero.

My mom was also a HUGE help when The Superhero was diagnosed. I was pregnant with The Princess and NEEDED my sleep, but I also did not want to leave my baby in the PICU with just his Daddy (no offense to The Daddy). The Superhero wanted a “mommy” comfort (he liked the boobs for a pillow). So, my mom offered to stay those nights in the PICU with him. I would go home around 10pm and she would stay. I would come back at 6am or so and she would go home to sleep and then return in the late afternoon. I don’t know how we would have gotten through that week without her!

4) My Dad. Next to my husband, my dad is definitely the biggest support I could ask for. He was online on the Children with Diabetes site while we were still in the hospital and is still a poster on that site. He was at the hospital everyday with me. The Daddy and my mom would go home to sleep/shower/etc and my dad would stay with me. He took the crash course in Diabetes care right along with me. He has done everything he can to learn about Diabetes and how it affects The Superhero and the rest of us. He has learned how to care for The Superhero completely. He has gone to ALL (except one) Endo appointments with me. He was there for pump start. He was there for CGMS start. He can change a pump site when needed. I am sure he could figure out the CGMS if he needed to. He counts carbs, treats lows, gives insulin for highs, watches for extra activity, and does everything I would do if The Superhero were with me.

I feel SO comfortable leaving The Superhero with him. The Superhero has been able to spend the night with my parents many times since diagnosis and I don’t worry at all about his care. He gets up to do the night checks with no problem. When I have work meetings, my dad takes off work so he can watch The Superhero. (my mom could do it, but with both kids, they are CRAZY) I never have to worry about who is watching him. When he is in my parents’ care, I don’t even need to know what is going on. I know they can handle whatever Diabetes throws their way.

5) My D.O.C. friends…you know who you are. You all are THE BEST support I could ask for. Having so many other D- Moms (and dads) who really and truly “get it” is AMAZING. My life truly changed for the better when I “met” all of you. I love you all!

I have no idea how I would do any of this without all of these amazing people in my life. I hate diabetes, but I am so grateful for ALL of you!