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Well, I'm better. And less hormonal. It just wreaks havoc with my system (and adds at least five pounds to my middle)!
I got to sew a tiny bit today and got one pump pouch made. I need to make a couple for two other girls. I can't decide which fabric for them, so I'm frozen in indecision. I'll get there, just tired, and my brain isn't functioning so well. A week of sick Ethan, not too much sleep (as he wakes coughing and wants company), and ongoing days. There is so much to do, and I dare not start a list, or I'll hyperventilate! There are things to get ready for girl scouts-scrapbook preparations, and a questionnaire, and pump pouches (which I find fun and relaxing, and rewarding-they bring joy to sweet kids who deserve a little something special), and groceries, a couple of birthday gifts, etc.
I updated the group I started for Mary Claire's JDRF Walk Team on facebook, and added the latest research. I receive their publication, Countdown to a Cure, about every three months, and sometimes don't read it till I have a pile of three or four! I caught up on all the latest research (you can skip it if it seems like TMI):
Newest Info (April 29, 2009):
Connection: About 15-18% of children who were exposed to the rubella virus in the womb develop type I diabetes by age 18. The data suggests that rubella exposure in utero potentiates an underlying partial genetic susceptibility for type 1 diabetes.
Hygiene Hypothesis: An exposure to an appropriate amount and variety of bacteria, viruses, and other microorganisms may be important to living a healthy life, and that type 1 diabetes and other autoimmune disorders may actually be a result of lack of exposure to these agents (like when we over “gel” the kids hands, and are general clean-freaks, yep, this is us)….When raised in a germ-free environment, mice developed severe diabetes.
Real Clinical Trials: There aren’t enough volunteers to participate. Unbelievably. Sign me up! Three currently: Protégé-to see if a drug, teplizumab can protect the insulin-producing cells in newly diagnosed patients. Defentd-1: testing effects of otelixizumab, to treat early in diagnosis to preserve beta cell function (in pancreas). And Prochymal: preparation of adult “mesenchymal” stem cells, collected from the bone marrow of healthy adults. Patients receive three intravenous infusions.
SmartInsulin: designed to release insulin only when glucose levels are high-okay, this could change our lives! : ) It’d deliver near normal blood sugars, and prevent dangerously low blood sugars! A half-miracle. : )
Life For A Child: title of a new documentary coming out about the program (lifeforachild.org) that funds insulin for children in developing countries. It follows the journeys of children amid mountains and streets of Nepal, experiencing their life or death struggle to survive. It will air on the Sundance Channel in 2009.
Ok, back with you now...
I am most excited about the SmartInsulin-this would change Mary Claire's life. Really. She'd probably go to injections only, so no pump attached to her body, and then she could eat those carb-y foods like pizza, cake, muffins (you know, all the Healthy Stuff!), and not go high. Woohoo!
Ches is going to be working ALL day tomorrow (correction: in Meetings all day), so yuck. He's usually here on Fridays, so I'll be missing him. The good news? It's the last day. He'll be out for about a month-till summer school starts. We should be able to finish up the landscaping around the pool. I want to get some really big planters full of color for the deck, pool, and porch. I'm ready for spring! I hope we have a few nice days of sunshine, so that spring can really start. It's like Arkansas is just behind. And I thought the globe was warming?
My funny moment today (well, one of them):
Ethan got a bowl of rice chex cereal, and then, as if it just occurred to him, asked, "Where Daddy?" and when I told him daddy was gone bye-bye to work, he got all dejected, let his bowl drop down a little, and some chex fell out-I yelled, "No!" so that he'd stop, and he totally poured them all out (promise it'll get funnier in a minute) all over the kitchen floor. I told him to go to the Naughty Chair, and he did. I calmed down, continued to unload the dishwasher, then had him come back to clean up. He did, but took a few over to the Hearth Room, and put them on the carpet in front of his Tonka tractor/ride on toy. He pushed it forward, and it swept up the cereal! (funny part!) He'd cleaned up! You'd have to see the toy to understand, but there are rubbery fins that sweep up toys as he pushes/rides the tractor. He'd actually figured this out, and was "cleaning" up his cereal (well, after laying it out on the carpet...)! Then, he brought the cleaned up bowl out, dumped the whole thing, and ran over it repeatedly to try to get it all, and therefore crushed rice-y bits into my carpet. Least fun part: vacuuming up the bits that migrated all over the place! (but I DO love those fresh, clean lines in my carpet!)
We had cookies as a special treat for snack tonight. It's the night we change her pump site, so it'll keep her from going low. She's been going low on the site change night, but high on the other two. It's so hard to find a balance!
Ok, kids are tucked in, and I have to head to bed. I have to get sleep so I can function tomorrow. There's still a lot to do, and I can't have a repeat of today: Coke, candy, chocolate, snack, in an effort to stay awake. Must. Get. Sleep.
I do, however, have a date tomorrow night! Which will work wonders on my attitude and focus. Out of the house alone (without kids!) for the first time in a while! : )
I'm sorry I'm neglecting you, dear blog.
I don't know where to start...I've been crazy busy (normal for me), Ethan has croup, but is sleeping, and I accidentally fell into all these websites/blogs for moms of kids with Type I diabetes. I'm just crying reading them all. Some are in the newest stages, and some are pro by now. I fit in the middle. Five years is rounding the bend. May 23, to be exact. I think I'm just hormonal, but I just keep crying today. Is it the daily work or just the knowledge of it, or the fact that her nurse has called twice-she got extra recess and played hard (and was lowish-80), then worked hard in p.e. and felt low again (only 91, but she must be headed down to feel low). I assigned another snack, so we'll see what we get when she gets home. It's just another job, and I can't quit that one. Hmph. Frustrating. (and hormonal doesn't mix well with it-it just produces yuck and tears).
