Every week day at 11:35 am I hold my breath and wait to see how the rest of my day is going to go. When Cara walks in that door from school at 11:35 all it takes is one look, one look and I can tell if I'm in for a good or bad day!
Will she come in with a wonderful big smile from cheek to cheek, wide eyed and sharing a bunch of funny and charming stories from school?
OR
Will she come in with the nastiest look on her face with no eye contact. When I try and talk to her she looks at the ground and TELLS me how hungry she is and makes a growling noise when she is not impressed with the lunch menu.
OR
Will she come in the door with her head on my father's shoulder being carried and having a lifeless body and look on her face because she does not have the energy to walk the 3 doors down from the bus stop.
All it takes is one look!
Every day at 11:35 am I hold my breath and hope to see the sweet, wide eyed, smiley faced Cara, telling me all the wonderfully funny stories from her morning at school but because of Diabetes because of this awful disease I see less and less of this little girl. I miss this little girl, but I DO cherish and I am very thankful for every moment that I get to spent with whatever side of Cara I get to see walking through my door at 11:35am!
Friday, January 29, 2010
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Science Project and a wonderful thought!
Today Connor came home from school soooo excited that he had signed up for the science fair at school. Connor loves science, he loves building and creating neat and different things.
All this means for me is another project that I will have to work on. Kailyn my oldest HAS to be in the science fair as a part of her science mark in school. Great, so now I have two science projects due on the exact same day, that I will need to figure out how and what to do, make interesting and complete.
So of course Kailyn asked Connor what he was going to do for the science fair and guess what he said......the most original, science project EVER......a volcano!! and the funnest thing is Kailyn was very upset with her little brother because she was thinking of making a volcano as well. Very creative kids I have, let me tell you!
But in the middle of all the fighting Connor decided that he wanted to change his idea. He decided that he is going to be a scientist and discover a cure for type 1 diabetes....So all of you out there hold your breath because Connor is cooking up one HELL of a project, THE CURE FOR DIABETES!!
Good Luck Buddy and thanks,..... if only it was the simple
Monday, January 25, 2010
The sick to my stomach, panicky O.U.C.H this is going to hurt, hold your breath and tense your hands and shoulders feeling
I don't know what it is lately but I'm having a very hard time dealing with all Cara's shots.
We have been doing injection for almost a year now. I really can not believe that "D" will have been with us for a year on Feb 13th 2010...WOW. Anyways from day one I have never had any issues when it came to the injections. I never felt that sick to my stomach, panicky O.U.C.H this is going to hurt, hold your breath and tense your hands and shoulders feeling when giving or seeing Cara get her insulin shots until NOW.... for no reason?? all of a sudden??
What is going on? And it is not just doing the injections or the sight of Cara getting her injections that gives me that feeling now, but even the thought of the injections. As I write this post thinking about her poor thin little arms, her tinny little thighs or her non-existent tush and inserting a very tin, sharp metal rod shaped needle I start to get that feeling. I get that sick to my stomach, panicky O.U.C.H this is going to hurt, hold your breath and tense your hands and shoulders feeling.... I think that I'm developing a phobia of needles!! Not good when you have a child that depends on needles to live!!
AS LONG AS IT IS NOT CARA GOING THROUGH THIS FEELING, I think that I will be fine, it is just very strange?!?!
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Thank You Miss B
I don't know if Cara's teacher reads this blog are even if she knows about this blog. And I know many, many post on this blog has been very negative (to use a nice word) towards Cara's school and sometimes even the staff at the school. BUT today I need to give a big THANK YOU to Miss B Cara's JK teacher.
THANK YOU MISS B for taking the time and calling me to make sure that everything you did that morning was right!
AND THANK YOU MISS B for understanding and correcting a low, when Cara needed someone to help her.
AND THANK YOU MISS B for taking the time to try and understand this disease that is so very complected, even to the ones that live with it every day.
AND THANK YOU MISS B for understanding and learning how to read carbs on packages.
AND THANK YOU MISS B for listening to every word that I have said about this disease and understanding that activity (gym class) may send Cara into a low.
