Hi There - Author of Mom of 2 Type 1s here -

I have moved my blog - it is now called Stick With It Sugar and you can detour to it now by clicking the button below - come on don't be scared - drink the koolaid - all your friends are doing it.

By the way - once at the new blog please consider following me there - you wouldn't want to miss out on all the drivel riveting stories I share.

Please visit my new location - free laughs with each follow.

Hi There - Just stopping in to say hi and remind those receiving emails from this blog that I have moved to a new location. Feel free to come follow me at www.stickwithitsugar.com - its nice over here you will like it and I miss you.

Moving Time 

Im not talking about our big move to the San Fran area - My blog is moving.

Blogger has been AWESOME. So easy to use even for someone as tech dumb as me. Thing is I wanted to change my URL and have a few more features that I couldn't figure out how to do on blogger. 

My new blog is:

Stick With It Sugar

I hope I have moved everything over successfully. I don't know how to move followers over so that will be up to you if you currently follow my blog. 

Also - I hope I was able to import all my favorite blogs to my new blogroll - if you write a blog and want to be added please email me from the new website. I love reading new blogs. 

I hope you will follow me to my new site! 

All my friends - JUST LIKE ME

This week my kids (and me) spend our days at a day camp for kids with diabetes and their siblings. This is our 4th and hopefully not our last year attending CBB (my kids and I all hope we will return form CA each year to hang with all the kids and staff of CBB).

Each day camp starts out with a gathering on the hill. The kids, group leaders and medics listen to announcements, learn which team (blue and white) is in the lead for the camp cup, and of course dance and sing. Below is the camp song - I don't know who originally wrote it as it was before our time at CBB but creative they are. It is sung to the Tune of "My Darling Clementine"

Camp Bluebonnet Camp Bluebonnet

In the hot summer sun

We are playing we are working 

We are having lots of fun.

Basal, Bolus, glucose tablets

Finger Pricks and ketone strips

Everyone knows of highs and lows

And our goal is good control.

Carbohydrates carbohydrates

Carbohydrates are the key

To preventing low blood sugars

Carbohydrates are what you need.

15 grams of carbohydrates 

Read your labels carefully

If you don't treat your lows 

You'll spend camp in the infirmary!

We spend a week here, make good friends here,

Have great fun with CITs

At Camp Bluebonnet, we laugh and learn

All my friends - just like me.

Each year I walk, jog and sometimes run between the different age groups snapping hundreds (yes hundreds) of pictures each day. The camp board does have an official photographer but taking pictures of 200+ campers in 10 groups at different ends of camp (acres of camp) requires a lot of running around. Thus - I volunteer to take pictures too and share them with the camp board. It makes me feel useful and allows me to see my own kids having fun as well as all their friends. 

Here are some pictures of Sweetstuff, Middles and Sugarboy from the last few days - 

Sweetstuff designed and painted
this sign to donate to the camp

She did this side too - it is my favorite

Yes that is me - sometimes I get to play too

Camp Bluebonnet is more than just a fun camp. It is a week of our lives each year where we are surrounded by other kids, camp staff and parents that understand. It is a week of feeling normal. No one asks if the kids pumps are Mp3 players, no one stares when the kids check their blood sugars. No one glares at me or other camp staff if we ask a child if they feel "High". 

Diabetes camps are an essential part of our mental well being. The kids count down the months, weeks and days till the next camp. They don't whine about the extremely hot weather, all the walking, checking blood sugars, or waiting turns. My kids and I are so grateful to the volunteers (all camp staff are volunteers - no one is paid for their time, energy or dedication). We so dearly hope we will be able to return to Texas each year to participate in this camp. My kids have each been with many of their peers for 4 years in a row now. They have built relationships and bonds that distance and time will not be able to erase. 

If you are a parent of a child with diabetes and you have not yet attended a camp near you. I recommend contacting your local JDRF or ADA office to locate camps in your area. Some camps are offered at no cost, some are minimal cost and others may require you to mortgage your home (hopefully not) but all camps are priceless. Good luck in your searches - may you find the love, laughter, joy, and normalness like we have. 

AUTO REPLY - Christina is temporarily Unavailable

Dear readers of my blog,
In efforts of retaining the little sanity I have left I have been unable to post recently. It is not for a lack of trying. I have 11 (yes double digits) draft posts waiting to be finished. I get about half way through and something comes up or I get all tongue twisted (finger twisted- brain twisted- oh good Lord it is happening again!).

Thought I might provide some bullet points of things I am working on -

• Our home in Texas was on the market for 5 days and we received and accepted an offer (crazy!)
• Our home in Cali is under contract and we are waiting for the appraisal - hoping to close in mid July.
• Middles has not had any more numbers over 200 - he is excited to be starting a Trialnet Clinical Study soon in which he has a 50% chance of taking oral insulin in hopes of delaying or avoiding diabetes.
• I have two nearly 6 foot tall 4 foot wide billboards of Sweetstuff and Sugarboy that were created and used by the JDRF for the 2012 Hope Ball - I have no idea what I will do with them.

