Pod Hockey

I was the sister of two hockey-playing brothers.  A rink rat.  I spent a lot of time at ice rinks and learned quite well how to amuse myself while there.

This little dude loves to run around the rink while sister practices.  He also loves to grab a stick and stick-handle whatever he can find.

One practice, he couldn't find anything, so I looked through my purse until I found a lone discarded pod at the bottom.  I give you...

... The Omni-puck.

Missed Diabetes Connections

Have you ever read the "Missed Connections" section in a newspaper?  They fascinate me.  I often wonder; do they work? Has anybody ever read one and realized it was them?  And what would compel a person to write one in the first place?

If you've never read one, it goes a little something like this:

You Unicycled your way into my heart...

Me: Sitting on the patio of the Starbucks at Main and Other Generic Street Name on a sunny Friday afternoon.  I was wearing a pink tu-tu and a hand-made non-GMO, free-range hemp sweater.  In my hand was a venti-half-frap-quarter-whip-mochaespressochino.

You: High upon your one-wheeled, eco-friendly mode of transportation, you sported a top hat rather ironically.  Your suspenders and bow tie completed the look.  Your blue hair was electric!

Wanna ride a bicycle built for two sometime?

Get the picture?

It was when I was reading this article that I thought, "someone should write a diabetes version."

Then, "I should write a diabetes version!"

So without further ado... Missed Diabetes Connections for Jerks.

You were the older lady behind me in line at Fill in the Blank grocery store last Tuesday.  When you saw me looking at my daughter's CGM you asked with total seriousness if that was a Lo-Jack for kids.  You make me laugh. We should get coffee so you can make me laugh some more.

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You: TSA guy at Major Hub Airport.  Bad disposition.  Inflated sense of self-importance.  Ill-fitting uniform to go along with your hairpiece.  Made my daughter cry because you had no idea what the guidelines are for travelling with a child who has diabetes.
Me: Angry Mom who you separated from the rest of her family who was desperately trying to console said crying child. My red hair matches my temperament.  I can't wait to go through your line again!

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We talked briefly in line at Big Happy Fun Waterpark.  You wore a garish bikini that made me wish for my sunglasses.  You told your child that my daughter got diabetes from eating too much sugar.  Want to meet again so I can give you a super-atomic wedgie before pushing you down a waterslide?

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It was a beautiful sunny day... I was one of the hundreds of people walking at Suburban Park during the diabetes walk.  You were the angry biddy riding her bike through the throng of people, yelling at them for being in the way.  I hope I see you again so I can tell you to chill out while I ram a stick through your spokes.

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A missed connection Haiku...

Mommy and Me group
You asked, "is it the bad kind?"
My brain exploded

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I was sitting behind you at The Yummy Baked Goods Place.  You and your friend were discussing the signs advertising the campaign in which Yummy Baked Goods Place would donate $1 of each cupcake sale to Well-Known Diabetes Foundation.  You proclaimed with a sneer, "Nice!  They cause their own disease and want you to fund their cure!"  I just thought you should know I've never wanted to punch someone more than at that moment.

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You and your family ate next to us at Popular Children's Fast Food Restaurant.  As I checked my child's blood sugar, your look of interest turned to disgust when you saw the blood.  Just thought you should know I was just trying to keep my kids alive.


***Yes, I have experienced all of the above exchanges, although some non-important details have been changed.  Since all of the above is pretty negative, I thought I would leave you with one very sweet story...

You were the older couple who kept glancing over at my husband and I as we ate dinner with our daughter at XYZ Family Restaurant. At the end of the meal, you (the husband) approached us and asked if our baby had type 1 diabetes.  You then proceeded to bring tears to my eyes as you told us we were doing a good job and you could tell we were wonderful parents.  You closed with, "She is going to be just fine".  I just wanted to let you know that I have never experienced such kindness at the hands of a stranger.  Thank you. 

Out of the mouths of babes. And #dblogcheck day

Today is #dblogcheck day.  I've not been so good about keeping up with my favourite bloggers and their blogs, but I figure I can ignore my three littles for a bit (it's spring break), and see what's happening in the best Online Community there is.

Here's my contribution.  If you stop by, please leave a comment so I know you were here.  Happy #dblogcheck day everyone!

