Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: fundraising, JDRF, type 1 diabetes, walk
On the eve of her JDRF walk fundraising efforts, Charlotte’s mom has created a special video in Charlotte’s honor… hope you’ll take a minute to watch and be inspired… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PSN9-Q2iJY
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: diabetes, fundraiser, hospitalization, JDRF
long time no blog… no excuses really… I do have an update… our daycare successfully raised $145 in the Caps for the Cure campaign we held… I have to admit I feel like it was a small victory, but my sister quickly reminded me that it is $145 that would otherwise have not been raised and given to our local JDRF chapter. I hope to be able to do it again.
Just was reading Kerri’s blog and see that one of her co-workers has done a day in the life of a diabetic, similar to the experiment I did a few weeks back… good to know I’m not the only crazy person who checks their blood sugars as an “experiment” to better understand a disease…
On a sad note, Charlotte had a scare this week and spent a day and a half in the hospital… her dad came home from work feeling ill and began to vomit… soon after my sister was worshipping the porcelain god and then unfortunately Charlotte too fell ill… vomiting is not a good thing when trying to manage one’s blood sugar… she’d already been low that day and this did her in… they had to take her to the ER and then she was admitted for dehydration. She’s home now and seemingly improved… my sister and her hubby are a bit slower to recover (but that’s what happens when we get old LOL). Nevertheless, I’m left to wonder, as I’m sure my sister and family do too, what the long term impact of these episodes may be… it just reminds me of how precarious her health is and how she really is kind of teetering on the edge… from one moment to the next her blood sugars can cycle so widely and then something like a GI bug that certainly would leave any of us feeling miserable can send her to the hospital in just a matter of hours. Just mind blowing really.
On a happier note, I don’t have to work tomorrow – it’s Independence Day! Time for fun in the sun!
Well, for two reasons actually… It’s both my youngest sister’s wedding day – she’s getting married on the beach in St. Lucia – and it’s our fundraiser day at Hannah and Sarah’s daycare for the JDRF. It’s a “caps for the cure” day and I hope to see lots of kiddos in their caps… the daycare just sent home the monthly calendar and per the usual summer schedule we have lots of special “pay to play” activities, so I hope the other parents take this special fundraiser in stride and the kids enjoy the “fun” of the “fun”draiser – today was crazy sock day so they are getting into the theme of dressing for fun… I think there might also be a crazy hair day too sometime this month! :-)
I have to admit that I am taken aback with the flurry of traffic (at least it’s a flurry by this blog’s traffic standards LOL) my blog is experiencing today… and unfortunately the WordPress blog stats don’t seem to be too good at revealing what’s prompting the interest… but I’m delighted all the same! And then the comments! How nice to get the positive affirmations that what I’m doing makes sense to someone else and is taken the right way- in all honesty I worried that my experiment of blood glucose testing would be seen as offensive in some way. Glad to get all this great feedback and would love any insights into my new readers’ discovery of my humble little blog! :-)
Thanks for making my Friday fun!
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: blood glucose monitor, blood sugar levels, finger sticks, Louisiana, Memorial Day weekend, monitor, sick, travel
we’ve been mighty busy despite my absence of blog posts… on Thursday, May 15 I got a call from our daycare early in the a.m. that Sarah was ill… and thus began the sickies for our little clan! Hannah fell victim next on Friday. That weekend, the girls slowly mended but I kept them home an extra day Monday – just to be sure! By Sunday, Tom was complaining of a sore throat. He and I were both quickly taken to “land-o’-the sickies” by mid-week and we knew Memorial Day Weekend we needed to be travel-ready. By the way, I don’t recommend flying with major sinus congestion – it’s murder on the ears! :-(
We all have varying degrees of lingering crud even now, but we’re all functional. And we had a great Memorial Day Weekend with our Louisiana family – including the lovely Charlotte! The three girls played inseparably and Charlotte had an especially tearful separation at the end of our visit. I’m too lazy to post a picture or two… shameful I know.
I’ve not worn my pedometer since the Wednesday before our crud attacked… I haven’t done any exer-walking either… it’s time to get back on that horse, so to speak.
