Sunday, September 30, 2012

At The Booth...

Bean and I spent three and a half hours helping at the American Diabetes Association booth at the Women's Show yesterday.

We brought along our pod magnets and our vials of HOPE to try to help raise some money for our Step Out Walk to Stop Diabetes team, The Bean Team.  (We are two weeks away from our walk.)


Bean spent the majority of her time handing out stickers...who can say 'no' to a cutie like her?!?!
I think maybe she should have been soliciting the donations because I only managed to get $76.  Yeah, it's better than nothing, but I was really hoping for significantly more.  Especially since I had spent hours getting 80 pods decorated.



I also think people would have been a bit more careful with what they said if she had been within earshot...or at least I would hope so.

Yeah, I've heard the stories from lots of other DOCers about doing bake sales and garage sales and all the off the wall comments they heard.  And I've heard my fair share of random, bizarre D comments from time to time.  But I think condensing them into a solid three and a half hour block was a bit more than I could handle.

I should be fair in saying that the ADA also supports those with T2, so some of the conversations were kinda appropriate, but still....

You can't tell me that your fabulous diet that has gotten you off of your Metformin (oral med for T2) will work wonders for my daughter and that any other diet is total sh*t. (yep, she really said that!)
You can't tell me that "I already have that (meaning D), so I don't need to donate"...so you want to KEEP your diabetes?!?!
I don't really want to hear about your relative that lost his legs because he didn't take care of himself.
I don't really want to hear that you don't really want a pod magnet or HOPE vial and so you aren't going to make a donation at all.

I DID enjoy meeting the lady that has had T1 since 1968 and is pumping and can remember when the first blood glucose meter came out right before she became pregnant and was able to go through her pregnancy with great success because of being able to test actual blood sugar levels.
I DID enjoy talking with the wife of a newly dx'd T2 who is doing great...A1c down from 12something to 6something.
I DID appreciate the family members of other T1s who 'got it' and thought it was totally cool to use insulin vials and pods to raise money for our team.

I also enjoyed talking about Bean's Omnipod.  There were lots of people (mostly those familiar with other pumps) who had never heard of pods and were really interested in finding out more.  It's always rewarding to feel like you are helping make another T1's life a bit easier...and if that includes using Omnipod, then so be it!

Bean was a trooper.  Not sure exactly why, but she spiked into the low 400s right as we got there and we spent the whole time trying to get her down.  Thankfully it was totally OK for her to be bouncing around and being silly while handing out the stickers!!  By the time our time was over, she was back in the mid 100s, so we enjoyed some fries and she got her face painted as a reward for surviving the three and a half hours!

yep, she's rocking her Apridra cap earrings!


Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Wordless Wednesday ~ Spelling Homework Hell

it many sound like a fun activity...cut out letters from a magazine
and use them to make your spelling words...but let me assure you,
it is NOT FUN!

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Gettin' Our Art On

September 24, 2012 is Diabetes Art Day.

Since it falls on a Monday, and I happen to be subbing and Bean will (obviously) be at school and afternoons/evenings are a crazy blur of homework, dinner, and bedtime avoidance, we decided to do our Diabetes Art today.  Much more relaxed and enjoyable!!

I have been saving random D things since Children with Diabetes FFL.  We had such a fun time doing D Art there and totally wanted to be prepared with supplies for future projects!  Thank you Lee Ann Thill!!

We set out the strips, syringe caps, pod parts, lancet barrels, insulin vials and caps, etc.  Added in some paint, glue, ribbon, and paper, and off we went.



Here are Bug's Works of Art:

paint, test strips

paint, test strips, ketone strips, syringe caps (regular and 'pod filling')


Here are Bean's Works of Art:

paint, lancet barrels, syringe caps

paint, syringe caps (regular and 'pop filling')

paint, paint pen, test strips, 
syringe caps (regular and 'pop filling'), pod caps


Here are my Works of Art:

paint, paint pen, test strips, pod caps

paint
Bean's hand is on the right, Bug's is on the left.



We are going to be manning the ADA booth for a few hours on Saturday for the Women's Fair.  We will be taking donations for our Step Out to STOP Diabetes walk team.  I have been working on some ideas for 'take aways' for those who donate, so since we were gettin' our art on today, I made some examples to see how they would work.

pod: paint, ribbon and paper; it's a magnet
insulin vial: HOPE written in paint pen; it's a bud vase
earrings: Apidra caps; these are mine! :)  made some for Bean, too

Thursday, September 13, 2012

12 of 12, September

Boo Ya!  Another month of 12 of 12...this setting a reminder on my phone is working pretty well! :)



Breakfast time!  Yep, nutella!  The BG spike isn't any different
than when Bean eats just yogurt, so why not have a yummy
'treat' to start the day some days?!?
Oh, and the empty boxes are to remind me to pick up refills today!

Lunch prep.  Today's lunch, which is pretty much every day's lunch,
is an almond butter sandwich (no crusts...used to be because she didn't
like the crusts, now it's so it fits into the container!!), apple sauce, and
organic milk.  47g carbs, on a little note that will go inside her PDM bag.


This crazy girl!  She's into the 'my life's a musical' phase where
she sings most of what she says.  She's also obsessed with making
'money' ~ paper with scribbles ~ to use in a variety of games.
I just need a smidge of her energy...please!!


Oh, goodie, time to unload and load the dishes!
major sarcasm, in case you missed it!


It's a chilly, rainy day.  Those clouds are covering up the mountains,
which are getting snow instead of rain.  We usually have snow on 
the ground mid-October...hoping it will take a bit longer this year!


