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The “D” Word: 3 month Update

Today marks 3 months since Diva was diagnosed with T1D. I can’t believe it’s already been 3 months. AND we made it through the holidays.

Diva is doing great (all things considered). She has already gained 6 pounds! Yes – she was under weight in part due to undiagnosed T1D. Now that we know and are “treating” it, she is much healthier – gaining weight, growing like a weed and has better color. She can almost check her blood sugar all by herself – although one of us is always there with her. It’s just nice that she is taking ownership of it and already at 5 wants to do things herself. She has let her aunts, an uncle and even some cousins help her check blood sugar. She knows she has to have insulin after every meal and she reminds us. Yes – our sassy Diva reminds us she needs an injection. Children are amazing.

Are the emotions still there? Oh yeah.

1. Blame and Guilt. Let’s be honest no matter what the doctor’s say I’m always going to feel a little of this. Even though I know it’s nothing we did and nothing she did. I guess I’ll just have to remind myself over and over that T1D cannot be prevented. Hopefully someday they will have a “cure”.

2. Sorrow. This emotion will always be there. It might not be as bad as when we first found out and it will probably keep getting better with time but I’m still sad that this is her new “normal”. Plus – while I gave her insulin yesterday morning it started bleeding and a bruise appeared immediately. I felt horrible even though Diva told me it was ok. When my husband came in from chores to take the kids to school she told him that I did a “bad job” and he was doing it tomorrow. The only reason I know she said this is because G-Money came up and told me. She didn’t tell ME I did a bad job and like I said told me it was ok. She knows it is hard on us and didn’t want me to feel bad. How sweet is that?!

3. Fear. This is pretty much exactly the same as when I originally posted. I am still constantly thinking of her numbers. I still think about it every night when I’m trying to sleep and it’s the first thing I think about when I wake up. Yep –still scared of everything about T1D.

4. Frustration/Mad. I think as time goes on this will switch from me being frustrated and mad to Diva being frustrated and mad. She asked me the other day WHY she got T1D. I told her that it just happened – there was no reason. Her pancreas just decided it didn’t want to work anymore. She looked at me straight in the eyes and told me to tell her the truth. It BROKE MY HEART. I told her that was the truth. That the doctor’s didn’t know why and that it wasn’t anyone’s fault. I still don’t think she believes me.

5. Happy. I’m happy that she is adjusting. I’m happy that she knows she has to have insulin and doesn’t really fight it anymore.

Diva showing off her new meter bag given to her by a really awesome family in the community – the mom in this family also has T1D.

I started this post yesterday. I went to check email this morning and I found this video before I got it to. What are the chances that I would see this video on Diva’s 3 month T1D anniversary? I have three words: Powerful, Scary, Understand. Take the time to watch and share. (Diva is still in the “honeymoon stage” – which means her pancreas is still partially working.)

https://www.yahoo.com/parenting/inside-the-scary-battle-to-save-a-teens-life-a-109233855362.html

XOXO

~The Sheiliac

Monday Must Have’s

Let’s start this week off with a positive!  Monday must have: some things I simply can’t live without…

1. Leggings

2. Crystal Light with caffeine

3. Tervis Cups

4. Work-Out Class

 

I MUST HAVE leggings. Which is funny ironic because I used to hate leggings. I said I would never wear them. I believe my words were “I don’t have the right body for them”. LOL – whatever, who cares what type of body you have. They are the most comfortable things ever. I wear them probably at least 5 out of the 7 days per week. My favorite brands of leggings are White Plum (pictured) and GAP.

I have recently discovered Crystal Light with caffeine. BEST THING EVER. I’m trying to drop a few pounds and be a little healthier, so I stopped drinking pop. However, I really really need my caffeine – I can’t won’t give it up. So I was drinking iced tea in the morning, which was fine but I still craved something a little sweeter – enter Crystal Light with caffeine. The Wild Strawberry is good, but very sweet. So I do add more water to mine than it calls for. I have found Citrus flavor – which I bought but haven’t tried yet and Peach Mango. I’m not a big “mango flavored” fan so I probably won’t be trying that one.

Tervis cups. The one pictured is from Champion Seed – where we buy our corn and soybean seeds to plant. Yes, you can customize them. Awesome, I know. Thank you to Champion Seed for supplying these every 2 years. They are awesome and I use them every single day. They don’t “sweat”, which is super because that really irritates me and they keep your beverage cold for hours! One time I had one for these bad boys filled with ice and tea – I still had at least 1/2 – 2/3 left so I stuck it in the fridge when I went to bed. The next morning the ice was still there. WHAAAAT?! Worth the extra money.

