Friday, July 1, 2011

Things Diabetes has taught me this month... June edition

First of all... Happy Canada Day! Today, Canada is 144 years old. Happy Birthday Canada, you don't look a day over 120.

And now, onto "things Diabetes taught me". I thought for this months post it would be very apropos to devote it to all things travel/Portugal.

-Travel and D do not play together well. I touched on it briefly in this post, but that doesn't even begin to describe how hard it was. I now have a whole new appreciation for Nat Strand (of Amazing Race fame).

-Even though travelling with D is hard, it IS worth every hardship you will endure. Watching your child explore the ruins of a castle from the 1100s. Listening to them chatter away in Portuguese with their cousins. Experiencing things with them that you don't have back home; like sandy beaches, the ocean, rolling hills covered with eucalyptus trees and the wonderful tastiness that is a Portuguese pastry.

-Meringues don't do anything to Elise's BG. At least the three times she had one, they didn't. Unless the meringue was just helping to hold her steady. Who knows?

-It is impossible to SWAG when you don't have any idea what your child is eating. At one pastry shop, we asked what the pastry was that Elise had picked and they said something like "caramel ball covered in chocolate". Oy. Whatever, I called it 30g and she was in sugary heaven.

-For Elise, a day at the beach means she can pretty much eat what she wants. Why don't we live closer to the water???

-Portuguese people are some of the most generous you will ever meet. Have you read this post, or this post about the Team Elise walk in Portugal? No? You should. Then you will understand.

-Not all airports are created equal. We flew out of DFW and through Madrid with no problems, but when it came to leaving through the Lisbon airport, they would not let us through security with the syringes. We had our doc's note (but forgot to show them - not that it would have made a difference since it was in english). Fred had to go somewhere in the airport to get a special letter to clear security. It's good thing I don't speak Portuguese well enough to tell them exactly what I thought of them. How do you say "nutsack" in Portuguese, anyway?

-If I could do it all again, I would try to relax and not stress over the numbers. It was 12 days (we were there for 17, but towards the end we started to get the hang of it) of yo-yo-ing BGs. So what? Will she remember that, or all the fun she had?

Yeah, I'm going to go with the fun, too.

Having fun and battling lows at the Castle of the Moors

To see more pictures of our trip, click on any of the links below:

Recap
Sintra
Gunicho

Hopefully I'll have some time to post more pics soon.

9 comments:

  1. Sounds like a fantastic time Jo. "nutsack"...? I dunno. But I do know how to say "penis" in Portuguese. :)

    So glad that you guys were able to go and that it was a fun time...despite "D" in the mix.

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  2. Oh goodness when in the world will we as diabetics be able to go through and airport without a problem ? I think all of us should go on Dr. Phil and have a bitch fest with the head of the TSA . Excuse my french . Im just tired of the crap we go through at airports !!!!

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  3. Oh, what an amazing trip that must have been! Love the picture at the end. You all look so beautiful and that pose of Elise's...so cute!

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  4. So glad to hear how much fun you had on your trip! The memories Elise will always have makes it all worth it for sure. Good job SWAGing....I find sometimes it works just as well (sometimes better) as all the time I spend measuring, weighing, counting, etc.

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  5. Glad you had a great time. I have been hearing lots of horror stories about airports lately... making me kinds scared to travel with Justin :/

    Google wouldn't tell me how to say nutsack in Portuguese, but did you know There are actually people getting rich by cutting of said nutsacks & selling them for lucky charms??? Apparentlym this is true... I dunno. The thinkgs you never wanted to learn on Google.

    Hey, that might make for a good post :)

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  6. I'm with phonelady, there are enough pwds in the world that it shouldn't be that much of a shock to see a syringe in the airport. Sheesh. Oh, and I know it was rhetorical but I got a kick out of this: went to an online translator and typed in nutsack. The Portuguese translation was........nutsack! I guess a nutsack is a nutsack in any language. :) Glad you had fun on your trip.

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  7. I'm sure she will remember all the FUN! Traveling with D is tricky, but doable. I haven't had any trouble so far at the airport, but it seems to be more of a problem lately for people--so frustrating!

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  8. Nutsack. Heehee. I heart you.

    We had to travel home granted not international, a week after Js dx..since he was dxed on vacation. That shit is rough!

    Love the pic. And id like a chocolate ball please.

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