AND THANK YOU MISS B for thinking above and beyond the first low that you treated and realizing that Cara needed a little bit extra to get her through gym class safety.
AND THANK YOU MISS B for learning and understanding the signs and changes that occur with Cara when she experiences a low or high.
Really I just want to THANK YOU for keeping my little girl safe and healthy while she is away from home and in school.
THANK YOU SO MUCH!
THANK YOU MISS B for taking the time and calling me to make sure that everything you did that morning was right!
AND THANK YOU MISS B for understanding and correcting a low, when Cara needed someone to help her.
AND THANK YOU MISS B for taking the time to try and understand this disease that is so very complected, even to the ones that live with it every day.
AND THANK YOU MISS B for understanding and learning how to read carbs on packages.
AND THANK YOU MISS B for listening to every word that I have said about this disease and understanding that activity (gym class) may send Cara into a low.
AND THANK YOU MISS B for thinking above and beyond the first low that you treated and realizing that Cara needed a little bit extra to get her through gym class safety.
AND THANK YOU MISS B for learning and understanding the signs and changes that occur with Cara when she experiences a low or high.
Really I just want to THANK YOU for keeping my little girl safe and healthy while she is away from home and in school.
THANK YOU SO MUCH!
Monday, January 18, 2010
Glucerna, the drinks of picky "D" kids
Hello fellow D bloggers and D blogger readers,Today I will be talking to you about Glucerna, my new favorite diabetic product.
Cara has always been a very picky eater, almost bird like, she is a snacker, someone who likes to pick at her meals and will just eat a little bit at a time. I'm a big believer in natural consequences and I never really got into the "dinner time fight" with my kids if they did not want to eat then they would be hungry and there is no food until the next schedule meal time.....well that is until Cara was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.
After type 1 diabetes entered our lives we had to find a way to get Cara to sit at the table and actually eat meals at meal time. Our biggest question at diagnosis was "what if she won't eat at her meal times"?? because we knew Cara and her eating habits.
When Cara was in the hospital they laid out this amazing but totally impossible meal plan for her but because she was starving at diagnoses, yes I can actually use that word in it's proper meaning. Cara's body was starving itself and once we figured out the problem for this, she had the biggest appetite ever, she was eating everything in sight. It really was a great feeling knowing she was feeling better and knowing that her body was finally able to use the food the way it is suppose to. But we also knew that this amazing and wonderful appetite was going to slow down and when it did what are we going to do? We can't just give her juice to cover dinner time, or some kind of junk food that will get us the carbs she needs in a small amount of food when she does not want to eat.
Glucerna was our answer, she loves all the flavors, it's fast and it is nutritious and made for diabetes....perfect. It is a complete and balanced meal replacement and or snack with 26 essential vitamins and minerals and is lactose and gluten-free. So when she does not like what we are eating or just does not want to eat it is time for Glucerna!! We love it and it does miracles with her blood sugars.... and sorry this post sounded like an add! :)
Monday, January 11, 2010
"I Don't Want to GO to School"!
As parents we all have heard this phase one or twice in the early mornings getting ready for school "I don't want to go to school today".
Having 6 kids, 4 of which are in school I have become quite good at ignoring this request and shoving my little bundles of joy out the door to their school bus every morning. HOWEVER when that child is a Type 1 diabetic and saying "I don't want to go to school today" boy that's something that you just can't ignore.
You can't just throw on their clothes, try to give them breakfast (if they don't eat it too bad for them), wash their hands and face, brush their hair and teeth, put on their jackets, hats, boots and back-pack and send them out the door.
NO there is 3 very important things that I must do for Cara before she can go anywhere. She must eat, she must have her insulin and she must get dressed. Anything else that gets done is just icing on the cake! lol
So first step: Eating, I must make sure that Cara eats all her breakfast, which this morning went from cereal with milk to just apple sauce really fast. Cara did not want to go to school and she knows that she is not going or doing anything until she has the right amount of carbs in that little belly of hers. And because apple sauce is easier to slide down her throat when she refuses to eat, we have learned that during night time lows, apple sauce for breakfast it was. However I have never given apple sauce for breakfast. It has always been just for snack, so I was a little worried about that. It did slow me down, and I did have to take sometime to make sure that I was making the right choice of hurrying her along to get her to school but I knew that her nurse will be at the school to take her BG at 9:30am. So back to getting this kid ready for school. 35grams of Apple sauce all down...Check!