One interesting experiment I have done though on my quest to understand the diabetes experience is some blood glucose monitoring. My sister had an extra monitor and a few strips so she donated them to me for this experiment… I’m not pretending to really have a complete understanding of what it’s like to “have” to do this monitoring every day, but I did get a sense of what that experience is and what my blood glucose levels are given that I am “normal” (I don’t like that word). Here’s what I learned…
Lancet sticks are fairly painless… I’ve always laughed at people who bemoan the stick for a hematocrit (Blood Iron Check) before blood donation… apparently a lot of people whine and cry over that but not the larger needle stick for the actual donation… silly people. The stick is nothing and I understand better now why Charlotte and Kaelyn don’t even flinch. That all said… what does suck about it is the fact that over the course of a day, you have the sensation that you are a giant pin cushion (I imagine it’s worse when it’s day-in-day-out). It also sucks when you stick yourself and either do a lousy job and don’t get enough blood for a sample, despite squeezing your finger like you are milking a cow! or stick yourself so well that you can’t seem to stop bleeding and then have to slap on a band-aid (which in my case was a Backyardigans one and didn’t exactly go with the suit I was wearing for work LOL). Finally, over the course of the day my fingers started to feel as though they had a bunch of papercuts – again not painful, just mildly annoying.
I consider myself fairly technologically-savvy and medically knowledgeable, but I have to share with you how “dumb” and clumsy I was with the meter… I also did some of these checks in my office at work and felt rather uneasy about being discovered. I had my share of wasted test strips too… It made me wonder how much anxiety a newly diagnosed patient might have when learning this part of their new routine.
In terms of my blood glucose levels, I discovered that I fluctuate very little… pre-meal checks generally ranged in the mid- to upper 80s and post-meal checks were in the 110s. So a 30 point variation seems so small especially knowing that Charlotte can vary 100 – 200 points in short periods of time. I just think about how my mood swings when I need to eat and potentially have a “lower” blood sugar… hard to imagine what Charlotte’s true lows really feel like for her.
So it’s not an exercise in pity… just really a better understanding and empathy for some of what Charlotte and Kaelyn contend with each and every day. What I really learned is how miraculous the body/pancreas is and how it so finely tunes our system and it makes me appreciate that miracle a little better.
Charlotte and Kaelyn both use the pump to regulate their insulin intake and its certainly an improvement over daily injections but it is clearly not a pancreas and not even a close substitute… I believe Kaelyn is also using a continuous glucose monitoring system and my sister is considering it for Charlotte now too, but again these are substitutions for a complex and beautifully designed natural system.
I think what I’ve learned most from this mini-experiment is to appreciate the body’s complexity and beautiful design and not take it for granted… and every time I get to see Charlotte I’m reminded what a beautiful little spirit she is and how proud I am of her and my sister for rising so gracefully to this challenge!
So, it’s back to the track for me this weekend!
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: blog stats, comments chart, fundraising, progress, walking
Last week’s mileage was considerably less than my average, but every step counts, right? My to-date total miles are now 64.5! I expect I’ll easily make it to 100 my the end of the month.
So, I’m wondering who’s been visiting and reading… wordpress provides some blog tracking and stats but I’m still left pretty much in the dark – would love to hear more comments.
My girls’ daycare will be hosting a “Caps for the Cure” fundraiser and I’ve joined the JDRF cause on Facebook and have been sending invites for others to join too. Trying to do my part.
Need to figure out some new approaches for fundraising myself… it seems so simple… just $500, yet I’m afraid my progress meter just sits at $0… I’m doing my part- walking the 500 miles, so shouldn’t everyone just pony up their dollar-a-mile???? Is charity not sexy anymore? Is the economy truly this bad? Have I just not asked you all in the right way? Please let me know… what does it take? Regardless of my success in raising money, I’m determined to walk on for the cause and blog here to raise awareness…
So last week I accrued another 27.4 miles bringing the grand total to 49.4 miles or just under the 50 mile mark… and with 188 days to go to my deadline I’m progressing nicely.
I’ve got two great ideas for the fundraising at the girls’ daycare and will be discussing them with the director this week. I hope she’s still onboard. The girls were so cute – they called Charlotte on the phone to tell her that they were going to find a cure for her diabetes so she won’t have to be sick anymore! I sure hope so!
Yesterday I learned an important lesson… the importance of just asking for what you need or want. I approached my daughters’ daycare director about holding a diabetes walk to fundraise for JDRF and she quickly and enthusiastically agreed. I had carefully prepared what I was going to say and had anticipated a negative response so I was ready to ask her to give it some thought and then decide – which I still ended up saying, so I suppose I’ve now opened the door for her to change her mind, but I sure hope she won’t.
