NHBPM: Let It Be

Today's Prompt: Let It Be. What’s something that bothers you or weighs on you? Let it go. Talk out the letting go process and how you’re going to be better to yourself for it.

If you've been around my blog much at all, you already know one of my biggest challenges... the school clinic lady.  Her lack of interest, lack of accountability, and flat-out rude comments really, really, get to me.  We can be having a pretty good d-week here at home, and one negative comment from her to my daughter, or one phone call from her will really set me off.


Most of the time, I bounce back from these "incidents" with the clinic lady pretty quickly.  I take it as an opportunity to attempt to educate her further, or, when needed, a reason to meet (yet again) with school officials to work out a problem.  I try to turn it around in my head to be an opportunity rather than a problem.

But sometimes.... sometimes I can't get her/it out of my head.  I can't wrap my mind around the notion that she is the person I am forced to rely on when my daughter is at school.

So, I try.  I make myself look at the very bottom line: Was Rosie hurt?  Was there serious potential for harm?  If not, I try really hard to make myself take care of whatever needs done and then stop dwelling on it.  I mentally move on.... at least until the next incident, which tends to set me off again.  Ugh. 

This post was written as part of NHBPM – 30 health posts in 30 days.

NHBMP: Elevator Blog

Today's Prompt: Elevator blog. If you were in an elevator with someone and they asked about your blog. What would you tell them?

 I'd tell them to stop by to read about our experience with Type I Diabetes. 

I'd tell them that it's my place to rant, rave, or share links from the online diabetes world. 

If they are a PWD or a parent, I'd tell them to check out my sidebar, because I have a lot of great d-blogs linked up there.

I'd tell them that I'm not going for any writing awards or book deals here, I'm just sharing, because sharing with the DOC (reading others' blogs, writing this one, tweeting, etc.) is what keeps me sane in this crazy d-world!

This post was written as part of NHBPM – 30 health posts in 30 days.

Diabetes Around the World

I kind of fell off the wagon with the NHBMP "30 Posts in 30 Days' thing... life happened, and I didn't have time to blog several days this past week.  That's OK.  I'll still hit some of the prompted posts and some other things during Diabetes Awareness Month!

I found this while working on a presentation for World Diabetes Day and thought it was very interesting: 


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NHBMP: What gets you down?

Today's Prompt: Case of the Mondays. Write about something that gets you down, burns you out, or makes you sad. Purge it in a blog post.
Turn it around at the end. Tell Tuesday why you’re ready for it.

The thing that gets me down about Rosie's diabetes is that it's always there.  When she's at a birthday party, I am hovering in the background with carb counts at the ready.  When she's running around the park, I'm there with a meter and juice box, making her take a break while her friends keep playing.  When she's peacefully sleeping, her Dex is buzzing to alert us that she's going low.   It's always there, lurking in the background.


But, you know what?  That's also the thing that keeps us going.  Because she doesn't let diabetes stop her.  It's there, sure, but it's just a minor speed bump in her daily life.  She DOES go to birthday parties and to the park.  She does sleep peacefully, knowing that her technology (and her parents!) are keeping an eye on those pesky blood sugars. 


Diabetes is always there, but it doesn't stop her from enjoying all the things any other 8 year-old enjoys!


This post was written as part of NHBPM – 30 health posts in 30 days.

NHBMP: If I could do anything...

Today's Prompt: If I could do anything as a Health Activist… Get aspirational. Money is no longer an option. What is your biggest goal that is now possible? How could you get there?
Now bring it back down to size. How much of this can you accomplish now, in a year, in five years?

Anything?  Well, of course, I'd find a cure for Diabetes.  Specifically, I'd like a cure that would kickstart the dead pancreases that Type I Diabetics have, and would also restart the pancreases of Type IIs. Since I am not of a scientific mind, my best bet would be to be a millionaire who could fund the best researchers out there. I'd advocate for that until my dying breath!

More realistic?  I'd like for the world at large to learn about the types of Diabetes and STOP the rude, insensitive comments that abound.  Asking a Type I if they ate too much sugar... telling a Type II that they just need to exercise more.... telling any type that there's a miracle cure in the form of algae, cinnamon, tea, you name it.... these comments and more would be eliminated from every diabetic's life! 

Hopefully, I AM doing something to help educate those I come in contact with- I speak up, offer to speak to groups, make posts in social networking sites, educate school friends and staff, and do anything else I can to get the word out.


This post was written as part of NHBPM – 30 health posts in 30 days.

Today's Prompt: 5 things that changed my life. For better? For worse? List 5 things that changed your life as a patient, caregiver, or Health Activist and how.

This is a great prompt, and one that really made me think in terms of relating it to Diabetes.  Most of these things aren't really things, but events or people.


1.) Straight out of college I started working in a nursing home as the Activity Coordinator.   My BS is in Art Therapy, so the world of medical diagnoses and working in a health care system was fairly new to me.   You can't spend years eating lunch with nurses who speak "medical" (not to mention discuss any type of bodily function while eating- gag) without picking up medical knowledge, terminology, and, an idea of how the health care system in general functions.   I learned that doctors can be questioned, and sometimes, even the medical people don't know what to do for someone. 