• The kids and I will attend Camp Bluebonnet all next week - so so so so excited (a day camp for cwd and their siblings in Killeen, TX).
• I'm bored because I have nothing to clean since my house is spotless (yet I can't seem to write coherently lately)
• I am thankful for the DOC on twitter and all my new FB friends that followed me on twitter but then friended me on FB. The DOC, writing my blog, and finding new blogs because of the DOC and twitter has changed my life in countless positive ways. #TRUTH!
• Saying goodbye to local friends is harder than I ever imagined - final BUNCO party scheduled to celebrate with my closest 42 friends - San Francisco themed "Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair"
• Booked a trip to SF CA to see the house my hubby has chosen for us - No I have not seen it yet but my realtor assures me that I will love it (he spent over 20 hours with me in a 48 hour period looking at other houses - I trust him)
• I am going crazy with no good book to read - would love recommendations. (I tried 50 shades and I couldn't do it - not because of the sex - I love sex - I just found the rest boring - I mean no offense to those who enjoy the series).
• All medical records have been sent to new doctors in Cali and I have spoken a few times with the CDEs in our new Endo office and they are wonderful. Although I am sad to be leaving a number of the staff at Specially For Children here in Austin - they have set the bar very high for the staff at the Kaiser office. 
• I want to get my kids the new Tandem Diabetes Care pump - unfortunately Kaiser only prescribes Animas and Medtronic. Kaiser also does not do Dexcom for kids. Hurry up FDA and approve Vibe in US and make sure it is approved for kids too! No CGMS makes me sad. T Slim Tandem Pump

Well those are a *few of the things I have started but not finished. I will get to them soon. In the meantime please enjoy some of these great pins from pinterest....

 I know I should have credited someone but honestly I still don't know how to determine who actually created the stuff on pinterest. Just know I didn't create any of the pictures I'm sharing. 

what a great visual of D symptoms

If only -
I know y'all haven't seen the snarky side of me -
just know it exists when I am angry - you won't like me when Im angry.

This is me - ALWAYS

Don't worry I will not burn down the Golden Gate or Bay Bridges

I really wish I had a unicorn 

Or something unicornish

Up Hill Both Ways in the Snow

Yesterday I was driving a 14ft Uhaul truck that I had packed with a good deal of my house (clutter) to the storage unit. The truck was so big I felt like the Lily Tomlin when she did the skits with the big chair - video completely unrelated to post other than a reminder of Lily in the big chair.

While I was driving the truck I thought about all I have done to prepare my home for the market - painting, packing, small repairs, etc. I also thought about the big move coming up across the country to a new state, new schools, new friends, new job, new home, etc. While thinking of all the difficult tasks I have completed or will need to complete I thought about how I became so able to complete the tasks.

I thought about my years in the US Air Force - and all I accomplished serving our country. I was never very athletic yet I graduated basic training with honors - not an easy task.

I thought about earning my undergraduate degrees and how long it took and how many schools I transferred to to complete my degrees. It took 10 years after graduating HS and 5 colleges because I began in WI after HS but then joined the AF thus transferring to a school that I could attend while serving in the AF. However, I didn't get to finish before having my daughter and moving away from that college so I transferred again and attended college with a toddler at home and pregnant with my second. I completed one degree shortly after my second was born but went to another college to obtain my second degree while pregnant with my third. Yet I did it and while learning has never been difficult for me balancing work and kids with school takes some talent.

I thought about how being a parent is not an easy task yet I like to think I do it well despite being without family in my state to help.

I thought about how being a parent of children (yes multiple) with diabetes is a frustrating, difficult, heart aching job - yet I do a fairly good job of it most the time - and on very little sleep.

I rarely take a moment to congratulate myself for my accomplishments. I spend most my time berating myself for not being better, stronger, faster, smarter. Yet I allowed myself this short moment of self congratulations. While patting myself on my back I realized I didn't get to be as strong as I am on my own.

I got here because I had extremely demanding parents who expected a lot from me and my older sister. We didn't get a free ride.

My mom taught me how to iron my dads work shirts when I was in kindergarten. I was emptying and loading a dishwasher and folding clothes in kinder too. When I was 7 my folks bought a bar and our house was connected to the rear of the bar. Before school I cleaned bar bathrooms, mopped bar floors, washed bar glasses - all this in addition to regular housework. By the time I was 9 I was mowing the acre of land surrounding the bar. We moved to a new home when I was 11. At our new home we boarded horses - I mucked horse stalls, bailed hay, watered the horses and help feed them. Our land grew so did the amount of lawn I had to mow. I also shoveled snow, cleaned the pool and helped with various projects. On the weekend we cleaned house. If I went to a friends to spend the night I had to be home before 9 the next morning so I could do chores. My older sister and I were also the summer babysitters for our younger brother and sister.