I’m so excited but now also nervous about how I’m going to make this work and be a success. I’ll be reviewing the walk materials JDRF has provided this weekend and start to make some plans! This is so cool!
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: carb counting, celiac disease, diabetes, diabetic ketoacidosis, high, insulin, low
So one of the things I’ve observed in my nieces is the roller coaster ride of what I’ve dubbed the diabetes spectrum… going from a normal blood sugar to a high blood sugar, to a low blood sugar and hopefully, returning at some point to normal. Seriously, if ever I think I’m having a day of mood swings – and gals, we all have ‘em, don’t we – they pale in comparison to what Charlotte or Kaelyn might feel on one of these up & down days.
So what’s the deal with high blood sugar? As I understand it, when not enough insulin is available to process the carbohydrates consumed, the level of glucose (sugar) in the blood remains elevated. Essentially the body is starved of it’s nutrition. So what does the body do? Well it can start to burn fat or muscle to gain energy, a process known as diabetic ketoacidosis. This is an emergency situation and can be life threatening. So dosing with the appropriate amount of insulin can restore the blood sugar level to normal.
Sometimes the problem is reversed – the blood sugar level is too low. Again, my understanding of this condition in a type 1 diabetic is, there is excess insulin for the carbohydrates consumed, so the level of glucose (sugar) in the blood is reduced too much. So to correct this situation the thing to do is to consume more carbohydrates – usually in the form of juice, candy or glucose tablets. Sugar in its easiest to process form is needed and needed in a hurry.
Now, these explanations are VERY simplistic and it may seem to be nothing more than a careful balancing act, but from having watched my sister and sister-in-law manage their children’s blood sugars I appreciate how difficult it truly is. The body is such a delicate system and there are so MANY factors that affect the way it works. Through anything extra in to the mix, like a touch of illness or an extra diagnosis (Celiac Disease), and the whole system behaves differently than you might expect. Rebound highs and lows occur and leave them second guessing what to do next.
It’s a pretty weak analogy but the only one I have – I’ve tried to do Weight Watchers (remember I have that commitment issue)… counting point values of foods made me crazy – granted my life did not depend on it, but my successful weight loss did. I can’t imagine keeping count of my carbs and then having to determine how to dose insulin based on that number, by blood sugar test result and and other factors I should consider… but, when your life depends on it… you just do it. And it becomes normal. I don’t say any of this to arouse pity or to make heroes of my nieces (though I love them immensely and am proud to be their aunt), I just acknowledge it for what it is… a tremendous daily commitment and something that I can use to inspire me to find the wherewithal to keep my commitment to walk those miles for Charlotte and Kaelyn – because I can and because they have to.
I’ve been suffering a bit from blogger’s block… not sure of what to post about, not sure what direction to take this blog which of course does nothing but decrease my viewership to nil, bums me out and makes it even harder for me to make up my mind of what to type next… so, this morning as I logged my thirty minute walk, I gave this some thought.
My mind drifted back to the original concept – to “walk a mile in her shoes” and my goal to dedicate myself to trekking 500 miles to raise awareness and money for diabetes (specifically the JDRF). So let’s reflect on how I’m doing with those things… #1 – I am ACTUALLY walking… in my first week I logged 22 miles and so far this week I’m up to about 10 miles… so I’m actually staying committed, which I mentioned was a serious challenge for me. I realize that only amounts to about 1/15 of what I’ve said I’ll do, but it’s a start and a strong one.
#2 I want to raise awareness – well, I guess it depends how you measure that. I have started a blog and a Facebook group and I’ve communicated with people I know and found two who I didn’t previously know and that amounts to something. I’ve made a few posts about the disease and have some ideas for future posts… and I hope that as the blog grows more people will find their way to it and I’ll have something meaningful to say and for them to read.
#3 I want to raise funds – thumbs down on this one… not a cent raised as yet… but I’ve not given up hope. I know my friends and family are generous people who do good things and that I’ve perhaps not yet asked in the right way for them. So I plan to do just that – ask! It’s pretty easy to ignore my requests from afar (this blog) and that’s okay. I have faith that ideas will come and dollars will flow – there’s still plenty of time.
So, all this thinking has managed to get me a blog post – and a renewed focus for my mission. Frankly I’m doing the hardest part – the walking… and that’s certainly something I can be proud of!