Step Two: Insulin time, usually she eats before I give her the injection of insulin that keeps her functioning and ALIVE . But especially this morning when she is refusing to eat we had to wait until she was all done that apple sauce to make sure she has enough carbs to cover the insulin that I'm about to inject into her system. Insulin is usually a breeze with Cara. It has not always been like this and of course on a day that she did not want to go to school she was whining and moving all over the place....not an easy task giving insulin to a moving object! However insulin....Check!
Step Three: Getting dressed, In the morning we always keep Cara in her pj's until injection time, it is just easier to give the injection when there are no clothes to get in the way, so that means she needs to eat, then injection, the get dressed. Normally Cara will get herself dress with just a little bit of help from me, help doing up the buttons and putting the socks on. But today a day that she did not want to go to school and she knows that we are on a very tight time schedule to make the bus she was like dead weight trying to get her dressed. But we did get her dressed and it even matched.....Check!
It really is a fine working, oiled machine getting a T1 child ready for school and one little phase really puts a wrench in that machine. Not to mention that we also had 2 other kids that we where trying to ignore their pleads of not going to school and get them out the door too.
Just a side note Cara was feeling fine, she just missed 4 days of school the week earlier and her BG # was perfect..... so really she just did not want to go because of laziness and no other reason!! If there was a REAL reason I would have let her stay home, it is just way too much work getting her on the bus just to get a phone call in 30mins to come pick up my sick kid!
Having 6 kids, 4 of which are in school I have become quite good at ignoring this request and shoving my little bundles of joy out the door to their school bus every morning. HOWEVER when that child is a Type 1 diabetic and saying "I don't want to go to school today" boy that's something that you just can't ignore.
You can't just throw on their clothes, try to give them breakfast (if they don't eat it too bad for them), wash their hands and face, brush their hair and teeth, put on their jackets, hats, boots and back-pack and send them out the door.
NO there is 3 very important things that I must do for Cara before she can go anywhere. She must eat, she must have her insulin and she must get dressed. Anything else that gets done is just icing on the cake! lol
So first step: Eating, I must make sure that Cara eats all her breakfast, which this morning went from cereal with milk to just apple sauce really fast. Cara did not want to go to school and she knows that she is not going or doing anything until she has the right amount of carbs in that little belly of hers. And because apple sauce is easier to slide down her throat when she refuses to eat, we have learned that during night time lows, apple sauce for breakfast it was. However I have never given apple sauce for breakfast. It has always been just for snack, so I was a little worried about that. It did slow me down, and I did have to take sometime to make sure that I was making the right choice of hurrying her along to get her to school but I knew that her nurse will be at the school to take her BG at 9:30am. So back to getting this kid ready for school. 35grams of Apple sauce all down...Check!
Step Two: Insulin time, usually she eats before I give her the injection of insulin that keeps her functioning and ALIVE . But especially this morning when she is refusing to eat we had to wait until she was all done that apple sauce to make sure she has enough carbs to cover the insulin that I'm about to inject into her system. Insulin is usually a breeze with Cara. It has not always been like this and of course on a day that she did not want to go to school she was whining and moving all over the place....not an easy task giving insulin to a moving object! However insulin....Check!
Step Three: Getting dressed, In the morning we always keep Cara in her pj's until injection time, it is just easier to give the injection when there are no clothes to get in the way, so that means she needs to eat, then injection, the get dressed. Normally Cara will get herself dress with just a little bit of help from me, help doing up the buttons and putting the socks on. But today a day that she did not want to go to school and she knows that we are on a very tight time schedule to make the bus she was like dead weight trying to get her dressed. But we did get her dressed and it even matched.....Check!
It really is a fine working, oiled machine getting a T1 child ready for school and one little phase really puts a wrench in that machine. Not to mention that we also had 2 other kids that we where trying to ignore their pleads of not going to school and get them out the door too.