I got my first job when I was 15 at a photo lab and portrait studio. I took the bus after school everyday to work at the lab - in the summer I rode my bike to work (I think likely about 6 miles each way). I bought most my own clothing, shoes, everything. (well I didn't buy my own car - my dad bought me a 1978 reliant station wagon when I was 17 - thus I guess I did get a free ride).

I didn't like my parents a whole lot when I was young. I thought they were mean, and treated me more like a slave than a daughter (sorry mom and dad if you are reading this but keep reading).

It was during the drive in the gigantic Uhaul that it dawned on me - I am as strong as I am because my parents never allowed me to be weak.

I have thanked my parents at various times for instilling in me an incredible work ethic. I give my all to everything I commit to. I got that from my folks and Ive known that for a long time. However I didn't realize how strong they helped make me until I felt like the tiny child driving the gigantic truck and I wasn't afraid. I never once thought "I can't do this". In fact I rarely think that - I just assume I can do all things.

So maybe my fluency wasn't awesome while I was in elementary school because my folks never cracked a book at bedtime. Maybe my homework wasn't always turned in because my folks expected me to do it without them telling me to. Maybe I got bullied a bit longer than some because my folks didn't pick up the phone to yell at the school. The thing is - I survived and I am a stronger better person for it. I am an uberfast reader now (despite my tendency to make up words), I earned nearly all A's in college (if we don't count my first semester of my freshmen year), and I don't take crap from anyone now.

What I learned from my moment that began with self congratulations but ended with self realization - I learned I may be too easy on my kids and I may be setting them up for failure. I may not be raising self-sufficient confidant individuals because I congratulate them for the smallest achievements.

I have seen what too much coddling creates - it creates the bagger at the grocery store that gossips while putting my raw meat in with my fresh produce and canned goods on top of my eggs. It creates the life guard at our community pool that falls asleep in his life guard chair or another who invites teenage girls to sit on his lap while on duty and then becomes angry when moms call his inappropriate behavior to the attention of management. It creates kids who can't do their own homework because their mom has been doing it for them for years. It creates a lazy "what about me" society.

My goal this summer - teach my kids how to do laundry, mow a lawn, wash dishes, mop a floor, vacuum, clean a toilet, and cook. They will not like me very much this summer but they will thank me one day.

Thanks for baring with me in my non-Diabetes post - while this blog is mostly about the betes - life isn't'.

I Hate Cliches 

Watching a slow motion train wreck....

That is what everything with my Middles feels like.  

Today I took Middles to our endocrinologist. They drew 6 vials of blood to run a full diabetes panel. They also had him do a glucose tolerance test and checked his  A1C. It will be a week before I know all the blood work results.

According to Middles A1C of 4.3 and his glucose tolerance test (109 fasting start, 170 at 1 hour mark, 130 at 2 hour mark) he does not have diabetes. 

However - with the half dozen blood sugar results that were 200+ postprandial (that's 2 hours after a meal) in the 72 hours prior to visit; combined with frequent urination, increased thirst, stomach aches, chest pain, headaches, leg soreness (not associated with physical activity), positive results for all the antibodies associated with Type 1 and the fact that his 2 siblings already have Type 1 - the Endo believes diabetes is coming. It may be a month, a year, ten years - etc. but it is coming. 

My hope - to get Middles into a study (there is one in the San Francisco area) that focuses on slowing if not stopping diabetes in people that are at high risk. Maybe I can divert the train.

As for right now - his numbers today and most of yesterday were all within normal range. Even after eating a personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut (they are addictive and should come with a surgeon generals warning) his blood sugar never went above 142 (we were running late for soccer and they all begged me - don't judge). 

The Endo instructed me to continue to check his blood sugar 2 hours after meals and get a fasting blood sugar each morning. It made me sad to see him "excited" to have his own meter complete with a new style of lancing device Delica - which I tried and am pleased to say it is way less painful than the older model. 

I will continue to discourage High Glycemic Index foods high glycemic index foods (sorry no cupcake for you). Again - I want to say that I am normally a "let them eat cake" kinda Dmom but I want to reduce the chances of blood sugar spikes allowing his pancreas to keep plugging along - no need to add stress to an organ that is clearly having a hard time keeping up. The improved diet will likely improve the D control my other two have as well. I have always believed and advocated that people with type 1 diabetes can eat everything people without diabetes can eat BUT that doesn't mean any of us should be eating some of the crud we put in our bodies (stay the heck away form my Reese's - they have protein in them). 

Thank you everyone for your support during this crazy time for our family. I truly appreciate all the emails, tweets and comments. Thank you God for allowing me to be wrong this time - even if it's temporarily wrong - if it is coming please let it wait till after the move, after puberty, after college - is there ever an OK time - doubtful. 

For now we keep plugging along - I think we can, I think we can, I think we can.....