Work-Out Class. I actually really like to work-out. It makes me feel good. It gives me more energy. BUT – I need a class. Otherwise I don’t push myself and I quit when I start to feel a little tired. And I get bored. Really fast. I recently started a new class (for FREE!!!!) – it’s CrossFit like and I love it. Plus one of my besties goes too so I get to see her first thing every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Have a great week.

XOXO

~ The Sheiliac

New Year. New You?

I don’t believe in New Year’s resolutions.

This is the thing. I believe that if you want to change something you should do it right now. Why wait till January 1st? I mean, I kind of get it. After all – it’s a new year…why not start fresh. But still…

A couple days into January my husband mentioned I should try shopping less. Whaaaat? Ridiculous. The funny thing is, the very next time I opened my phone – this beauty was on it. {“Shopping less” is not a realistic resolution.} It made my day. It came from an app I have on my phone – Keep. Have you heard of it? Maybe you already have it on your phone. I compare it a lot to Pinterest – only it’s clothes, shoes, purses, etc. and you can buy them directly from the app. It picks out cool stuff, you can keep it (for later), like it, or buy it right away and it all goes into one cart regardless where you are buying it from. GENIUS. It’s fabulous. Go try it out. You’ll either thank me later or be really mad at me for introducing you to it.

Do you make New Year’s resolution’s? Do you keep them?

Christmas Recap!

I love Christmas. I’ve always loved Christmas. My mom put a tree up in every room of the house. It was awesome. I used to grab a blanket and lay underneath a tree because it was just so beautiful. Let’s be honest – I would often fall asleep but I couldn’t help it. There’s something so magical about Christmas trees and lights.

Now I get to decorate my own house and I wish I had the same ambition as my mom – but I don’t. I used to try to put a tree up downstairs, upstairs, in the bathrooms and in each bedroom. Now it’s only a tree downstairs and in each of the kids’ rooms. Fail.

I also have a thing about dressing for the holiday season. This outfit was my favorite this season. The snowflake and reindeer leggings are from White Plum (but I ordered them from Jane.com) – they are so soft and comfortable AND they aren’t see through. I mean what more could you want?! The top is Lucy (I got mine at Von Maur), I love, love, love the Lucy brand. It’s athletic type of clothes that you can wear anytime. AWESOME. The scarf is Betsy Johnson (again bought at Von Maur), I just really like Betsy Johnson, it’s kind of different and funky and fun. Plus plaid and pink – how can you go wrong?! Then of course my Ugg boots, which I’ve already written about and some pink boot socks (I’ve had to say good bye to those wonderful socks – they got a hole in them, it was a sad day. A very sad day.)

About a week before Christmas I got a text from a friend about Diva’s letter to Santa, it was hysterical. I still laugh every time I read it…G-money is “too old”, they don’t a letter to Santa in the newspaper anymore.

Santa came and brought all sorts of goodies but Diva’s FAVORITE – the Stop Sign. LOL. Her brother doesn’t think it’s nearly as cool. I believe his wording was “…most annoying gift ever”.

G-Money was pumped that Santa brought a bike though (he really wants to ride around the lake with us this summer). And then maybe my favorite picture from the holiday – Diva and one of her cousins sitting on Grandma’s bed playing ipads. I don’t know why I love this picture so much but I just do. They are best friends and can play kitchen, house, babies --- or just sit together and play ipads. It just warms my heart.

I know what you really want to know, it’s just sitting there with no answer…yes, Santa brought my husband underwear. Lots of underwear.

I’m already thinking about next Christmas and how to make it more magical. How about you? Do you plan way in advantage or last minute?

XOXO

~The Sheiliac

White-Out

I plan conventions for the Iowa Turkey Federation. It’s one of my favorite parts of my job. I love having parties and getting people together and planning conventions in part is like that!

Every year I pick a different theme – is that necessary. No. Does it give a new life to convention and make it more fun. Absolutely! So this year I went with White-Out. I got asked a lot what that meant – people wanted to know what to wear. Easy – just wear white. You don’t have to be dressed head to toe in white (although that is awesome), you just need white somewhere – white shirt, white tie, white pants, white shoes. You get the point.

I decided that everything in white would be a little boring – so I jazzed it up with gold, glitter and sequins. I know – shocker that I would pick glitter and sequins. It turned out beautiful and we had an awesome convention!

