A holiday. A blackout. Another Holiday. One more holiday.

My last post came just before Thanksgiving. A busy time of year for me and my family. I thought finding time or energy to blog would be rough, but I never intended to be absent for this long. Blogging blahs aside, I'm ready to put fingers to keyboard once again with a brief recap of major events since November 20.

Thanksgiving:
2 vegans and 8 meat-eaters here in my tiny dining room.
2 dogs and 2 cats running amok, too.
Yummy sake brought by brother in law (kanpai!).
Noah's blood sugars at near-perfection all day, despite all the delicious and savory food and sweets.
Guitar Hero until the wee hours...YOU ROCK!!

December 12-18, 2008:

Ice Storm overnight.
Woke up at 2:30 a.m. to the sound of the transformer on the pole across the street exploding.
No power anywhere in practically the whole state of New Hampshire.
My neighbor and I loaded our boys in the car and drove about 20 miles round trip for coffee.
The amount of downed trees and limbs and damage was just unreal.
Pretended to be "pioneer women", cooking on the grill, lighting a fire in the fireplace to stay warm, etc. It was fun...the first day.
By the next day with no power, a cold snap had settled in, and it was unbearable to spend any time in my home.
Luckily my aunt and uncle a few streets over have a generator, and my mother came to help me wrangle all the diabetes supplies, clothes and essentials I needed for us to spend the night over there.
That one night turned into 2.
Did I mention my husband is a Verizon guy? I didn't see him for days, on account of all the repairs they needed him for. Plus, he spent the nights in our house (yes, he's crazy!) because he had heard reports of people looting copper plumbing pipes out of homes that were vacant due to the outages.
On the 5th day without power, my mom who lives across town, got hers back!! We then moved in with her for 2 nights.
I returned to my home every day, so I could make sure our pipes hadn't frozen, or that no one broke in to steal the stockpile of Christmas goodies I had bought up until that point. On one visit, my house was 37 degrees inside.
On the 7th day, I called my neighbor to see how she and her family were hanging in there, and while we were on the phone, the lights came back on, and I hightailed it back home as fast as I could.

Christmas:
Christmas Eve was wonderful. The annual party at my cousin's home was filled with all our tales of survival during the outage, and how grateful we all were to have our power back.
Jinxed.
At about 3 a.m. on Christmas morning the power went out. again.
We made the best of it, and even without the lights of the tree, we did have a cozy fire in the fireplace to enjoy.
My father in law showed up with a portable generator~ Christmas Miracle~!!!
Noah wins the award for the most patient child in the Universe...he got a Wii, and had to wait until the power came back on at 4 p.m. to try it out.

New Year's Eve:
Snow all day.
We hosted my 2 brothers in law, their girlfriends, and a few good friends.
Got Chinese and Japanese food from the place that gives you free sake bombs while you wait.
We donned funny hats and played many raucous rounds of Pictionary Man, with lots of whoopin and hollering.
The girls won! (Marie Antoinette, suckah!)
Noah was allowed to stay up to ring in the New Year with the adults.
The rest of us stayed up way too late, drank and ate waaaay too much, and had a blast saying goodbye to 2008.

So, that's where the past couple months have gone. Thanks to Rebbecca for posting the comment that made me realize how long it's been!

D-boogeyman

Noah told me he had a dream about someone coming into his room and setting his pump to give him a bunch of insulin. In the dream, he tested his blood sugar and watched as the numbers crept lower, and lower, until the last number he saw was a 5.

I asked him, "then what happened"? He replied, "I died".

I have to admit, it freaked me out so much that a chill ran through me. I thought to myself, "where the heck is this coming from, and what brought it on?" I asked him if he's worried about going low in the night, and maybe that's why he dreamed that, but he said "nah...you guys always protect me from everything".

Well, not everything, but we try.

A new day in America

"This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment. This is our time – to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American Dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth – that out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope, and where we are met with cynicism, and doubt, and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people:

Yes We Can. Thank you, God bless you, and may God Bless the United States of America." - President Elect, Barack Obama.

Yes, history has been made. This campaign has been nothing short of extraordinary, and I am grateful for being able to cast my vote, and for participating in our Nation's unfolding history.

As a diabetes community, this time of transition is more important than ever for us to be active participants in raising awareness about all types of diabetes, and to let our new President know that our goals of education, advocacy, funding research and ultimately finding a cure for diabetes is of paramount importance. It's been proven that we can be heard. Our dedication to our cause can and will be recognized. November is Diabetes Awareness Month, and in just nine days, we will be celebrating World Diabetes Day. I implore us all to take the momentum of change and run with it, by writing, talking, and through our actions.

We have been witness to what can be done when you have a dream...an idea that is given a chance to flourish, and a desire for more than the status quo. It certainly is a new day.

I better not forget...

