Thirty five

35
Yep, 35.
That's the low my gal just encountered, while getting out of our pool.
Cruised into dinner at a beautiful 107. Ate like a champ. Even dosed for a treat of 2 cookies after dinner.
45 minutes later, in the pool after dinner, she says she is shaky and her tummy hurts.

Crank that meter up, expecting a 50, a 60.
35
Thirty five.
Crying, looking confused, weepy, semi-incoherent 35.

One juice box and two glucose tabs and 15 minutes later
91.

"Mommy, is that the 35 making me forget my words? I forgot I was trying to say 'pool'."

35 - you can go suck it.

JDRF Jamboree of Carbs!

Our hospital hosted it's '2nd Annual Jamboree' for kids with Type 1. We didn't attend last year cause we didn't know about it. Oh well. This year we did and it was well, interesting.

The usual booths with lots to give away and pump people talking at you. Sometimes I feel like it's one big sell-a-thon of pumps. And of booklets detailing carb counting. And booklets of taking care of your diabetes. And spinny dials of carb counts. And pens. And smooshie rubber balls that I suppose are to relieve stress? I'm not sure what they are for, I just wish they would stop making them and trying to give them to me. Oh and yes, free pouches and holders and bags. I don't know about your T1 family, but here we have had our fill of backpacks, bags and pouches. I need no more.

And there was fun stuff for the kiddos to do. Moonbounces. Moonslides. Basketball hoops. Arts and crafts. Face painting. Contests by the DJ. A little train that went round and round the loop of parking lot. Fun times for the kids.

Thats Lenny, with the Minimed pump. He rocked. Every little kids loved that he had a pump!

Oh and the LifeFlight helicopter came to the hospital to deliver someone. I said a little prayer that they are ok. It was sobering to see it.

Oh and then they served lunch. I thought, well, this should be interesting. Lots of T1 kids - what have the nutritionists on staff at the hospital come up with for them to eat? At the beginning of the tables I was hopeful. I saw baskets of bananas and apples for the kids, along with bottled water. Yeah! Each food had a sign in front of it with the carb count. They were right about the apples and the bananas, giving them a 15g and a 17g carb count, respectively.

Then came lunch. A Domino's Pizza car pulled up. Let me REPEAT THAT.

A DOMINO'S PIZZA CAR PULLED UP.

And out popped a lovely pizza delivery woman with 40-50 boxes of pizza.
Yep, they served Domino's pizza for lunch at the event.

See those boxes - Domino's pizza!

I didn't get any closer, for fear of being a 'food stalker.'

The kicker to it all??? The sign they created said 11 carbs a slice!
11 carbs - are you kidding me? If the pizza slice is the size of my closed fingers and hand on my outstretched hand, that would be about 35g of pizza. I went with my guess of 35g when it was time to dose.

And to think it gets better? Oh yes it does my friends! Dessert you might ask? What, pray tell, would they be serving for dessert?
ICE CREAM!!!!!
I wouldn't even have believed it unless I saw it with my own eyes.
Vanilla or cookies n' cream ice cream to be exact.
Wanna guess what carb counts they vastly underestimated on these?
Vanilla - 11g and cookies n' cream - 22g
I dosed 25 for cookies n' cream for Grace. She ended up not eating it. I filled in the carbs with a banana and still got a 60 BGL 2 hours later.

Tell me who in their right minds serves pizza and ice cream at the event for T1 kids?  The event was sponsored by JDRF I might add. Wasn't there one person who thought about the T1 kids blood sugars and thought, hmmm.... wouldn't those two food items just skyrocket them a bit?

Where were all the lovely other lunch options, like:
Salad!
Sandwiches on pita!
Fruit!
Turkey burgers!
Veggies and dip!
(And as you comment, name some more options they could have served...)

It made me sad, and angry and disappointed. They served us whatever was easiest. I understand the 'easy' route, I really do.

What I don't understand is that at an event you are hosting, for families that struggle with nutrition and choices and meals, that the 'easiest' route wasn't doing any good for anyone. You had a chance, JDRF, to do some educating and teaching and it completely passed you by.

Check out the cool contest!

So many contests and giveaways - it's like the 'Prize Patrol' for Diabetes! (Wouldn't that be a hoot and a half, having that man and his 'Prize Patrol' show up with the giant check and balloons and say, pump gear!) Now that would make for some good TV watching!

Until we have that, we have this, a cool giveaway on a cool D-Mom blog:

A pump pouch giveaway from Too Sweet Boutique!!
So now, what are you waiting for - go there and enter!!!!

Re- DO - LOOK! A Miracle Button!