We served white turkey cookies at lunch – this was a winner in so many ways. First – turkey farmers raise white feathered turkeys. Do you know why? It’s a simple answer…when you remove dark feathers from a turkey it leaves dark spots on the skin. Consumers don’t like that and inspectors degrade the meat. So white feathers it is. Second – they are adorable, Hy-Vee does an amazing job. Third- they are so good. Seriously. Delicious.

Peppered Fries from the West Des Moines Marriott. AMAZING. So very amazing – in fact we refer to them as crack fries. That’s how good they are. NOT that crack is good – but you can’t stop eating these. They have parmesan on them and some sort of seasoning – I’m glad I don’t have the recipe or I would eat them everyday and gain a lot of weight. If you are at the WDM Marriott. Get them. You will thank me.

The hospitality room is a very important part of our convention. There is a ton of networking, lots of conversations ranging from work and turkey discussion to catching up on family news. I like to have a little something on the tables but I don’t want to take up the whole table either – these worked perfect. The bottom glass part is part of an old turkey water, then I used Epson salt, candles from the dollar store and gold ornaments, greenery and  gold “picks” from Hobby Lobby. Hospitality isn’t complete without snacks – so I used these awesome turkey bowls from Pier 1.

The banquet tables were beautiful and exactly what I wanted! A big thank you to Katie from On the Banks of Squawcreek for helping me with the centerpieces. The beautiful glass jars are old turkey waters that we got from a fellow turkey farmer – they were in an old barn. We Katie hauled them home and to the office. We washed and washed and washed them. Side note – polident works wonders, as does vinegar and Dawn dish soap. After we got them sparkling clean, we poured Epson salt in the bottom (these pictures don’t show it very well but it looks like sparkling snow – so pretty!), then put different sized candles in each one. Done. Beautiful. Fairly inexpensive. Now for my favorite part of the decorations, drumroll please…… the champagne sequin table runners. They were absolutely stunning – well worth the $20/piece rental fee. (If you love them as well and want to rent them we got them through Bella Floral in Des Moines, Iowa.) It was finished off with champagne colored silk napkins.

Here is my outfit for the White-Out. I loved it – it was so comfortable. I was lucky – I went to the White House Black Market and that day they had 25% off and I had a $100 gift certificate so I didn’t spend that much – the top, sweater and pants are all from there, the leopard print shoes I’ve had for a long time and have no idea where I bought them. In the 2nd picture I’m standing with Joel (the National Turkey Federation President) and Jill (the Iowa Turkey Federation Lobbyist).

Another great convention in the books. I’m working on next year’s theme’s…I’m thinking Tailgating and Roaring 20’s. What have you done that went over amazingly well?

The “D” word.

My best friend has Type 1 Diabetes (T1D). She’s had it as long as I’ve known her. To be honest, I didn’t ever really think about it. I knew she had, she would go the bathroom after eating or give herself insulin at the table. It was NEVER a problem. It was NEVER an inconvenience. It NEVER changed our plans. She took care of it. End of story.

Then a couple of months ago – my five year old daughter starting sleep walking, she tried to go to the bathroom in random places – like by our bed, “in” her vanity chair and by the stairs. I honestly thought, “It’s a phase – it will end soon.” Then she stayed at my mother-in-laws and she said Diva got up and went to the bathroom 4 times in the night. Again – I thought it’s just a phase. No worries. But it didn’t end, and she started planning what she was going to drink for the night. I will never forget picking the kids up from school and on the way home Diva said, “When we get home I’m going to have strawberry milk, then juice, then water.” What?! What 5 year old plans what they are drinking when they get home – let alone 3 drinks?

So one Friday during FAW (Friday After Work) – more to come about that later – I was talking about it. One of the mom’s said – “Sheila take her in. I doubted it too – just take her in.” This mom has a teenage daughter that was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes just a year ago.

So Monday rolled around, I called the doctor and made an appointment. We went in and they tested her urine. As the doctor was playing with my daughter he turned and said, “Unfortunately, there is sugar in her urine. This typically means diabetes, but can also mean kidney problems.” We will take blood and see what comes back. Go grab a bite to eat and come back in an hour or so. I talked to my mother-in-law and then my husband. I was scared. I was worried terrified. My sister-in-law drove my husband down to meet us – so we didn’t have two cars, but truthfully it’s because she was concerned he was too upset to drive. Diva and I had a great lunch at Noodles and Company – one of our absolute favorites (because they have gluten free noodles). Then we went back to the doctor. We heard the words that changed our lives forever. “Your daughter’s blood sugar is 385, she has diabetes.” No parent should ever have to hear that. From that time on our life has been complete chaos completely different.

