Media Likes Turning Diabetes into a Joke

It is no secret that the media likes to make jokes about diabetes and being fat.  There is a problem

Sophie now.  

with that.  Not all diabetes is the same.  Type 1 diabetes is different than Type 2.  Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disorder.  The body attacked itself and in this particular case it attacked the Beta Cells in the Pancreas that makes insulin.  Type 2 has various other reason that cause it, some of them are weight and bad eating habits, others are just genetics.  You don't have to be fat to be a Type 2 diabetic. But the media and Michelle Obama shown a light on stopping diabetes, but they never said which type.  You can to some extent prevent Type 2 diabetes, but you can't prevent Type 1.   So what comes out the of the media's disinformation.  You get children with Type 1 being told a bunch of bull Hockey that lead to false hope, and bad feelings about themselves.

She is my super hero because she fights daily
for her life. Insulin isn't just medicine,
IT IS LIFE SUPPORT.  Without Insulin a
Type 1 Diabetic will die. She is so
 brave to face it.

My daughter Sophie is a Type 1 Diabetic.  She was diagnosed at 3 years old.  She turns 8 years old this year and has thrived e of her diabetes.  It is a constant fight to control her glucose (blood sugar).  It is an even harder fight to battle the stupidity of people.  On more than one occasion people have made comments that are hurtful to my daughter because of their stupidity and ignorance.

We were in a grocery with Sophie.  Handy Hubby and I were talking about products comparing which would be a wiser choice for Sophie's diabetes.  This well meaning woman interrupted us, "If you put her on a diet and make her lose weight she will no longer be diabetic."  That happened 6 months before the picture to the left was taken.  As you can see, the girl didn't have any weight to lose.

 Sophie getting treated at Arkansas Children's
Hospital after a Care flight to the hospital.
This is day 2 of 5 for new diagnosis of Type 1
diabetes. Keep in mind she is 3 here.

Why do people think it is okay to say things like this to mothers with diabetic children?  For one, Michelle Obama and the Media have painted diabetes with a broad brush that includes both types of diabetes as something you have done to yourself.  The media and TV shows have made jokes about diabetes.  Just in the last 2 months I can call to mind 2 instances.  One of which is an mistake of ignorance, that was Fuller House.There was a joke about handing out raisins and diabetes pamphlets at Halloween.  That is a simple lack of knowledge of the different types of diabetes.  While it is hurtful to young impressionable diabetics, it comes from a lack of knowledge. The other instance is was this past weekend on SNL. The made a joke about McDonald's making Big Macs in 2 sizes now for each type of Diabetes.  Why is this more offensive?  Because they know there are 2 types of diabetes and still joke about both as if it is the person's fault.  

This what Sophie uses on a typical day.
This is the minimum.  7 finger sticks  to
check her glucose and 4 shots of insulin.
How  different would your day be if
this was added to your daily routine?

This is at Texas Children's
Hospital in Houston Texas.
She got croup at 5 years old.
Her doctor prescribed her
steroids to help with her
breathing.  The problem here
steroids raise your blood glucose.
Sophie's went so high she went into
DKA (Diabetic KetoAcidosis).
She spent 5 more days in a hospital.
Every cold/flu or other bug can bring
us to a hospital stay even when we are
careful. 

Life is difficult enough for a diabetic whether type 1 or type 2 without everybody telling you its your fault. Imagine being a young girl that even as an 8 year old likes fashion, fashion world tells every girl/lady/woman/female that they aren't good enough to begin with, now picture the media telling her it was her fault she is diabetic.  This is why, in my opinion, we have a drastic increase in cases of Diabolemia. Diabolemia is a condition where mainly girls with diabetes believe they need to lose weight and so they stop taking there insulin to put themselves into DKA (a serious condition where the body starts eating its own muscle and organs start shutting down) so they can lose weight.

Now think about this, would you go to an 8 year old with cancer and imply it is there fault they have SNL to make jokes about cancers?  No then why with diabetes.
cancer?  Would it be acceptable for

Sophie and her brothers.  

There are Type 1 parents calling for a boycott of SNL and NBC that is there choice.  I am not asking you to do that. Although writing letters would be helpful. I am posting a link where you can read another mothers response to the SNL joke.

SNL Diabetic Joke

Thank you.