Imagine what could happen!



Thanks to my mom for sending me this. Don't be like me. Get out there and vote!

One Day.

Noah at Disney World, 2005

I had a dream last night that we were at Disney, and Noah didn't have his pump. Jon and I were frantic. We emptied the suitcases, and looked all over the hotel room, and Noah kept saying "I don't need it today. Today, we're in Disney, and there's no diabetes here."

Pretty weird dream, considering the fact that our family vacation in Disney in 2005, is the time I think about the most as our "BD time"(Before Diabetes). It was before the biggest change in our lives to date, and I think back to that time often. We were so blissfully unaware of what was about to hit us.

I've always said I wanted one of those dream interpretation books, so I can find the hidden meaning behind dreams. The meaning behind this one, I know is a no- brainer.

I want one more BD day.

If you could have one day with no diabetes- that's 24 hours free from testing, boluses, counting carbs, feeling the dizzying lows and headach-ey highs, tubing and syringes- how would you spend your time that day? What would you do? What would you eat? Would you go anywhere special? How do you think it would feel?

Abandon Ship?

This subject has come up since day one, when the pediatrician sent us into Boston's Massachusetts General Hospital, we've been asked a million times since that day..."why not Joslin, aren't they the best"? My response is always the same "we went where they told us".

Sounds lame, but we were newbies in the world of type 1 diabetes, and being led on a medical leash was actually a welcome thing in a life that felt like it was spiraling out of control at that particular time 3 short years ago. MGH has been good to us. They taught us a lot. Got us through the "boot camp" phase of parenting and clinical care of a newly diagnosed type 1 child. We love the staff there, they are always available to call you back if there's a problem, and we are incredibly blessed and lucky in geography to be a stone's throw from some of the best medical facilities in the entire country. (wait for the big "but")...

BUT, It's an adjustment when the doctor we've been working with, and getting to know is suddenly gone. Being a teaching program, Noah's on his 4th doctor in 3 years. This past Friday, it happened again. When Noah's name was called, it was by yet another "new" doctor. Introductions and small talk were made as we snaked through the maze of hallways on our way to the exam room. Jon, Noah and I took a collective deep breath and entered .

She was nice enough, I'll give her that. But zero bedside manner, and to me- especially when the doctor is working with children- is a huge problem. As she rifled through tons of paperwork, looking for the one with Noah's pump history printed out on it, I could feel Jon tense up as he sat beside me. She positively grilled us, which is fine- we got a weird feeling from the manner with which it was done. Later, over lunch Jon and I would discuss how we felt like we were in trouble, sitting in the Principal's office , afraid to say the wrong thing that would surely result in detention.

I dunno, it just felt bad and uncomfortable. And they didn't DO anything. I feel like when we speak about certain issues or concerns, there's no feedback. It's frustrating because even though we've been in this life for three years,we know there's always something new to learn. That being said, don't you think some new information, or helpful advice would be offered up from time to time? yeah, I thought so too, but it doesn't happen there. It's situations like Friday, and the switching of doctors over the years that have us wondering if a change from MGH to Joslin might do us some good.

I've always been the kind of person that hates to rock the boat, I don't ever want to offend anyone, but this is my kid's health- heck, his LIFE, at stake here. Why not expect the best? Why not leave no diabetes stone unturned? As parents, I feel we shouldn't allow ourselves to get complacent. We're going to get the wheels in motion for the long overdue switch to Joslin. I'd welcome any advice on what to expect from those of you who have had to break ties with a doctor, or switched from one hospital to another.

On a side note, we had a really great time in Boston after the appointment was over. We did the Boston Duck Tours. It's one of those touristy things you have to do at least once. It was the perfect day for it, and it was educational and fun. Noah even got to steer the duck boat!

No laughing during Mass!

Yesterday, the three of us sat in the pew as our pastor gave the few closing announcements after mass. A few rows up, and to the left, I noticed a boy, old enough to know better, with his finger knuckle-deep in his right nostril.
I turned toward Noah, and a horrified thought went through my head- if he sees that kid, it's all over, I'll never get him to stop giggling. How am I going to distract him?
I was too late. Noah's mouth hung open, watching the boy deposit his nose nugget into his mouth.
Nudging Noah with my elbow, I hissed "don't even..." as we both glared. That's when I lost it.
I made such an effort to not laugh. Every second that passed watching this kid was like torture. He just wouldn't stop. As I tried to hold in the snicker rising in my throat, a soft *snort*! escaped me. By now, Noah had tears streaming down his ruddy cheeks and our two sets of shoulders jerked freakishly up and down, as if pulled by some crazy puppeteer. My husband looked at us and moved two steps away, probably convinced that by doing so, he was telling the rest of the parishioners, "I don't even know who these crazy people are".

I won't be getting any awards for being a good influence this week!