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A Mattias-ism just too good not to share:

I had made some chocolate chip cookies for the kids the other day, and today at lunch, as Mattias was picking out his cookie for dessert he asked me, "Mom, does this cookie have poison in it?"

Bahahahahaha!  Someone has been paying attention!

This boy is all sorts of awesome

You know you have D on the brain when...

My grocery list... can you spot it?

She who laughs last...

DBlog Week Day 2 - One Great Thing


I love to laugh.  And make people laugh.  In fact, one of the greatest compliments you could give me is to tell me I make you laugh or you think I'm funny (NOT funny-looking - it's important to note the difference).

I'd like to think I do a good job of infusing humour into this diabetic life of ours.  Yes, diabetes sucks, but it will not steal our joy or ability to enjoy a good chuckle or two.  A lot of it I have chronicled on this blog:

My what not to say video.

Awarding myself medals for diabetes-greatness.

Giving you a glimpse into my inner craziness.

Sometimes it has nothing to do with diabetes.

Even finding laughter after what was a very frightening experience.

It think that it's important that Elise grows up seeing that although I take diabetes very seriously, we can still laugh at it's expense.

How you can tell you are the parent of a type 1 diabetic - Part 2

These are the type of posts I write at 3 am, when I have yet to fall asleep after a night of fighting sucktastic BGs. I get kind of manic when I don't sleep...

-When a friend offers your child sugar-free candy, you are conflicted about whether you should be thankful they're trying (in their own misguided way) to get it, or if you should kick their ass for not getting it at all.

-While measuring you non-d kid's antibiotics into a syringe, you first try to put air into the bottle.

-You know that ketones are not a musical group from the 60s.

-When you see another d-person in the wild, you act like a dog does when they see another dog; beside yourself with excitement all the while fighting the urge to sniff their butt. What... is that just me?

-You get very excited when diabetes is mentioned in the news or on a TV show. You immediately run to your computer and blog/twittter (tweet?)/facebook about it. You make a mental note to talk about it at your next d get-together, and years after it happened, you will still talk to your d friends about it.

-When a friend casually mentions their child has been drinking a lot of water lately, you have to fight the urge to whip out your child's meter and test your friend's kids on the spot.

-You know that the Islets of Langerhans is not a tropical resort destination.

How you can tell you are the parent of a type 1 diabetic

-You ask your child "are you high?" on a daily basis (yeah... an oldie, but a goodie).

-You just smile when a friend tells you they are so tired because their daughter woke them up once the night before. You're smiling because you're envisioning yourself calling them at midnight, 2 am, and 5 am (or, your nightly BG check times) every night for the next decade or so.

-You have ever tested a BG/fed sugar/given a shot to one child while nursing your other child.

-You carry smarties in your sock.

-You find test strips on the road in front of your house and it makes you smile because it's like you have your own personal calling card.

-You know the carb factor of an apple. And peanut butter. And pretty much any brand of vanilla ice cream. Heck, you're such a rock star, you know the carb factor of lemon meringue pie.

-Mac n cheese scares you.

-You're proud of yourself for being able to cut and weigh 10g of banana on the scale on your first try.

-The first thing you look at when thinking of buying a new food product is how many carbs are in it.

-You cannot wait until someone gives you a dirty look for giving your child a shot in public. Because there are 3 1/2 years of sleepless nights, stress, anxiety, and tears all waiting to be let loose on some poor soul who happens to make the mistake of judging you.

-You've checked your own BG during a gestational diabetes test.

-You find hidden packages of smarties throughout your house, like your very own easter egg hunt.

-You've given your child a shot at a red light.

-At a red light, you are able to pull off your child's shoe and sock, clean their toe, do a BG check and get their sock and shoe back on before the light turns green.

-When your child runs to you crying and bleeding, instead of comforting them, you grab their meter so you can test their BG.

-You've ever wanted to kick an internal organ's ass.

-The sentence, "in your endo" makes you want to laugh. Because you are 12 like that.

Tru dat

Last Saturday (a week ago) was one of our worst days on the pump yet. We went to an Omnipod party and Elise's BGs were inexplicably in the 500s all afternoon. No amount of correcting would bring her down. We changed her pod twice that day and had to give her a shot to correct her.