Test strips, shots, and lots of attitude (the life of a Type 1 Diabetic)

With November being Diabetes awareness month, I thought I would share some of our journey with Type 1 diabetes. Many have called Type 1 Diabetes Juvenile or Insulin dependant diabetes.  It is different that Type 2 diabetes which gets mentioned tons in the news and on TV.  There is a big difference. Type 1 is not curable, it isn't because they ate too much sugar or are overweight, it has nothing to do with lifestyle.  Type 1 is an autoimmune disorder, which means the body's immune system attacked the pancreas and killed off the Beta Cells which produce insulin.  Most commonly it happens in families, but not always.  In our family there is no Type 1 diabetics but there are other autoimmune disorders like Celiac Disease, psoriasis, and others.

This was a few days later as she
was starting to feel better and
 got to go play in the playroom.

This was when she was first
 in Arkansas Children's
Hospital, she still felt bad and
 was swollen from the
first bit of insulin.

My daughter Sophie was diagnosed with Type 1 (juvenile) diabetes when she was 3yrs old.  As a matter of fact she was diagnosed on April 8, 2012. Which was Easter that year and also John and I's 10th wedding anniversary.  Well everybody wants to remember their 10th anniversary and it is guaranteed I will never forget it. One of the hardest things in my life was watching the helicopter take off with my daughter in it heading for Arkansas Children's Hospital.   She stayed in the hospital to stabilize her and diabetic education for 5 days.  Mom and Dad had to learn about diet, exercise, and how to give shots.  At first she was angry, she didn't understand why she had to have so many shots.  This was all hard to explain to a 3 yr old.  Play therapy helped her a lot with that, although she still had her moments. We kept saying, at least this will be all she knows, she won't remember life before.

Sophie's  first soccer game

Fast forward almost 5 years, Sophie is doing fine.  She is in second grade and thriving.  She even played soccer this year.  She runs and plays, has birthday cake, jumps on the trampoline, and acts like every other kid.  She goes to school and church activities.  She played soccer this year.  She really loved playing with the other kids. She had to have her bow in her hair and her ribbons on her shirt.  She also had hot pink soccer cleats. There is only one difference she has to check her blood sugar and get shots.

 I tell her all the time there is nothing she can't do.  Every time I hear of an actor, musician, pro athlete, or high powered professional with Type 1 diabetes we talk about it.  If you know of any let us know in the comments.   We still have our ups and downs, but for the most part she is just like any other kid.

This represents the finger sticks and
shots per day.

I thought I would give you a idea of her day.  Sophie wakes up at 6:45am every morning and checks her blood sugar.  Then eats her breakfast and gets a shot of insulin calculated to counteract the carbs (not sugar) in her food. Then about 10 am we check her sugar again and she may need a snack.  At lunch she checks her sugar again then eats lunch.  When she is done at lunch you guessed it another shot of insulin.  She checks her sugar when she gets home from school and has a snack.  At dinner she checks her sugar again, eats, and has a shot of insulin.  One final time at bed time, she checks her sugar, possibly a snack because she can't go to sleep unless her sugar is at least 125, then she gets a shot of her long acting insulin which is different from the one she gets at meals.  If she is sick or had a day of ups or downs I get up and check her check her sugar to make sure she is okay at 2 am.  Then we repeat the next morning.  She does this everyday for the rest of her life.  Insulin isn't a medicine it is life support.

So if you counted, that is a minimum of 4 shots a day and 7 finger sticks a day.  Many people are afraid of needles and many more are just nervous about shots and needles.  Think about  what Sophie or any type 1 diabetic endures in a day, week, month, year, or lifetime.   Just like the picture says, She is my super hero. She is extremely strong and awesomely brave.  She is a super hero!!!!  Just like all Type 1 Diabetics.

Swollen noses, gray hairs, grody patina, friends, and antiques

My week started out like any other week, school and work.  Sophie and I even made cookies during the fall break.  I love baking with the kids.  Then Thursday night after the cookies, there was a wrestling incident that ended in Mom catching an elbow to the bridge of her nose.  Yes, I caught my husband's elbow in the nose.  Luckily I don't bruise like most people, so I don't have 2 black eyes.  Instead I look like I haven't slept in a couple of weeks and have a major sinus infection.  No big deal.  Mr. Handy Hubby really felt bad, he made me a special ice pack that worked better than any ice pack ever.  In a quart zippy baggie fill with equal parts hand sanitizer and water, then he just popped them in the freezer for two hours.  It never freezes hard, it gels more like a great margarita.  You have to wrap it in a towel because it is colder than ice. It molds perfectly to the area you apply it too.