****** OK, if you have copied and dropped my blog button into your reading list, you might have to do it again, sorry gals! For some reason, the link is not working on certain sites - like Meri, and Heidi. So gals, can you delete the one you have and pop up the one that is posted now? That one works. And if someone could actually tell me that it DOES work - like when you click on the button, it sends you back here, to this site - that would be utterly fantastic!!!!



I totally made a button for this blog. Can you even believe it?
I saw everyone had one and like a good follower, I made one for A Sweet Grace!

Now this is remarkable for a few reasons...
... I cannot operate our DVD player at home
... I cannot set the alarm on my clock radio cause it's too hard
... I cannot figure out how long to cook a pot roast, so I just don't
... I cannot re-program anything that should ever need re-programming
... I do not understand HTML code, nor do I ever want to
... I do not calculate anything or do any higher math other than bolus units needed for one diabetic girl

So, now all of you in D-blogger land - go and get my button!
It's on the sidebar.
Yes, the color is a bit 'off' but I'm going for 'good enough' here, not perfect.

Why get the button, you ask?
Cause it's a MIRACLE!

And THANKS to everyone who offered to help, after my technological-frustration reigned supreme!
*(And yes, I am talking to you Heidi - still sending you love, kisses and steady BGLs )

WITBBITA?

What In The Bleep Bleep Is This About?

The last three night Grace has had crazy numbers at her 2 am check...

319

241

335

What? The girl is usually very steady at 2 am, like clockwork.

So, overnight basal testing we do. And here's how it all went down...

6 pm - 165, dinner and bolus

10 pm - 109 and bed

12 am - 268 (Yes I should have stopped the basal test and bolused, but my curiosity got the best of me and I really wanted to see what she did between 12 am and 2 am. This will come to bite me in the butt. Seriously hard.)

2 am - HIGH

2 am - retest, 407

As I said...

What In The Bleep Bleep Is This About?

So, here I sit, typing a blog post, wide awake.

She is slowly coming down.

396

339
296

I have calls into our famous team,  Dr. Z. and Gary.

Growth spurt?

Hormones?

God's little joke?

Interview with a D-Camper

Grace returned from diabetes camp a week ago. You can read about her return here.
I told you all out there in the DOC that I would grant an interview with the gal herself, so here goes:


Tell me about camp...
Fun. Awesome. Want to go next year.

What was your favorite part of camp?
The swimming, the zipline into the tree! and boating!

Least favorite part?
I don't have one.

Tell me about the cabin award you got...
I got the 'Little Miss Sunshine' award cause I am always smiling.

Any lows at camp or in your cabin?
Yeah, L hit a low of 29! She had to drink like 3 juices. I hit 49 and had a juice and some nutter butter cookies. 

Tell me about your cabin and your bunkmates...
Awesome cabin. They were nice, funny, cute and helpful.

What did you learn about diabetes?
I did learn some stuff but I forget it. No, wait, I did learn how a pancreas stops working, I learned that.

What was it like being among so many people with diabetes?
Really cool.

How was the food at camp?
I liked it. I had cinnamon toast - Mom, you never make cinnamon toast, you gotta learn how to make it. They had turkey one night, but it wasn't Thanksgiving.

Did you do your own carb counting?
I had to stand in line, get my folder, decide what to eat, write down the numbers, get checked by the nutritionist that that was ok, then they sign off, then I can dose myself with the PDM. I added them up on a paper.

Anyone else wear the OmniPod?
A counselor did! He showed me his arm, I think it was his arm.

Would you go back next year?
Totally!!!

Favorite memory of camp?
Meeting friends. Going into the cabin which is cool. Campfires. Zipline. Swimming.

Closing statements Grace?
I had nice counselors, but I also did miss my mom.
Yeah, we're done.

Diabetes Camp - The Return of Grace

I picked Grace up from diabetes camp on Friday night. It was like no other experience I've had in the D community. We were allowed to come between 6-6:30 pm for pick up, no earlier. The sweet homemade sign at the camp gate stated that they were enjoying dinner and that the staff would like to savor the last few minutes they had with our campers. I welled up even reading the sign.

At 6 pm, they told all of us parents - there were close to 100+ of us - that we could walk up the path to camp. It slowly winds into the woods, over a little bridge and then you begin to see the cabins and hear the kids outside playing. I have to tell you, the walking with 100 other D-Moms and D-Dads was very emotional. We all were smiling and laughing and eager to see our kids. I started to cry while walking the path. I thought, this is it, this is it, this is what we do, we walk the path to get our kids. Whatever path you tell me to walk, I will walk it to see this girl of mine...