2.) I married my husband.  Duh-- of course that was life-changing, right?  But related to my life as a health care advocate, he is my support, and he pushes me to not back down.  He's a  Police Sgt. and he doesn't take any nonsense from anyone, and I've definitely picked up some of his ways of dealing with people over the years.  He encourages me to speak up and backs me up when I'm doing "battles" with the school or with a doctor.  Knowing that he always has my back is huge for me.

3.) Both of our kids were born prematurely, after numerous hospital stays for me (preterm labor throughout both pregnancies). and many scary events when we thought we'd lose them.  This was when I found my voice in the health care system as a patient.  I'd worked in health care for years, but learning to stand up for myself and my kids as patients in a NICU was a whole new experience.  I learned to ask the questions, do my research, and not accept anything less than a full explanation when I needed one. My inner Mama Bear was awakened!


4.) As a baby, our son had developmental issues and at one point was testing borderline for Autism.  He wasn't developing in terms of gross motor skills, and he wouldn't eat- he had lots of issues with feeding.  Mama Bear was fully awake by now, and I pushed for therapy when the doctor would have waited a while longer. We got into a wonderful therapy program (physical, occupational, and speech) that made a HUGE difference in my son's life.  By preschool, he was at the head of his class, with a teacher who was shocked to hear that he'd ever had any kind of issues.  That gave me complete confidence that I need to always, always trust my gut feeling.  (I'm positive that my kids have very vocal guardian angels who help me out!)

5.) And finally... obviously, my daughter's diagnosis with Type I Diabetes changed all of our lives.  I think that one is pretty self-explanatory.




This post was written as part of NHBPM – 30 health posts in 30 days.   
(This post is actually going to show up on 11/5 because I saved it as a draft rather than hitting the "publish" button.  Oops!)

NHBPM: My Post-Post Blogging Process

November is also Diabetes Awareness Month!

Today's Prompt: What happens after you press “publish.” Write about your post-blog-writing process. Do you immediately tweet a link? Email it to everyone? Re-read it for spelling errors?

The first thing I do is view the post on the blog itself, to make sure the formatting is OK.  Nothing drives me more crazy on my blogs than text that's misaligned or weird spaces in my posts.  If needed, I correct those.

Usually after writing on my own blog I go out and comment on other's blogs for a few minutes.  I know I enjoy getting comments, so I try to leave a few for others. 

Sometimes I'll tweet about the post if it's something I want some feedback on, but I don't do that with every post.  (Maybe I should?)

That's about it for my post-post process.  :)  

This post was written as part of NHBPM – 30 health posts in 30 days.

NHBPM: My 18 year-old self

November is also Diabetes Awareness Month!

Today's NHBPM prompt: Dear 18 year old me. Write a letter to yourself when you were 18. Be sure to tell yourself what to do more of, what to do less of, and what you have to look forward to in the next few (or several) years.

Wow, 18 year-old self... you have no idea what's ahead for you.  Not only will you marry that guy you're so fond of having political arguments with in college, but the two of you will eventually be blessed with two beautiful, though premature, children.  Just when you've finished getting your son through his physical, occupational, and speech therapy and you think life is finally going to be "normal", your daughter will be diagnosed with Type I Diabetes. You'll come to learn that she has been blessed with a strong spirit and a personality that allows her to take anything in stride.  Your world will never be the same, but you'll all be fine, I promise!


This post was written as part of NHBPM – 30 health posts in 30 days.

NHBPM: Our Lives Would Make Boring TV

 Today's Prompt: My TV Show. Your blog is being turned into a TV show! Congrats – you’ve earned it. In fact, you get to co-write it. Write about the TV show based on your life or blog.


Hmmmm.... if this blog was turned into a tv show, I'm not sure it would last very long.  Who wants to watch a sporadic show ranting about the good, the bad, the normal day-to-day life we live with Rosie's Type I Diabetes?  

A show based on our life would show me as harried mom who lives on coffee and is addicted to her phone.  The daughter character, Rosie, would be an adorable eight year-old who is very outgoing and has never met a stranger.  Rosie's brother would have to be played by a quiet five year-old who likes to know how things work.  And Rosie's dad would be a very hard-working family man.   Throw in some extra medical gear and some crazy extended family members, and you have the makings of our show. 

This post was written as part of NHBPM – 30 health posts in 30 days.

NHBMP: the books I could write...

This post was written as part of NHBPM – 30 health posts in 30 days.  Today's prompt: Titles of my future book. Say you’re writing a book about your life, community, condition, or Health Activism. Come up with 5 working titles and a quick book jacket synopsis.

A book?  LOL!  It would really depend on the day that diabetes has thrown us as to what "mood" my title might be.   I might write:

• Diabetes: There Isn't a "Good" Kind
• Taming the D-Monster
• My Life as a Substitute Pancreas
• Diabetes Didn't Stop Her
• The Sweet Life   (Get it? Parody of one of my kids' favorite shows, The Suite Life?)  

No matter the title, the jacket cover would have to describe our story of triumph over the monster that is diabetes.  I'd share stories about how we did our best to make life normal for Rosie from the day she was diagnosed, and how she's come along so far in life.

Think you're up for blogging every day in November about health?  Check out WEGO's challenge here.

Wear Blue on Fridays!

Are YOU wearing blue every Friday in November for Diabetes Awareness?

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