Friday while at home with the little kids, by the way Ethan hates that title, Matthew's work called.  He had a seizure at work.  I ran up to get him and he was still a little altered by it.  I get him home.  He is alright.  We are still just counting down the days until the neurology appointment. Waiting for doctors is going to make me go completely gray way too early.  I mean common, I thought the military was bad about the hurry up and wait game but these specialist could teach the military a thing or five about hurry up and wait.  We have been dealing with this seizure stuff for over a month now and still have 3 weeks to wait before we see the neurologist.

So Friday night we had a pair of teen brothers staying the night with Ethan.  Eli and JJ are great kids that go to church with us.  I made homemade calzones for dinner. Yum Yum right, well kind of, I need to tweak this recipe a bit more.  They were good but I prefer to have a bit more flavor to the crust. But the teenagers did not complain.  The boys stayed up late and played Super Mario Brothers on the Wii.  Surprising that the Wii still entertains teens, although they kept saving things like "This takes me back to my childhood" and "I loved playing this as a kid".  It is bad enough I have a swollen face, and more gray hairs this week, now they are making it worse with their comments about "when they were kids".  I thought it was funny.  Handy Hubby and I exchanged looks several times, rolled eyes, and snickered more than once.

The teens wanted to sleep in on Saturday. Go figure.  I had different ideas.  I made them all a big breakfast.  Pancakes, eggs, sausage, and bacon.  All that work and they ate and went back to bed.  Teenagers, go figure.  See the young can't hang.  While the teens were back to crashing, my friend Tammy came into town and we hit the Dollar Generals.  I got 3 rolls of landscape fabric and a metal table/plant stand for all of $2.50.  Woohoo big spender. Then she and I hit up the local antique store.  I have to give a shout out to Old Songs Sung antique store in downtown Cushing, OK.  If you are in the neck of the woods, you have to stop in there.  They have everything.  For this trip I was hunting out antique flatware with a nice grody (yes I still use Grody) patina to it. I had and idea.  Jackpot!! $6 later I had 4 knives and 2 forks.  I already had 3 spoons at home to complete my idea.

Tammy and I do craft shows together heading up to the Holidays.  We use the extra cash for Christmas money and black Friday shopping.   But this particular idea is actually for my house.  Although I think I am going to make a few to take to shows this year.  It is an organizer for the kitchen.  It will hold my rolling pin and my aprons.  This will free up some space in my drawers and be a more decorative way to hang my aprons than just a nail.   Tammy also dropped of some ribbons and a wreath so I can make bows for some awesome wreathes she is making. Busy busy busy.

You know if you think about it, I go to an antique store to get things with a grody aged patina and with a swollen nose and more gray hair I have a grody aged patina.  I accept that.

Cows, giggles, green pastures, and dirt road wisdom.

This morning I guess I really needed to clear my head and connect with some country.  This came in the form of Boony cruisin' with a couple of really awesome ladies in the dodge truck.  We sat in the truck blasting country music, laughing, giggling, and bouncing around the truck on some Oklahoma back country dirt roads.  We saw some beautiful fields and barns, we talked to some cows, and even had a couple of scares.   We were getting a cold front coming in so there were some clouds on the horizon that maybe it all the better.  One thing you can say about Oklahoma, it has beautiful farmland and beautiful big skies.  Both of which make for breathtaking photographs.   

It was a quiet morning at least until the three of us came bouncing through.  My two cruisin' buddies needed the head clearing moment just as much as I did.  We stopped and talked to the cows.  Watched a few sneaking their breakfast on the other side of the fence.  You know because the  grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.  As it turns out the grass isn't always greener on the other side.  Sometimes we just think it is.  One thing I have learned in my forty years is, no matter how green someone's life appears, everybody has brown spots now and then.  See these cows are leaning out eating the short grass that is turning quicker even though they have thicker fuller grass in their pasture.  I think it is just how they sit it.  You know that is just the point.  We are all just so busy trying to have the better greener pasture that we are missing what is right in front of us.   We need to just stop and look around.  If you look at your own pasture you might find it is greener, more peaceful, and happier than those Joneses we always seem to be trying to keep up with.  And you never know they might just be look from their pasture at us and think it is greener because we have a more simple life.  