Just a side note Cara was feeling fine, she just missed 4 days of school the week earlier and her BG # was perfect..... so really she just did not want to go because of laziness and no other reason!! If there was a REAL reason I would have let her stay home, it is just way too much work getting her on the bus just to get a phone call in 30mins to come pick up my sick kid!
Monday, January 4, 2010
Bye-Bye 2009 my year in review.....what a ride it was!
2009 has come and gone with many new experiences, friends and memories. It was quite the roller coaster of a year with all of its ups and downs, twist and turns!
So I thought that I would share with you my year in review:
Dec 2008: My family and I were faced with a lot of changes in December. We had moved. It was an extremely stressful time for all of us, a new house, a new job for the hubby, a new school and new friends for the kids. However we were back home with our family and some old friends so there was a little bit of comfort. Even though I think for my 12 year old's life was in pieces after the move. We never really realize how much big changes like moves effects the kids. December was also the month of sickness for the whole family. Maybe from the stress maybe from an extremely contagious virus....not really sure. But we all took our turn with the flu from the beginning of December right up until the end. We had buckets around our Christmas tree opening presents and unable to visit any family of friends during the holidays. Not fun!!
Jan 2009: We got settled into the new house, well, as much as you can do in a month with 6 kids and the kids started their new school. Kylie started her first year of Junior Kindergarten and she loved it, she did a great job of fitting right in!! However from the very beginning I knew the new school was going to give us a lot of trouble for Connor. Connor, my 8 year needs a lot of support in school, his old school was wonderful, it was amazing, they helped him soooo much. I will be forever grateful for all the work they did with him at that school. His new school is not even comparable, really it is not all their fault it is the school system and the school board, they think they don't have the funds to provide the kids with the help that they need, but really it is just the way they do things..... or do not do things!! Meanwhile we still had some sickness kicking around in the house. It just seemed like Cara was non- stop sick we had brought her to 3 clinics in the month of January, two doctors told us that there was nothing they could do "just let the virus run it's course" and the other gave us antibiotics. She was getting skinnier and skinnier by the day and just when it seemed she started to feel better, all of sudden she was sick again with the "flu". You see, when you have 6 kids and during the winter months we are use to sickness running though the family and at all different times. Two kids will get sick first, then another one, then the other three, this is normal. But this time was different, every time that sickness would be in the house Cara was sick with one of the other kids. Also January 2009 was a time for me to say good bye to my 20's and hello 30's, I had my 30th birthday party with all of my friends in the new house. It was a lot of fun :)
Feb: The month of February is a bit of a blur, we where still dealing with Cara being sick but looking forward to enrolling her in school for the upcoming September. You must understand for a mother of 6 it is a wonderful thing to enroll your child in school....lol. I just could not believe that I would have 4 kids in school. The kids where starting to make new friends in their new school and they seemed to be really enjoying it, to my relief! But as the days went on Cara was getting worse and worse. We ended up calling her pediatrician to make an appointment. She had lost a lot of weight, she had a horrible rash on her bum from front to back and by the 10th of Feb we noticed a small increase in Cara's drinking and peeing but nothing that made me think of diabetes. By the 12th she was dieing of thirst and was constantly going pee. We told her doc all these symptoms BTW Cara was down to her weight when she was 18 months old, she was skin and bones! The doctor told us don't worry the weight will come back on, here is some cream for her rash, and gave us a slip to get blood work done, no big deal it seemed. We went home because Cara was soo tired and hungry and we decided that we will bring her to get the blood work after her nap. We did not relize that is was going to be such a big deal because the Doc did not make it out to be one. Cara ate 2 plates of Kraft Dinner and went to bed. She woke up half-an-hour later and threw up, and that was that, I packed her up and my mother and I took her straight to the E.R. After 3 hours in the waiting room and a blood sugar of almost 60 mmols we found out that Cara had Type 1 diabetes. The nurses and Doctors could not believe that she was not in a coma and she had only medium Ketons. We spent 4 days learning everything we could to take her home and take care of her. We did enroll her in school that same week, we did not want to change anything because of Diabetes. I did not take any pictures of Cara in the hospital but these where taken soon after.