The next morning we were sitting with the specialist at 7:30 am. We spent hours learning about diabetes and what we had to do to keep our daughter healthy alive. It was simply the worst day of my life. I had to poke my daughter’s finger and give her an injection. It took two people to hold her down while I did it. I felt like the worst most horrible mother in the world. I cried for a long time. How could I do this to my daughter several times a day, every day? When it was finished, she kicked me, she hit me and I didn’t blame her. I just held her and cried. My husband cried. My mother-in-law cried. Truthfully, I’m crying typing this. You cannot imagine the emotions you go through.

1. Blame and Guilt. I know it’s ridiculous and the doctor’s tell you a hundred times that it’s nothing you did. It’s nothing she did. It just happens. They don’t know why yet. It just is. But you can’t help but think, what if… Then the doctor’s tell you again - Type 1 Diabetes cannot be prevented and it is not curable. Hopefully someday they will know why and they will be able to prevent and/or cure it.

2. Sorrow. The weird thing about sorrow is the range it spans. I am sad that she will never have a “normal” life. I am sad that her fingers are going to get callused from all the finger pokes. I’m sorry that she has to get at least 4 injections a day. It makes me sad that she always has to have supplies with her. 24/7. And it makes me sad that people don’t understand T1D.

3. Fear. This is a BIG one. I am constantly thinking of her numbers – I am so scarred that she is going to have a low. (Low blood sugars can lead to a coma or even death) I’ve never been one to be able to fall asleep quickly. Now it’s even worse. I can’t help but think what happens if she dips low while we are sleeping and I don’t know it?! I’m scared of her rebelling when she’s older and not taking care of it properly. Basically, I’m just scared of everything when it comes to T1D.

4. Frustration/Mad. Frustration is a daily feeling. I get frustrated when we are doing everything by the book and she still gets a low or high (blood sugars). I get frustrated when she is high and is crying, screaming and throwing a fit about something ridiculous. And the frustration with the health care system and insurance is the biggest. It is ridiculous what they charge for test strips to test blood sugars simply because they know we have to have them. I’m mad that my daughter has to deal with this and I’m mad that she has to deal with it at such a young age.

5. Happy. Ok – happy seems really weird especially given the other four emotions. But it’s true. I’m happy that I KNOW what is going on with her body. I’m happy that I live in the time that I do – and that insulin exists and I can get it. I’m happy that with proper management she can have a very “normal” life.

As the days go on, it gets “easier”. The school and all the staff have been AMAZING and I can’t thank them enough. The school nurse has made sending Diva to school not scary. She knows what to watch for. She checks her blood sugar before lunch, before snack and any other time Diva doesn’t feel the best. She sends me a text each time to let me know where her numbers are and if she isn’t sure about something she calls. She is so good that when we are at home Diva will occasionally request the school nurse give her the insulin. I then have to explain we are at home and she has to pick one of us there! The school is making everything go so smoothly and I know they will take the best care of Diva.

We are very lucky to have a lot of family close by. My in-laws live just a mile up the road from us and have been lifesavers! My mother-in-law has been to all the appointments with us and has helped me with every little detail while my husband was in the field. My husband’s sisters and their families also live close and have all been so supportive. Lots of thanks to all the Diva’s cousins who have made it “cool” and held her hand, watched or gave her a high five when she’s done getting an insulin injection or getting her finger poked for a blood sugar test.

(The first picture shows some of her supplies for the day: 4 insulin injections. At least 6 pokes for blood sugar testing, ketone strips and a juice in case of a low. The other picture shows Diva with a Frozen bag that was made for her by a really sweet couple in Jewell to hold her supplies. She loves the bag – it makes it easy for her to have her stuff with her 24/7.)

It’s amazing how your life can change in a matter of seconds. It’s amazing how different you see things and people. To my bestie with T1D – I’m sorry if I wasn’t compassionate enough. I’m sorry that I didn’t really understand your disease and I’m sorry I didn’t understand how amazingly strong you are. Thank you for being an amazing friend and for helping me through the first few weeks of my daughter’s diagnosis.

So why blog about it? Writing it down helps me put everything into perspective. The T1D community is amazing. So many people have reached out and said – call me, text me, email me with any questions, concerns or frustrations. They have given gifts from food scales and measuring cups (which get used every time we are going to eat anything) to princess teddy bears and coloring books/activities. Every single gift has made Diva and me smile. I want to return the favor and help someone that just found out their child has T1D. I want to tell them it will be ok. You can do this. Yes – it is sad and it is frustrating but you have an entire community of people willing to help out anytime, anywhere.

XOXO

~ The Sheiliac