Friday, September 22, 2006 at 3:49PM That's it! We are off on our first real family vacation EVER! I am so excited. If I can find a computer and have a moment I will post during the week but do not count on it! 
I am going to try my best to find these sweet Mickey ears! Even Mickey has bling? Wow, who knew?
Tuesday, September 19, 2006 at 10:22AM Week 3 and still going strong. No smoke for me!
Soccer started up again this weekend. Both kids did a great job and we saw little “O” playing her very first soccer game. She was having an awesome time and looked well. It was great to see her running around and having a blast. No one could tell that the “D” snuck into her life. It was a great day.
We are gearing up for our first ever “real” family vacation. We are leaving Friday night for an 8 day stay at Walt Disney World. My wife and I spent our honeymoon there many moons ago and now we get to return with the kiddos. We are very excited. We have taken many small weekend excursions but this is the first real vacation we have ever been on together. We are very excited. I can hardly sleep already and I still have several days to go before we get to trek all over Mouse land. It is going to be so much fun.
Other then that, things are pretty good. Master P has been behaving himself despite the lack of bling and my Diabetes has been pretty nice to me. Just sort of lurking in the background so hopefully that will continue through our trip. My sister turned me onto a great website about traveling to WDW with Diabetes. It was very interesting. You should check it out if you are ever heading down there.
If any of you have been to WDW and have any tips please let me know. I would love to hear from you.
Wednesday, September 13, 2006 at 9:52AM Last night we watched Sunday’s episode of D-Life (thank you TiVO) and once again it sparked an interesting conversation.
Near the end of the episode they were talking to PWD about if they tell people about the “D” or not. They also asked them if they wore ID bracelets and if that is a blessing or a curse. One guy was funny because he said all of the things I think about.
He basically said that he is not afraid or weirded out telling people that he is diabetic BUT it is annoying sometimes when you have to answer all these questions every single time.
“Does that mean you can’t ever have sugar?”
“Can’t you cure it from exercising?” – This one is my favorite. (I actually had someone say to me, “Well maybe if you drop some weight and exercise you can get off of those shots!” Yes he is still alive although I did want to hurt him.)
“Does it hurt to take shots?”
I feel like this a lot of the time. I know that I should take these opportunities to educate which I honestly do but sometimes, I do not want to be bothered. I feel bad because, it’s not their fault but some days I do not want to be an “educator” or at least not at that particular moment.
Anyhow, this conversation begins with a friend who was over and said, “Man, I guess I never thought of diabetes as a disease. Just something you have and that’s it.”
I told him, “Most people see it that way too. Sure you can manage it and live with it but it takes 24/7/365 management and it is exhausting at times.”
My wife says, “I talked to O’s mom yesterday and that is exactly what she is feeling. She is overwhelmed with meal planning, wondering how often to check her blood, and counting carbs. She looked so wiped out and little O is frustrated. She doesn’t understand that all this medicine and stuff she has to do will not make her better. You don’t get better you just live. She is too young to understand.”
That made my tear up.
My son George says, “It would be way easier for me then a young kid to handle that huh?”
I said, “Well, it would be easier on me and mom because a 12 year old could help with that all day management. But a young child will see that this is her daily life and not know what it was to not have diabetes. It was tough because I was diagnosed at 17. I was so used to eating whenever and doing whatever that it was a major shock to my routine or lack there of. Little O is only 4 so she will know what it was like before. She will only know and remember a life with diabetes.”
George got this strange look on his face and said, “That’s not what I meant. I meant that it would be easier for me because you have it and I have learned from you all about it. I think it would be easier for me since I am not scared of it.”
I do know what I would do if one of my kids developed diabetes. The thought twists my insides but to hear him say what he did kind of threw me. He has thought about possibly having to live with diabetes. He knows that there is a possibility that he may have a “D-Life” also someday. He wants to learn about it just in case. He is not afraid.
I am.
Monday, September 11, 2006 at 9:35AM It has been 2 weeks today that I added a new medicinal adhesive to my birthday suit. It has been 14 days since tobacco smoke has been wreaking havoc in my lungs. There have been 336 hours of clothes not smelling like an ashtray and 20,160 minutes ago I decided to take control of another aspect of my health.
Like an adolescent relationship I celebrate every anniversary however minute. As Kerri remembers her 20 years of life with D, I hope that I will have a 20 year anniversary of a smoke free life.
In other news, the little girl (let’s call her “O”) that I wrote about below is doing well. She spent most of last week in the hospital. Her doctor was watching her closely and trying to regulate her insulin doses as well as teach her parents how to administer injections. Her mom told my wife that a big challenge is getting O to eat. She is not a big eater so breakfast each day is a major challenge.
Her doctor told her that O was way too young to even be considered for a pump. I found that strange but I personally think that she should get down MDI first and then look at pumping. Sort of like learning to ride a motorcycle before learning how to ride a bike. The basic knowledge should be there first IMO.
In yet other news Master P did something very strange yesterday. I was in a Jack in the Box grabbing a quick bite and as soon as an alarm went off in the kitchen, Master P started yelling at me. Beep Boop Beep! I looked down at him and he said,
“Delivery Stopped. Change entire set. Check BG. See Troubleshooting in your Users Guide. Have a Nice Day SUCKA”
I looked at him and thought, “okay, that sucks.”
I pressed ESC + ACT to clear the alarm and then it said “RESUME?”
I pressed act and off P went delivering again.
WTF was that? I kept checking my BG for the next several hours and everything was fine. Was that a coincidence that when some alarm went off in the kitchen at JIB Master P started freaking out? I wonder if some radio wave or something set him off. It was really weird since after that little blip nothing really happened. All of my BG’s and boluses have been fine. Have any of you had an issue like that?
Thursday, September 7, 2006 at 10:12AM Last year I had the pleasure of acting as assistant coach for my daughter’s soccer team. The Ladybugs ended up coming in first place in there division which was an awesome start to my daughters soccer career. As assistant coach, it was so much fun to meet all these cool kids and get to see how my daughter interacts with them on a social level. She is just like me, a little social butterfly.
One of the other cool things about coaching is getting to meet a bunch of fellow parents. My wife and I became friends with one of the mom’s. Her daughter is actually one of my daughters best friends so that was nice finally meeting her. She has one older daughter around my son’s age and a younger daughter (who is adorable) who started Kindergarten this year.
On Monday (the day before our kids went back to school) my wife called the Mom to see if Gillian (my daughter) could walk home with her daughter and stay over at their house until my son got out of school and picked Gillian up to walk back to our house. The Mom was so nice and said, “of course she can come over. No problem at all!”
She continued, “You know my youngest daughter is supposed to start Kindergarten tomorrow. All last week she kept wetting the bed and I assumed she was nervous about starting at a ‘big’ school. Well, I decided to check her blood sugar last night (the mom is a borderline diabetic so she has a BG machine) just for the heck of it and it was over 300! I am taking her to the doctors in the morning.”
My wife hung up the phone and told me what happened. I was crushed.
I immediately called the Mom back and told her that if her or her husband had any questions, needed any help, or wanted me to talk with her daughter to please call me anytime.
It’s funny but she seemed way more together then I would have been but maybe that is because I have lived with this thing for almost 16 years. I told my son George and he said, “Oh my gosh Dad. Her life will never be the same huh?” Then I saw his eyes well up.
I couldn’t even answer him because that comment brought me to tears too. My 12 year old knows from what his old man goes through, and what he goes through because of me, just how life changing and difficult this D-life can be.
This little, sweet, funny girl who on the day she was to begin her academic career was stopped by a stupid disease. I hope I can help.