March: Was a quiet month for awhile, we where still learning to deal with our new normal in the house and the hubby decided to mix it up a bit. He started another new job, but this time it was his own. He paired up with a partner to start The Solar Experts and Windsor Energy Experts was soon to follow. It took sometime to get it up and running but now it is a fully functioning business....very cool!
April: We where looking forward to my oldest daughters birthday, we have 8 birthdays in this family and they all fall on different months....kinda fun and a lot of cake! lol Speaking of cakes I baked Kay her favorite cake for her birthday, Angle food cake. We ate dinner and Kailyn was in a little bit of a hurry because her friends where coming to pick her up to go to the movies for her birthday. She loved her cake sooo much and wanted to eat as much of it as she could as fast as she could, she was taking huge bits. Her dad and I where looking at her with joking disguised on our faces and all of a sudden she was choking. Seriously choking, not coughing and choking, not saying oh I'm choking....she was choking, not breathing, face turning red with a look of horror on her face, eyes bulging out of her sockets looking at me, then her dad and then back to me. I jumped out of my chair and started screaming "she is choking help her" Her dad sits next to her at dinner time and he was the closed. But he was just sitting there staring at her. By now she was standing and almost looking like her body was trying to throw up or something and that is what Chris was waiting for.... I guess, he thought that she was going to work it out?? Soon he realized it was not working it's way out and he headed for her and as he did that Kailyn grabbed a glass of her juice and tried to chug it down, I was yelling at her "no don't do that your going to choke" "Kailyn stop". She chug it down anyways but there was no where for the juice to go and it all came out her noise and I headed for the phone, all the other kids where crying and scared and someone was knocking at the door. It was her friends coming to pick her up to go to the movies. Chris was just about to do the Heimlich and I was on the last 1 of 9-1-1 when I heard her cough. I just started to cry, I went to the door and asked her friend to wait for a few minutes and I walked over to Kailyn she just looked at me and said "I'm sorry mom" OMGosh I have never been more scared in my life. I just sat there shacking and crying!! A lot later we laughed a little about it saying Kailyn could you imagine if you actually choked and died on your birthday cake?? April was not a very good month last year, we and the world lost an amazing little girl in April. Amiee was only 16 years old when she passed away, she was Chris's little cousin but even more Kailyn adored Amiee. It was one of the biggest shocks of the year! Chris got a phone call late one night from his mother I think it was on the 10th? He was in the kitchen talking to his mom and all I heard was NO and a big bang (he slammed his hand down on the island counter top) She was on life support, her mother found her in her bed that morning, blue and lifeless after she suffered a seizure, she was epileptic. Amiee was amazing she loved to dance, she loved to read, she just loved life, there was not one bad thing that I could or anyone for that matter could say about Amiee...just an amazing little girl. And now our angel more like Kailyn's Angel remember the story above, Amiee was pronounced dead on April 3rd Kailyn's birthday, the same day that Kailyn was in a hurry to eat the cake that I made because it was her favorite and that she had choking on and I believe was very close to passing out and maybe even dieing until somehow it just come up. Thank GOD and thank you AMIEE, we love you forever xoxo April was also the month that I started blogging and it looks like Chasiti at Forget the Chicken nuggets..You can't play on the playground until you eat all your fries! may have introduced me to a new world, new women and my new support. Kailyn also entered the Kiwanis Music Festival for singing. She won 2 first place and a third place for her songs. She also took home The Theatre Intrigue Society Award for Most Promising Student Junior trophy. If you would like to listen to one of her songs from last year it is posted at the bottom of my blog. We are looking forward to 2010 competition.
