Diabetes at Halloween

Halloween baby, it's all about the candy, right? That and trick or treating and of course, the annual hospital 'Diabetes Candy Exchange' for Type 1 kiddos. We did it all. With some bumps in the road of course, cause you need a few bumps in the road to keep it interesting, right? Right.

Grace has an annual Halloween parade around her school, culminating in a classroom party. Of course I had to go, this is her last year of Elementary school! Her last parade. Bittersweet? Nah, it's all good. After about 13 years of this parades and continuous kids through this school and parades, I am done. Toasted. Cooked. Been there and done that for a looooong time. All good things must end, and the memories are great, but if I never attend another Halloween parade and classroom party until I have grandbabies, it will be alright.

Grace was a candy corn gal. Which I found extremely funny.

Long parade. 600 kids. It's endless.
Yeah, there's Grace!

Then back to the classroom party. There was a lot of food. Yes, some of it's healthy, and some of it is not. You know what? I have completely surrendered the battle. Honestly. I started to battle the foods at Elementary parties two years ago, and it went nowhere. I will let others who come behind me take on the cause. It is what it is, and we bolus the heck out of it.

Oh, but what's that? The shriek of an alarming pod as she is line to get her food at the party? Of course it is! Right there in the line - EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKK! And Grace uses her hands to cover her Pod on her tummy, to quiet the sound. So, thank goodness I was there and she didn't have to call the nurse down to help her change it, which would have been 10-15 minutes, as opposed to our Mommy-Grace change rate of about 3 minutes, tops. We can get a Pod off and a new one on in record time. There should be an Olympic medal event for it. We would totally take bronze or silver.

The remnants of the Pod change. Encased in plastic, to take home.
3 minutes, tops. Rock on.

Halloween night. Trick or treating with the neighbors. We all go around in a group with all our girls. Fun times. Bolus on the run. That's me, shooting a .80 bolus for a piece of candy she ate while walking. 

A scary bunch.

Juggling a flashlight, D kit, PDM and a candy bag.
I win!

Last but not least, the Diabetes Candy Exchange, run by our local hospital. Its an annual event where they invite all the Type 1 kiddos to come and drop off any unwanted candy, and get prizes instead. They create cute gift bags for each kid, have food and games, face painting, music, Zoo on Wheels and raflles. You can read about our other years of attending here in 2010 and here in 2011.

Lo and behold, who was there? My Twitter and Facebook friend, Jen, with her daughter Grace. This was the first time we met in real life and it was fabulous. Jen also blogs over at Grace's Courage, check her out. A good time was had by all, and we even had a little D-Mama meetup too!

Bins full of candy that kids turned in.
Yes, Grace did reach in later when she had a low and snatched a Hershey bar.
The nutritionist looked at us funny.
Hey honey, this is real life with D, quit looking!

The Phillie Phanatic came too! He was a hit.

OK, they serve pizza! Every parent says 'UGH' when they see it.
There is a nutritionist right there and every year, PIZZA!
At least this year they had some salad, veggies and chicken fingers too.
45g a slice, with a 40/60 bolus split and extend bolus for 3 hours.
3 hours later - 108.
I won.

And that, my cyber friends, is our latest Halloween update. 

I'm tired.