I'm at a fork in the road, and I can't decide what to do. I've been blogging a while, been kicked off Google ads (ha, they think I was bribing clicks or something), and blogging is indeed work. I only started it to journal and get out frustrations so I could sleep (and get the garbage off my chest). Am I done? Did I get it out? Is it still helping? Or is it one more thing to do before I go to bed? I'm thinking about it.
I have found this whole other world that I didn't even know existed. I don't know how people keep up! There's so much to do and so many people to talk to! Maybe I'll just follow other people who blog. There are plenty of people who have things to say! : ) I love finding out about other people's families and how they keep up with kids (and diabetes)!
I have a wonderful life, and I'm so thankful for all of the sweet people in it. I don't know if I stress myself more by going over my yuck again at the end of the day. I'll mull it over, and keep you posted.
I'd wanted to make pump pouches this afternoon, but the day has gone so fast! I've done laundry all day, cleaned up all Ethan's messes after he had his Prednisone high, made him pizza (he ate three pieces!), and now I have to plan for when the kids come home. Mary Claire has gymnastics today, so I'll have to get her ready. I'm tired of this school year. I'm tired of taking her and Ethan to gymnastics, I'm tired of girl scouts, and tired of all the field trips. I need summer to get here. If just to stay home. I need my phone to not ring for one afternoon so I can nap. or sew. or have time to think.
I'm just cranky. And I've still got a long way to go in the next month. We have a couple of slumber parties, a few birthday parties, projects, trip to Disney, JDRF Family Team Kickoff, and that's just the stuff I know about coming to my May. Next year, I'm going to schedule a week to stay home (and declare it a vacation).
Great day-included a nap (ahhh...), some gardening for girl scouts-lots of tomatoes, peppers, cantaloupe, and okra, baths for kids, more leftover pulled pork bbq, and catching up. It was so nice to read part of the paper this morning! Mom took the kids home with her last night-at 9:30! And they got to play outside, get dirty, and Clay played with a (gasp!) pellet gun! Only at her house.
I'm busy posting pix from Saturday night-Clay's First Communion.
Have a great week! Let's try to tone it down, watcha' say? Maybe have a wallet at all times? and no flat tires? Especially in all the rain that's headed our way! All Week. Hugs!
What I CAN say is that I am breathing a sigh of relief. Whewwwww..
We are one first communion down, two more to go. It was great-and my little man actually cheered at the end, and pumped his fist (at the end of Mass) at finally having received Communion (but did bless himself afterward). : ) I am proud of him. It just seems like so much work to get here. His third sacrament (after baptism and reconciliation), it's eight years in the making, and four years of pre moving him toward this point. Just amazing. Hope he can recall all he's learned! : )
I took Clay (and Mary Claire) to the church for Clay's individual pictures at four, and I realized his pants were too long. Ick. Like 3 inches or so. I called home and had Ches lay out another pair. It was not good, so I had the photographer (the same one that did our last family photos!) take his shots from the waist up. I didn't want those too-long pants in the memory photo-especially if they'd be exchanged in the next 30 minutes! We made it back home, changed him, and Ches took him back for the group picture. I can't wait to see that one! I hope he smiled. When we were taking our outside pix of just Clay and Mary Claire, he kept showing teeth (think growling), and pulling on his eyes making funny faces. He's just so excited, he can't hardly control himself!
I spent the day doing the usual: playing outside (in the amazing 65 degree weather!), cleaning up, cutting up fruit and veggies, making dip, making the bbq sauce and roasting the pork, pulling it, getting me and the kids ready, taking pictures, controlling my desire to take down all the Easter stuff and redecorate for late spring/summer, bathing the kids, ironing, wishing the three stacked tubs in the kitchen would disappear for so long that they finally did (when I carried them to the top of the stairs), changing Mary Claire's pump site, ahhh.. and cleaning up our fun afterparty. We had fun-and the kids were nice and wound up after our awesome cake. It was super-sugary like I'd requested (no wimpy whipped frosting for my precious boy!), but I was disappointed in the decorating. I think they let a junior decorator try their hand at a cake. Normally, I have very high expectations of Rick's. They always impress me. However. Tonight, not so much. It was white and ivory like requested, but very little swoopy frosting bits around the edges making it look very rectangular/box-like, and very PlAiN. I told them I TruStED them. Ha. I won't do that again. If I pay twice as much, I expect to be wow-ed. I was not. It was nice and sugary (with the chocolate mousse filling I'd requested), so I didn't call to complain. Happens again, and I'll call.
My baby is asleep in bed after a long day, and my big kiddies are spending the night at Mom's after talking about it just a little too much in front of their other gma. They just don't get it. It's just rude. Anyway, they are gone for the night, and I'm kinda missing them. I changed Mary Claire's pump site right before she left, because with all that food (and the aforementioned Sugary Cake), I can see her going sky-high tonight. At least with a new site and new insulin, she'll be controllable. Well, her blood sugar will be controllable. : )
I can't believe they are so big. It seems like yesterday I was rocking them, and they were wearing footed pajamas and learning new words. Well, that was kinda like yesterday: at least the footed pajamas and new words. We just talked about a new word in Junie B's Boo and I Mean It book, but now I forgot what it was. I just fell asleep, which means I must stop writing and go to bed! I'll try to think of the word later... and post some cutie pie pictures!