May: May brought another birthday, Kirstin turned 2. Kailyn got involved with the JDRF and fundraising all on her own and it made us very proud. She and a few friends held a Sneaker Day to help raise funds for the JDRF during a week in May. They made posters, made announcements at school, spent their recess selling tickets and displaying the sneakers that where sold. She really did a great job and with very little to no help from the adults at the school which I was a little disappointed at..... O.K. I was very disappointed with the teachers and principles lack of interest in Sneaker Day. It just goes to show no matter how old you are you can still make a difference.... Way to go Kay!! and I guess life may have returned back to normal for awhile. It seems like it just must have been day to day stuff, which trust me is enough to deal with around here. I have many, many stressers in my life on a daily bases...but that is life and you go on living one day at a time and just keep swimming :)
June: WOW what a crazy month. Yet another birthday Kylie turned 5 and she had her first birthday party with friends. It was a little mermaid theme "under the sea"....very cute. We made sea shell invitations, decorated the whole house in an under water theme and had a treasure hunt outside. We had our very first Telus Walk to Cure Diabetes and what a wonderful walk it was. We had so much support from our family and friends, some did let us down but I really think those are the people that just don't "get it" or this disease. Maybe that will be my job for the next walk 2010 to make people get it!! We had beautiful weather and a huge amazing team and raised over $2,000. I was very impressed and happy :) Cara also came down with lyme disease in June. Luckily we caught it early because of a rash that she developed on her arm, she was very lucky only 70ish% of people with Lyme disease produce the rash and without the rash it is very hard to diagnose and the disease can cause sever complications. Also Connor was hospitalized for 4 days in June, he had some virus no one really knew what it was but he just could not keep anything down. I had changed my cleaners from bleach and chemical cleaners to the "green" safer cleaners a week prior to him getting sick and I swear I will never, ever do that again. He was really sick and we were back in the hospital again, I felt like I just left with Cara and I felt like such a failure as a mother. Connor had a blast though, he was confined to his room but the nurses and play therapist where bringing him any thing that he wanted. He felt like a KING he said....he is quiet the funny kid!
July: What a shock another birthday, Cody my last baby turned 1 in July. We also had a new addition to our family in July, our dog Ressey an Airedale/Golden Retriever. I remember looking at puppies for a while really not wanting one but just seeing what was out there. I ran across her add and it was love at first sight, I knew I needed this dog in our lives, she is not the cutest dog but there was just something about her.... I NEEDED that dog. That weekend we took the kids out for a "ride" and we went to look at Ressey and her siblings. We needed a dog that Connor was not allergic too (Airedale) and we needed a good family dog (Golden Retriever) a match made in heaven.....she is a lot of work though!! lol
August: Was full of anticipation Cara was starting school in September and I was really nervous. She just was so young, because her birthday is in November she was only 3 starting school and newly T1 dx she still was not telling us if she felt any highs or lows yet. August was just a month of preparation and organization. We organized to have a nurses at Cara's school to take her BG before getting on the bus, we talked to all her teachers and principals and even arranged for a educator for the Diabetes Association to come talk to the teachers and Cara's peers. We where also getting the rest of the kids ready for school too. I think August is also when we started talking about opening the candy store and making plans for it.
September: Cara starts JK with many many problems, we almost pulled her out it was just so frustrating and scary and for a time she did not even want to be there. The rest of the kids started just fine, we got some programs in place for Connor, which was a huge relive and a huge battle. Kylie and Kailyn had no issues with school, I think that they were just happy to be back.... I know that I was!! We also made a major change to Cara insulin, we got off NPH and started Lantus...thank Goodness. It has given us so much more control and really took a lot of stress and guessing out of our diabetic life. Why is she high now? what did we do? is her NPH peaking? BLAAA BLAAA BLAAA so glade that is over! We also took the kids on a much needed weekend get away, it was great just to get away and not worry about as many things and just have fun with the family!
October: Connor turned 8 years old, my first baby boy was getting so old, good thing he still looks like he is 6 or I might have shed a tear!! He wanted a birthday party for him and his friends and we had the perfect place for that at our new candy store. The Reel Sweet Candy Store had a sneak peek in October it was packed. To this day however Connor has yet to have his friend birthday party we are still working on the party room at the store...things just take time and he will get that party we promise. October was also our first Halloween with a T1 child, but it really did not work out that bad. Funny thing is Kirstin's peanut allergy took first priority on Halloween. Connor had to tell every house that was giving out peanut butter somethings "oh she can't have that she is allergic" and every time I would yell to him "it is O.K. I will go through the candy later". Too funny!!