Nothing like a 20oz-skinny-decaf-4 pump vanilla- latte to make 
it through the school pick up line!


Perfectly timed hot cocoa...Bean felt low, and tested in the 50s
as soon as she got in the car after school.
When I took this picture she said, "Wordless Wednesday?"
Crazy how she didn't really even know or care too much about my
blog several months ago, and now she's wondering about posts!
I told her it wasn't for Wordless Wednesday, but for 12 of 12.
I explained what that was since she had quite the puzzled look on her face,
and she thought it was a really cool idea.  Me, too! :)


Oh, yeah, refill day!!!  We had our FNP increase the number of
times Bean tests a day since she is testing much more now that she's
in school.  Now we have enough to cover 15 times a day, which is great
since there are days she tests that many times!  Nice to not have to worry
about doing a BG test because of the number of strips we have!
So silly to me that they did 9 boxes of 50 instead of doing 4 boxes of 100
and one box of 50...time to make room in the supply bin!!


Just your normal dinner prep, right?!?!


We read the first Harry Potter book over the summer...had to 
read the book before she could watch the movie.  She had been
talking about several of her classmates reading (or being read) the
series and wanted to see if she'd like them.  We started the second book
last week and it's fun to see her excited about reading time.
Now I just need to get her excited about reading time when it's HER
turn to read instead of listening to me!!


OK, so the hot cocoa overdid it a bit with bringing up that low, and
the pasta didn't really help matters, and then I over corrected. UGH!


Time to bring out the BIG juice box!  
And can I just say that the hippo is even cuter than the snail?!?!
I picked up the larger size the other day because Bean had had a low that
took a juice box (15g carb size) and an apple sauce to come up.
We wondered if maybe a larger amount of juice (this size is 24g carb) would
have been a better choice.  So, we tried it out with her 70, arrow slanted
down and it did great.  Sure, I ended up having to do a temp basal as well
to keep her nice a steady through the night, but whateves!


Monday, September 10, 2012

Progress

Bean is into week four of school.  

Today, she didn't go below 72!!  WooHoo!!

It's not quite there, though, because that 72 was a hour-ish after lunch.  Yeah, shouldn't be low after eating.

I've been tweaking basals mostly, to keep her from crashing.  The first two weeks were a series of 50s and a couple of 40s, both in the morning and in the afternoon. Fun times!

Seems like I've got the morning just about set. (yep, I'm prepared for a terrible morning tomorrow now that I've said that!!)  I've decreased her basal and I'm not setting her temp basal (a big increase as soon as she eats breakfast to ward off the massive spike) for as long.  So far, so OK.

The trick now is to try to get the afternoon whipped into shape.  Because the dip has been within an hour or two after lunch, I'm trying a new insulin to carb ratio for her lunch starting tomorrow.  We'll see what the next three days bring.


I am constantly impressed by how on top of D-things Bean is.  She is 'in charge' of her D-care for the majority of the time at school.  There is a less than half time nurse for her school...and this is an increase in hours from last year.  She's great and makes sure Bean is doing what she should be on the days she's there.  
Plus, Bean's 8.  She forgets things sometimes.  She'll ignore Wilma (her Dexcom CGM) and end up having to treat a 50-something instead of a 70-something.  But we're working on paying better attention to those buzzes and beeps, and it seems like she's doing better since the 60s and 50s are happening less.

I've already had to replenish juice boxes, squeezey apple sauces, and sugar shots and will be doing so again tomorrow...oh, and granola bars, gotta remember that since that's not usually on my supply list of needing to be replaced; Bean told me about that today. :)

We are planning to go in this week to give our little "this is Diabetes" talk to Bean's class.  It's a bit later than usual, but things have been a bit crazy at the school and most of the kids in her class are 'repeats' and kinda know the deal already. :)  Which is great because it makes things more comfortable for Bean and I don't have to stress about her getting tons of questions and stares and comments.

All in all, third grade seems to be off to a good start.  Now if we can just get her to stop speaking English during the German part of her day and figure out how to best work in homework with afternoon/evening BGs!!

Two steps forward, three steps back...or at least it seems like it sometimes!  But, thankfully we're making pretty good forward progress and are trying hard to keep moving forward!!

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Remembering Ryan


Honoring the life of an amazing man, husband, father.

Holding up his family in prayer.

Meri ~ you are an amazing woman and I am humbled to know you.

May you find smiles through your tears as you set aside this day to memorialize Ryan.

May God's arms hold you, comfort you, and strengthen you.


Know you are loved and supported; from near and far, for days, weeks, and years to come!



Do what you can, if you can, to help support the Schuhmachers.



Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Wordless Wednesday ~ Because Of The Wind

...school was cancelled today because of a massive wind storm last night...think hurricane force winds...and lots of power outages around town.

doing homework in the middle of the day

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Step Out Walk to STOP Diabetes, 2012, Baby!



Our local Step Out Walk is on October 14th.  This is our annual fundraising event to help support the ADA and their efforts to support those with Diabetes and help fund research to find a CURE!

I know that most, if not all, of my friends/family/readers have their own walks they support, so I'm not soliciting donations from my fellow D-peeps.  However, if you would like to contribute to The Bean Team, we would be honored.  Any amount, no matter the amount, is appreciated and goes into the 'bigger pot' to do what we all want done...FIND A CURE!

This year, I put a video together.  It's just under 4 minutes, so it won't take too long to watch.

fyi, because I used Katy Perry's Firework, YouTube has banned the video in Germany.  If you are in Germany and would like to see the video, send me an email or leave a comment with your info and I'll get you a different link!


If you'd like to donate, or want to virtually join our team and walk where ever you are, go HERE.