So  here is what I am thinking.  We need to all slow down take a drive out in the country on a dirt road.  Maybe just seeing the simple beauty of the barns, silos, pastures, cows, and big sky then count our blessings.  We have our husbands, our kids, our family, we have a place to live, food to eat, electricity to keep it not to hot or cold, we have a way to get around. These are all blessings.  We need to keep that in mind a little bit everyday.  We need to be thankful for these blessing and not worry as much about our neighbors blessings.


So maybe  looking at my pictures that I took will help you realize what I realized this morning.  I also realized nothing beats a couple of good friends in a truck boony cruisin' on some red dirt roads.  An other thing to remember is always keep a camera with you.  You never beautiful sites you might see on a beautiful October Oklahoma morning.  Not to mention some awesome country music can cure any thing that ails you.

One more piece of dirt road wisdom, don't forget what you have been through because it made you who you are today.  It also made you stronger.  So while the future is a little fuzzy right now it will be crystal clear and in the rear view mirror soon.  

Peace, Love, and Dirt road happiness.

If you like this or other stories on this blog click follow and invite friends.  A couple of recipes coming soon.

New meets old, recipes, memories, and windmills.

This past week my grandmother went home to heaven.  While it is sad for us and we will miss her, she lived a long life and deserves to rest and see other family including her husband that have passed on.  We went down to the funeral over the weekend.  I hated the reason for the visit but loved being there.  My grandmother was laid to rest in an tiny old cemetery in a tiny dying town in Texas, but the area feels like home.  We took the dirt roads back to town.  On one of the dirt roads not far from where my grand parents used to live, I pulled over and took this picture.  It struck me the new and the old windmills.  It struck me how many wind farms the ranchers in the area had gone too.  But with the recent droughts in Texas I can certainly understand the need to supplement income.  

I received box of things from my grandmother's apartment.  There were pictures and mementos, but one thing had struck me...a recipe full of recipes cut from newspapers, magazines, and product labels. 

 This last thing the folder of recipes struck me as very interesting.  I am constantly patrolling Facebook, blogs, and Pintrest for recipes then save them and print them.  Some recipes I use and some I just mean to use.  But sitting in the  dining room floor excitedly going through my grandmothers stash of recipes, something dawned on me.  I do the same thing my grandmother did, just with different media.  Where I go through Facebook, blogs, and Pintrest and saving recipes with good intentions is just the same as my grandmother going through newspapers, magazines, and product labels and clipping and saving recipes with the best of intentions.   Just like the picture of the windmills, you have the old and the new, they do basically the same things but in slightly different ways.  

I sat in my dining room floor with this treasure trove of recipes that my Grandmother thought were worth saving, I felt a connection with her that wasn't previously there.  It is odd we were always pretty close but this made me feel closer.  I held the few hand written ones, boy what treasures.  There were a couple in my Sister's hand writing.  Which is funny to me, it is no family secret that my sister couldn't cook for many years.  She can cook it just took her longer to come to it.  You know the old saying "You never trust a skinny cook"  my sister is the embodiment of that saying.  While she is better, she is still a skinny cook.  (Sis, if you read this I don't mean it to hurt your feelings. I love you.)  I did come across an very interesting recipe printed on bright yellow paper.  It was from a Girl Scout newsletter.  It is for Dump Cake.  It was a recipe I modified when I was a Junior Girl Scout or maybe a Cadette.  It got modified because I have always hated reading directions, it comes from dyslexia.  The original cake was supposed to be all dumped in at once and I layered it.  I also cooked it in a dutch oven over a fire instead of the oven.  The fact that she kept that recipe for this many years was very touching.  I think the recipes we keep are as much a scrapbook of our life as pictures are.  I mean after all we are what we eat right?  So the recipes tell our story right?

