Invisible Illness Week!

What is an invisible illness? It is an illness that you do not see on the outside. Everyday many people all around the world live with an invisible illness. You wouldn’t be able to tell they are suffering from their outward appearance, but on the inside their illness is trying it’s hardest to reek havoc on their body.

This week started invisible illness week. It’s one week a year to spread the word about those living with an invisible illness. Type 1 diabetes just happens to be one of the many invisible illnesses that many suffer from on a daily basis. On the outside you cannot tell that Clifford suffers from a chronic/invisible illness that will never go away.

On the inside however, well that’s a different story. His illness is trying it’s very best to take over his body, but we’re fighting back every step of the way. I am happy to report we are doing our very best in that fight, his newest A1c, 6 months after pumping was 6.3%! Clifford and I took a moment to have a brief high five for a job well done in the Endo’s office and moved on. We live with the attitude of bolus and move on, so the same goes for A1c. I’d love to say it’s just a number and I don’t let that define me as a parent to a D child. But to me it’s my D mom report card, and this time I passed!  But I’m trying to turn over a new leaf, Stay Calm, A1c and move on!

Using Personalized Books to Get Kids to Read

 

*Guest Post from HB Redbird on how to get your kids more interested in reading. Even though my blog is focused around Type 1, reading is very important in children’s lives. We encourage it greatly in our home and I thought it would be beneficial to get the word out there with this beautifully written guest post.

Next to math, getting a child to read is becoming increasingly difficult. Attention spans are getting shorter, and the desire to play video games is getting greater. One of the best ways to encourage a child to read is to cater to their desire for everything to be about them. Personalized books are a sure fire way to do that.

 

What are Personalized Books?

Books that include a child’s name, their age, where they live, and even their friends are what set personalized books apart from other books. They take characters that children love, such as Sesame Street, and put the child into the story. You fill out a form for the company to enter the information into the book while printing. The books can be entertaining or they can be educational. Some companies will even put a dedication to the child at the front of the book.

Places to Buy

One of the best places to purchase personalized books is at Flatten Me. Flatten Me takes personalized books to a whole new level. They include the child’s name, but also family photos can be added to the characters. Children enjoy seeing their name in stories; however, they also are drawn into the illustrations in the book. Seeing your parent as a superhero in a book, or see themselves as a pirate, their imagination is drawn to the book. The company has books geared for all ages so you can encourage all children, or adults, to read with this company.

Other Products

Along with personalized books, another way to get a child interested in reading is having them write. Writing takes what they have learned while reading, and makes them practice making the same sounds. Flatten Me takes your child’s picture and puts it on the cover of a journal. If you have a child who likes horses, gift them the Just Horsin’ Around journal. Then you can gift them a personalized book where they can write down their thoughts about the book. This can be made into a lesson by having them write how they would change the story.

Another creative product that Flatten Me provides is personalized wall art that you can create personalized reading spaces. Your child that enjoys horses, use the Just Horsin’ Around wall art. Throw in some horse pillows and a fuzzy rug, and your child will be dying to read in their spot daily.

Children are naturally inquisitive and have short attention spans. It is imperative to cater teaching them to their learning style. If your child is fighting you on learning to read, go to their natural desire to be the center of the world and get them a story that stars them. You know your child the best, so chose a style of book that will keep their attention. At the beginning, do not worry if they only want to read personalized comic books or personalized books on fighting dragons. They are still learning letter sounds and blends. Before you know it, they will want to read longer books and the personalization can be a treat for birthdays or special holidays.

WEGO: Advocating for Another Day #3

 

Day #3: Challenge Accepted! Post

Parenting isn’t all sunshine and ice cream – it’s hard. Write a post that delves into 3 challenges that you face as a parent

Parenting is one of those things you really go into without knowing exactly what to do or how to handle all situations. There are many challenges we face on a daily basis parents to a child with a chronic health condition, like keeping them alive. But instead I choose to write 3 challenges we face just as parents, not as parents to a child with Type 1 diabetes.

1. Dividing time: When you have more than one child, the challenge becomes dividing your time and attention to all children, and making sure not to favor one child over another. It’s a delicate balance, that some days doesn’t always work out the way we want. What I’ve learned is that your children want your undivided attention, even if that is for 10 mins a day. Playing a simple video game with them, or running around shooting up monsters, painting nails, and doing make up helps to keep them feeling good, and loved.

2. Being the enforcer: Parenting isn’t about being your child’s best friend. Although that would be a great outcome when they are older, now wouldn’t it? It’s about stepping up and being the bad guy from time to time. You cannot hand your children everything they want, or let them walk all over you. What kind of adults would they become if you always did everything they said?

3.Teaching responsibility: As a parent it’s your job to take this little life and transform it into a responsible adult. That is a HUGE responsibility on your shoulders. During their different ages you introduce new responsibilities to them. It’s important to not let day to day busy life get in the way. It can be easy some days after a long day to put things on the back burner and let them slide on chores or other things. However that is not painting the right picture for them or teaching them responsibility at all. Consistency is key when it comes to children.