November: Well, we all know what is in the month of November.......Cara's birthday hahah.......and World Diabetes Day! :) We did a great job of promoting World Diabetes Day, I'm very proud of us.....way to go ladies. We got our t-shirts thank you Joanne at Death of a Pancreas and wore them proudly, we just rock! My family spent the day out and about in our community. We attended a Christmas parade with our t-shirts on, lit our house up blue and went out to dinner with our t-shirts on and even gave Cara her insulin shot out in public (remember that poor sad man). Like I said November also brought Cara's 4th birthday, we had a nice little family party for her and YES she did eat cake!!
December: Cara got her medical id bracelet in December, I had to wait until she turned 4 to get a free one through a program at her school. She is starting to like it more and more each day, I think that it's really cute. I started on a JDRF committee to plan our 1st ever gala, I'm very excited about this. This year we were able to visit all our family and friends for Christmas, not one of my kids where sick. That is until we finish all the visiting and came into contact with all those nasty germs. Now in January 2010 we started the New Year all sick except for Kailyn and Cara....so far. We also officially will only have one child in diapers in 2010, Kirstin is potty trained. I really can't remember the last time that I had only one kid in diapers, the last four kids where so close together. I would just get one out and a new baby would come.
WOW I think this just may be my longest post ever. There are just sooo many things that I did not get to talk about that happened in my life but I just wanted to share a few highlights and lowlights of 2009. I'm hoping for a better 2010, better health, better stories to share.... really a better me. And I also want to take the time to thank all my new friends in the blogging world, without you 2009 would have been a lot more confusing and a lot more lonely....Thank you ALL xoxox
So I thought that I would share with you my year in review:
Dec 2008: My family and I were faced with a lot of changes in December. We had moved. It was an extremely stressful time for all of us, a new house, a new job for the hubby, a new school and new friends for the kids. However we were back home with our family and some old friends so there was a little bit of comfort. Even though I think for my 12 year old's life was in pieces after the move. We never really realize how much big changes like moves effects the kids. December was also the month of sickness for the whole family. Maybe from the stress maybe from an extremely contagious virus....not really sure. But we all took our turn with the flu from the beginning of December right up until the end. We had buckets around our Christmas tree opening presents and unable to visit any family of friends during the holidays. Not fun!!
Jan 2009: We got settled into the new house, well, as much as you can do in a month with 6 kids and the kids started their new school. Kylie started her first year of Junior Kindergarten and she loved it, she did a great job of fitting right in!! However from the very beginning I knew the new school was going to give us a lot of trouble for Connor. Connor, my 8 year needs a lot of support in school, his old school was wonderful, it was amazing, they helped him soooo much. I will be forever grateful for all the work they did with him at that school. His new school is not even comparable, really it is not all their fault it is the school system and the school board, they think they don't have the funds to provide the kids with the help that they need, but really it is just the way they do things..... or do not do things!! Meanwhile we still had some sickness kicking around in the house. It just seemed like Cara was non- stop sick we had brought her to 3 clinics in the month of January, two doctors told us that there was nothing they could do "just let the virus run it's course" and the other gave us antibiotics. She was getting skinnier and skinnier by the day and just when it seemed she started to feel better, all of sudden she was sick again with the "flu". You see, when you have 6 kids and during the winter months we are use to sickness running though the family and at all different times. Two kids will get sick first, then another one, then the other three, this is normal. But this time was different, every time that sickness would be in the house Cara was sick with one of the other kids. Also January 2009 was a time for me to say good bye to my 20's and hello 30's, I had my 30th birthday party with all of my friends in the new house. It was a lot of fun :)