Gump (Dump) Cake 

• 2 Cans of  Blueberry or Cherry pie filling
• 1 box yellow cake mix
• 1 can crushed pineapple
• 1 stick of butter
• coconut

In a dutch oven lined with foil, or regular cake pan (no size given but I think a 9x13 greased)

1st layer pie filling

2nd layer pineapple including the juice

3rd layer cake mix (dry)

4th layer butter cut into small pieces and spread  over the top

5th layer the coconut

Bake 350 for an hour or until top is golden brown

 I am going to have to make this soon just for the memories.  I don't think I have made this since It was printed.   Which was quite a while ago.

Unspoken traditions that make Mom giggle.

Photo by Alyssa Hawkins Photography

Little Miss has always done photoshoots and she has always had a blast doing them.  She loves the camera and the camera loves her. When she was a little Little Miss I would trade sewing skills for photography work.  I could do pictures with no problem I had a film camera not a digital.  I knew for toddler age I would shoot about 3 rolls of film to get 4 pictures that were decent.  Toddlers are so fun and busy.   But for this particular shoot my friend and awesome photographer Alyssa Hawkins in Simms, TX was taking pictures of Little Miss.  I had made Cricket and Grasshopper costumes for her daughters for halloween.   So she was doing a fall mini session at a horse auction barn.  Love it.  So I made Little Miss some overalls with farm accents.  Best part I made them so Little Miss could still easily potty train.  I loved those little overalls.   Alyssa took some amazing photos of Little Miss.  But she also started an unspoken  tradition  embedded deep within Little Miss's mind.  At fall photo shoots, I get to eat the apple props.  

Fast forward to last week and mom doing the fall photoshoot .  Little Miss immediately grabs an apple out of the basket of prop apples and started eating it.  Funny it is even the same type of apple.  Years later and nothing has changed. My little girl still stealing apples off of the photoshoot set and eating them.  I wonder if 5 years down the road we will be doing middle school fall pictures and she steals an apple prop and eats it?  

You know it is the little things in life that make you smile and giggle.  This was one of those times.  It actually too 3 days and standing in the kitchen if front of the basket of apples for me to  remember why I loved the apple thing in Little Miss's pictures.  This is all Little Miss, her idea.  It makes my heart smile to think about this.

What does a diabetic dream?

Taken Saturday morning at the park after playing with
the sadistic Goose.  Little Miss decided to stop and
smell the crepe myrtles.  

Little Miss was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when she was 3 years old.  She doesn't really remember life before diabetes.  She is 7 now and it is just a way of life to her.  Although she realizes that she is different from friends because she has to have finger sticks and shots at every meal. But other than that we try to keep her life as normal as possible.

I don't know what typical little girls dream about because Little Miss is my only girl. But I certainly don't remember the boys having dreams like this when they were 7.  My oldest dreamed of trains, Legos, and pirate ships, he is very creative and imaginative.  The middle child dreamed of beats and dance moves, he is BFAB (Born From A Boombox), music rules his world. Little Miss doesn't talk about her dreams much.  She has more than occasional nightmares and frights, these usually follow sugar roller coasters.  If you have a type 1 diabetic you fully understand the sugar roller coaster, for those that don't understand I will give a quick explanation.  No matter what you do diabetes have ups and downs, and when you have a high or a low they make you feel bad and there is typically some sort of bounce like Newton's 3rd law of motion (For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction).

Little Miss taking a few sips during a photo shoot
 because the heat and sun affect her Blood sugar in a
 bad way.
Taken By Misti Houk of HouKreative Photography.   

Well, anyways, Little Miss woke up smiling this morning, which is a totally awesome thing seeing as she is NOT a morning person.  She growls when she wakes up and it takes her a while to stop growling at her brothers.  This morning she was smiling.  She said, "You woke me up from a good dream."  I asked her what she had dreamt about.  "There were unicorns and I got to ride a pink one and we went to a candy store where I could have what I wanted and no shots because I wasn't diabetic."  Well there you have it.  That is what a 7 year old diabetic girl dreams about.  Riding a pink unicorn to the candy store and getting what she wants with no shots or finger sticks involved.

You know she amazes me.  It isn't often that she complains or makes any reference about being diabetic.  She just accepts it and runs with it.  Most of the time, I think it affects the rest of us more than her, but in a 7 year old's telling of her dream, it is made real that no matter how normal we try to keep her life it still weighs on her conscience.