Diabetes Blog Challenge Day 6: Saturday Snapshots

Diabetes Snapshots

Saturday Snapshots - Saturday 5/17 . 
Back for another year, let’s show everyone what life with diabetes looks like!  With a nod to the Diabetes 365 project, let’s grab our cameras again and share some more d-related pictures.  Post as many or as few as you’d like.  Feel free to blog your thoughts on or explanations of your pictures, or leave out the written words and let the pictures speak for themselves.

In a previous blog, __Hidden Diabetes in Pictures__, I shared pictures of my boys.  It was one of the more tearful blogs I have written seeing how innocent they were before Diabetes, how unknown the storm was that brewed in their bodies.

A little late (as I have been all week...work schedule and computer virus impeded my blogging), I am answering the blog week challenge for Diabetes Snapshots.  Instead of recollecting how things were before Mr. Diabetes plopped his big butt in the middle of our lives, this blog is about the daily grind. 

In a perfect world, other D-parents will feel a little more “normal” and those who do not live with Diabetes will learn a little and perhaps be inclined to Walk with us or donate to our cause!



Now I begin…

Every time we check a blood sugar, I record the results on these clipboards...one for each boy.  I average, look for patterns, and decide how to adjust to Mr. Diabetes ever-changing rules in this game.  Pink pisses me off; yellow worries me.  As you can see, obviously my emotions stay on a roller coaster!



 

Once I wake the boys up for school, I set up their supplies to check their sugars.

Tiny fingers, drops of blood.  Every day, 6 to 12 times per day.

After checking sugars, counting carbs and dosing insulin, we get to eat our breakfasts.

This is the inside of their D-kits that have to go everywhere with them.  When they eat, I get their kits ready for school. So, on top of book, binders and backpacks, my boys carry a kit that holds all the essentials to keep them alive!

A small selection of ALL the supplies that are used EVERY. DAY. to keep my boys healthy and alive.  If they aren't used daily, they are required to keep for emergencies.  All of this is easily $2500 worth of stuff, and there is more unpictured.

Omnipod insulin pumps...in action on a cute little thigh!  Not sure what we're going to do when puberty hits and they get wicked hairy!

Diabetes trash everywhere

Despite the crappiness of dealing with Mr. Diabetes day in and day out...I get to keep my babies.  They are alive and well and can dig in the mud!

After a busy day at school and play, we rest.  Now, Mommy and Daddy get to figure out who is who in the night!

 

Support us in the JDRF One Walk.  www2.jdrf.org/goto/FuseAATeam

 

 

Rhonda

 

 

Diabetes Blog Challenge, Day 3: Mental Health

Mental Health

Click for the What Brings Me Down - Wednesday 5/14 Link List.

May is Mental Health Month so now seems like a great time to explore the emotional side of living with, or caring for someone with, diabetes. What things can make dealing with diabetes an emotional issue for you and / or your loved one, and how do you cope? (Thanks go out to Scott of Strangely Diabetic for coordinating this topic.)

Since it's now been two years, I know there is probably so  much more I can say on this topic.  I may even decide to later.  But for now, I think my book summed it up nicely, Mommy Can't Fix It.  What else is a Mommy to do?

Rhonda

Diabetes Blog Challenge: Jar of Hearts

Diabetes Blog Week Challenge

This year, Diabetes Blog Week and TuDiabetes are teaming up to bring out the poet in you! Write a poem, rhyme, ballad, haiku, or any other form of poetry about diabetes. After you’ve posted it on your blog, share it on the No Sugar Added® Poetry page on TuDiabetes, and read what others have shared there as well!

In keeping with last year’s song revision theme, I’ve chosen to dedicate this song (slightly modified) to Mr. Diabetes.  I don’t mean to cause anyone untoward shock, but I do listen to and enjoy other music besides Bon Jovi.  So, with no further delay….

Jar of Hearts

No I can’t take one more day with you

Cause all that’s waiting is regret

Don’t you know I’m not your fool anymore

You struck the ones I love the most

I’ve learned to live half awake

Now you wake me one more time

Who do you think you are

Running around leaving scars

Collecting your jar of sharps

Tearing lives apart

Can’t even catch a cold

Something small can take its toll

So don’t come jack with me

Who do you think you are?

I hear you’re striking all around

For someone’s baby you can down

But I have grown too strong

To fall prey to your arms

I’ve learned to live half asleep

Each night you wake me one more time

Who do you think you are?

Running around counting carbs

Killing those beta cells

And tearing fingers apart

We’re going to find a cure

Determination in our souls

Don’t look back at me

Who do you think you are?

It took so long to learn and feel right

Remembered to put the light back in our eyes

I wish I had missed your kiss

Cause you broke all of our hearts

And now you won’t leave

You won’t go back

You can’t take my boys back

So who do you think you are

Running around leaving scars

Collecting your jar of sharps

Tearing bank accounts apart

Little fingers pay the price

Lots of sticks that don’t feel nice

Please back away from me

Don’t come back at all

Who do you think you are?

Who do you think you are?