It was one of the worst diabetes days in a long, long time. We got home late that night, and put the kids to bed. It dawned on me that amidst dealing with all the BG craziness, I never even ate dinner. Fred, being the awesome husband he is, went out to get me some chinese food.

I sat down for what seemed like the first time all day, cried, and then ate my food. At the end of my meal, I cracked open my fortune cookie and was greeted by this decree of discernment:


Apparently, the cookie is trying to tell me something.

In need of a laugh?

In case you're wondering, she gets her moves from me.

What not to say... the video

I couldn't resist. When I saw a similar video about things people say to the parents of multiples, I thought, "Somebody totally needs to do one for diabetes."

Then I thought, "I should totally do one for diabetes." So I did. First, I re-read the very funny post by Kelly Kunik, and the hilarious comments and incorporated some of them into the video.

I wish I had more time to make it better, but this finished product took me almost 8 hours to make; not 8 straight hours mind you, but 8 hours of me doing 5 minutes here and 5 minutes there.

So enjoy. Sorry Reyna, that I didn't incorporate any bad - er - colourful language into it. Little ears were listening. I was even admonished for using the word "stupidity".





For those of you who cannot see it on my blog, click here for the YouTube link.

Bet you've never heard THIS one before

Fred and I have a tradition for our anniversary. We always go to this uber chi-chi restaurant in the uber chi-chi part of town for lunch on the day of our actual anniversary (Fred takes the day off if it falls on a weekday). Elise, of course, comes with us.

Today I really, REALLY wanted this flourless chocolate cake they had on the menu for dessert, and we decided to ask our server if they had any nutritional information on it (so Elise could have some too). We told her we were looking for a carb count.

The first thing that had Fred and I rolling our eyes and giggling was when the server came back and informed us that each serving had 800. We grinned at each other, knowing the server was confusing carbs with calories, and restated our question.

Next came the manager, who very politely told us that they had no less than three chefs trying to work out the information we were looking for. I think she came back two more times, wringing her hands and asking us questions. The last time she came out, she started asking us questions about the nature of Type 1 Diabetes.

Somewhere along the explanation, we got to the part about counting carbs and how it's important to know carb amounts because of what too many or too few carbs can do to Elise's blood sugar.

At this point she says, "I need to tell you that if we can't get the correct carb amount, we cannot be held liable for what it could do to your daughter's blood sugar."

It was all I could do to keep from howling with laughter. I looked at Fred and tried not to laugh. We assured her that we would not be suing if Elise's BG went too high, and we appreciated their efforts in getting us the information.

It STILL makes me giggle. I think we may be onto something here, people...

BTW, we totally WAG'd the carb amount for the cake and Elise's BG came in at 116 two hours later. Nice.

I guess we won't be suing after all.

Elise showing off her skills

After a blah day, this scene made me smile. Elise took her meter, lancet, and a cotton ball and was checking her pumpkin's BG before dinner.

It's a small D world

Elise and I were shopping at Target today (me, at Target? Nooooo), and I was scoping out the Valentine's clearance. Because let's face it, if there's one thing I don't eat enough of, it's chocolate. For some reason I get into a conversation with another customer about sugar-free candy. She tells me that she's a diabetic. And for some reason I feel compelled to tell her about Elise.

Another lady, further down the aisle overhears and comes over to talk to me. The way she starts asking questions, it's obvious that she's familiar with Diabetes. It turns out she used to be a sales rep for Lantus (a type of insulin). She asks if I've gotten in touch with JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation). I told her that we haven't, mostly because they don't see a lot of kids Elise's age with Diabetes and I didn't find much experience or help from them.

She proceeds to tell me about this adorable little girl that she saw at a diabetes function back in October. She thought she was about 18 months old and had diabetes. I start grinning and ask her if the function was in Plano. She replied yes. I start to laugh and tell her that it WAS Elise that she saw! We both had a good chuckle over that.

I told her about Team Elise, and she was said that she still tries to be involved with the JDRF and said that if she's not walking for another team, she'd love to be a part of Team Elise for the upcoming Walk for a Cure. How cool is that?

It was just a huge blessing to me to meet someone who doesn't even know Elise, but was obviously touched by her. It is my hope that Elise's story will continue to affect people and raise awareness about Diabetes. What an amazing little girl my daughter is!