Advocating for Another Day #2

August 22 • Day 2: These are A Few of My Favorite Things Post

List time! Write 5 of your favorite things about your loved one. Celebrate their uniqueness and be sure to tell us why
those are your favorite things.

 

1. Strength- Strong throughout everything, never once complains about the pain

2 Loving big brother- Loves his little sisters and brothers and even though they bicker from time to time, he’d rather sit and play with them than alone

3. Big helper – Does his chores without “MUCH” complaints.

4. Good student- He receives great grades in school, and actually loves going to school (for now)

5. Involved in his care- He has wanted to learn about his care from the beginning and knows quite a bit when it comes to the day to day management of his diabetes.

Advocating for Another Carnival–August 2012

 

I am participating in WEGO Health’s Advocating for Another Carnival. With 8 days of specific posts about advocating for another. Today’s prompt is below.

August 21st: Day 1: Portrait Post

Write a descriptive portrait of your child/ren. Share qualities that make them, them – and include an image! (A photo or
creative work of them!)

 

The one that I advocate for, many of you know is my son Clifford. Clifford is 8 years old and at the age of 6 he was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. It has been a long over 2 year journey of learning to live our new life with Diabetes, but through it all he battled it, and learned it like a champ. He is very smart, and involved in many aspects of his day to day care. For over 2 years he was on 6 injections a day, and never once complained of the pain. In March of 2012, he moved forward in his journey with Diabetes and went on an insulin pump. While managing his condition has become a bit easier it is still a daily battle and a delicate balance of food, exercise, insulin, and a numerous amount of other factors to keep him alive.

Despite diabetes Clifford has done many things, including playing basketball for his school, participating in Cub Scouts, and winning the spelling bee at his elementary school! He loves to read, play video games, and harass his sisters (like any other 8 year old boy). He is very active and loves to play outside. His imagination is large, and leads him to wonderful journeys as a military man, super hero, or anyone else he can think of.

Diabetes definitely doesn’t have this little boy, he just happens to have it and lives life to the fullest despite it.

Don’t let the numbers rule you..

 

One thing you will want to learn early on when dealing with Diabetes is you will never “ALWAYS” hit those perfect numbers. You shouldn’t live your life number to number trying to strive for excellence, and getting disappointed when it doesn’t happen. This is just letting the numbers rule you.

We test, either correct, or treat and move on. Obviously when there is a high after high, it really starts to get to you, but you have to try to bolus, correct, move on. Change site, inject, move on. IT’s your new part of your everyday normal, don’t let it control every aspect of your life, because in no time at all it will begin to feel like you have no life other than working around the numbers.

I say this from experience. We have days where we have great numbers, and we celebrate small victories, you have to in this life. Then there are days when we are hit with highs out of no where. We rule out quickly all the possible culprits, (bubbles in tubing, site coming out, ketones, etc.) then we bolus and move on. Just today after 2 great days with no numbers higher than 170, we were hit with a 305. Only 0.1 ketones, so we corrected, dual bolused for breakfast, and he was 123 at his 2 hr. check.

Diabetes already takes up so much of your life that you can’t let it take complete control over it. Try the bolus, treat and move on method, and see how this works for you.

Upcoming-Keep a lookout

Keep a look out for my upcoming post on “Back to school with Diabetes”. There is a lot of work even before school starts. If you are just starting out and need a bit of advice it may be helpful. If you happen to have any questions you’d like to have addressed ahead of time, let me know and I’ll do my best to get them answered for you. In the mean time check out “Back to School with Disabilities” this is an article I wrote that helps discuss a little bit of heading back to school with diabetes. Look for another one soon in further detail.

Diabetes has….

There are many things that diabetes has done, some good, some well mostly bad. But here is a compiled list to let those who may  not have experience with the disease know just what Diabetes has done.

• Stripped my son of a normal childhood
• Turned our world upside down
• Taken away his freedom to do what he wants, or eat what he wants
• Made him grow up way to fast
• Become the center of our universe
• Taken the energy right out of me
• Made me fearful that when I put my son to sleep at night he won’t wake up in the morning ( I just wish someone would tell me that he is going to live until he’s 85 despite this disease, that would take so much worry away.) No one should have to put their child to bed at night fearing that might be the last time you see them.
• Made doctor’s appointments more frequent ( gone are the days of yearly check ups), instead it’s a visit every 3 months to see how we’re doing as his new pancreas.
• Made us human calculators (calculating carbs, activity levels, insulin active, etc, to try to figure out the correct dosage,yeah pretty much impossible)

 

In all of this there is one positive that diabetes has brought into our lives

The diabetic online community (DOC) when I found others that KNEW what we were going through it changed my entire outlook on the disease and has helped tremendously.

So there you have it. I’m sure there are more things that could be added, and other’s have different ones as well. This is just my opinion on what diabetes has brought into our lives.