She spotted me before I spotted her. I hear 'MOM! MOM!' and every woman's head turned, thinking it was their child. I see her running, running, running toward me, hair flying, notebook and pen in hand and then into my arms. I am kneeling in gravel but I don't care. We both started sobbing at the sight of each other and holding each other tight. She takes a break and looks at me and starts petting either side of my cheek and saying 'Mom, Mom, Mom.' I tell her how I have missed her so, how I love her, love her, love her and did she have a great time and that we all missed her so very much at home.

'AWESOME' she tells me, yes, she had an awesome time and can she have the phone to talk with Dad? She starts to talk with Dad and cries a little more upon hearing his voice.

 I look her up and down - a little dirty here and there, but none the worse for wear. I do not know where her pump is, I have not done that transaction. The first time I'm not in the mix. I am not even aware that the pump is on her leg this time.

I know I am supposed to go to the dining hall to begin the check-out procedure and to gather her diabetes car box and sign papers, but I cannot wait and neither can she. I ask her 'Can we go to your cabin and see everyone?' and she runs, runs to the cabin, where all her counselors are standing, waiting to say goodbye. I hug each and every one of them and whisper in their ear as I do -  'Thank you for taking such good care of Grace' and the tears flow. I mean it with my very soul. Thank you for caring, for checking, for loving her, for treating the lows and helping the highs and for making her feel so loved while she was here. And now we are all in tears.

Grace's new friends trade addresses and phone numbers all around. They hug and hug and tell each other how they will miss each other terribly and how they will see each other next year.

"Are you coming back next year?"
'Yeah, are you?"
"Yeah, let's be in the same cabin!"
"I can't wait!"

And they are all Type 1. And the counselors are standing there, young teen girls, with their pumps on and I think 'This is exactly what I wanted for Grace. If I had a vision, this would be it."

And it was.

Next post: Interview with the D-camper herself

Diabetes Camp SWAG

It was like going to the Oscars or Emmys or a really cool awards show, where the famous scarf down freebies from the tent of excess..... Except, well, this was diabetes camp in the middle of nowhere, and everything was D-related, and there wasn't anyone famous, and well, yeah, it wasn't the Oscars, but it was kind of like a Diabetic after-party if you will.

Here is the SWAG we left with. It took a giant-ous (new word there) Accu-Chek bag to lug it to the car. Some of the stuff is just plain odd, but there was A LOT of it. It was already pre-packaged in the giantous bag for us. When we got home I unpacked it and...

Ta daaa..........

4 backpacks

3 giant-ous Accu-Chek bags

2 medical waste red cans

1 beltbag

3 decks of 'Deckabetes'

2 camp lanterns

2 sets of binoculars

1 box of alcohol wipes

1 Mancala game (nice, but what???)

1 frisbee

1 Taking Diabetes to School book

1 water bottle

2 Diabetes bracelets

1 Contour meter

2 logbooks

2 pedometers

1 can of Butter Buds (huh?)

                                                 

Does Butter Buds scream diabetes? I've never even had them and not sure that they are all that occurring in nature, so I think I shall be re-gifting these to someone else. Nice they gave them to us, but literally everyone was walking around saying 'Why did they give me Butter Buds?' That was pretty funny.

Now I feel famous, getting a SWAG bag and all.....

Diabetes Camp

Grace left yesterday morning for diabetes camp. She is away til Friday. She was excited beyond belief that she was going. It was FAR away in PA. PA is a huge state and honestly, we spent 3 hours getting there. I met other D-Moms and Dads and that was great. We checked in and met one of the doctors and that was, to put it mildly, unreal, and worth a whole 'nother blogpost. I promised myself I wouldn't cry and you know what? Once I saw how happy she was to be there, and saw how much she will do and learn and experience, it wasn't worth the tears of sadness. It was a happy event, taking her to camp.

She was delighted.

She'll have campfires...

and a little theater...

boating and fishing on a lake...

swimming (every day)...

a wonderful cabin and bed...

great cabin-mates - ALL Type 1...

and a place to belong to a community larger than herself.

Can I ask all of you out there in the DOC - whether you follow A Sweet Grace or not, to please include a prayer for Grace in your daily prayer, and if you aren't the praying kind of gal or guy, could you just shoot a positive vibe out into the universe on Grace's behalf?

That she have a great time, 

meet new friends, 

is safe and well-cared for,

 and most of all, 

feels above all else during this camp experience,

 that she is not alone in her journey with diabetes.

Thanks everyone. 

Stayin' Alive

Grace was in the shower this morning and this came on the radio:




She was surprised when I starting singing along, knowing every word. Reliving my youth and Saturday Night Fever days.

She looked at me, wide-eyed.

"HOW do you know all the words Mom?"

My response:

"They were sort of like the Jonas Brothers of my day honey."