Feb: The month of February is a bit of a blur, we where still dealing with Cara being sick but looking forward to enrolling her in school for the upcoming September. You must understand for a mother of 6 it is a wonderful thing to enroll your child in school....lol. I just could not believe that I would have 4 kids in school. The kids where starting to make new friends in their new school and they seemed to be really enjoying it, to my relief! But as the days went on Cara was getting worse and worse. We ended up calling her pediatrician to make an appointment. She had lost a lot of weight, she had a horrible rash on her bum from front to back and by the 10th of Feb we noticed a small increase in Cara's drinking and peeing but nothing that made me think of diabetes. By the 12th she was dieing of thirst and was constantly going pee. We told her doc all these symptoms BTW Cara was down to her weight when she was 18 months old, she was skin and bones! The doctor told us don't worry the weight will come back on, here is some cream for her rash, and gave us a slip to get blood work done, no big deal it seemed. We went home because Cara was soo tired and hungry and we decided that we will bring her to get the blood work after her nap. We did not relize that is was going to be such a big deal because the Doc did not make it out to be one. Cara ate 2 plates of Kraft Dinner and went to bed. She woke up half-an-hour later and threw up, and that was that, I packed her up and my mother and I took her straight to the E.R. After 3 hours in the waiting room and a blood sugar of almost 60 mmols we found out that Cara had Type 1 diabetes. The nurses and Doctors could not believe that she was not in a coma and she had only medium Ketons. We spent 4 days learning everything we could to take her home and take care of her. We did enroll her in school that same week, we did not want to change anything because of Diabetes. I did not take any pictures of Cara in the hospital but these where taken soon after.
March: Was a quiet month for awhile, we where still learning to deal with our new normal in the house and the hubby decided to mix it up a bit. He started another new job, but this time it was his own. He paired up with a partner to start The Solar Experts and Windsor Energy Experts was soon to follow. It took sometime to get it up and running but now it is a fully functioning business....very cool!
April: We where looking forward to my oldest daughters birthday, we have 8 birthdays in this family and they all fall on different months....kinda fun and a lot of cake! lol Speaking of cakes I baked Kay her favorite cake for her birthday, Angle food cake. We ate dinner and Kailyn was in a little bit of a hurry because her friends where coming to pick her up to go to the movies for her birthday. She loved her cake sooo much and wanted to eat as much of it as she could as fast as she could, she was taking huge bits. Her dad and I where looking at her with joking disguised on our faces and all of a sudden she was choking. Seriously choking, not coughing and choking, not saying oh I'm choking....she was choking, not breathing, face turning red with a look of horror on her face, eyes bulging out of her sockets looking at me, then her dad and then back to me. I jumped out of my chair and started screaming "she is choking help her" Her dad sits next to her at dinner time and he was the closed. But he was just sitting there staring at her. By now she was standing and almost looking like her body was trying to throw up or something and that is what Chris was waiting for.... I guess, he thought that she was going to work it out?? Soon he realized it was not working it's way out and he headed for her and as he did that Kailyn grabbed a glass of her juice and tried to chug it down, I was yelling at her "no don't do that your going to choke" "Kailyn stop". She chug it down anyways but there was no where for the juice to go and it all came out her noise and I headed for the phone, all the other kids where crying and scared and someone was knocking at the door. It was her friends coming to pick her up to go to the movies. Chris was just about to do the Heimlich and I was on the last 1 of 9-1-1 when I heard her cough. I just started to cry, I went to the door and asked her friend to wait for a few minutes and I walked over to Kailyn she just looked at me and said "I'm sorry mom" OMGosh I have never been more scared in my life. I just sat there shacking and crying!! A lot later we laughed a little about it saying Kailyn could you imagine if you actually choked and died on your birthday cake?? April was not a very good month last year, we and the world lost an amazing little girl in April. Amiee was only 16 years old when she passed away, she was Chris's little cousin but even more Kailyn adored Amiee. It was one of the biggest shocks of the year! Chris got a phone call late one night from his mother I think it was on the 10th? He was in the kitchen talking to his mom and all I heard was NO and a big bang (he slammed his hand down on the island counter top) She was on life support, her mother found her in her bed that morning, blue and lifeless after she suffered a seizure, she was epileptic. Amiee was amazing she loved to dance, she loved to read, she just loved life, there was not one bad thing that I could or anyone for that matter could say about Amiee...just an amazing little girl. And now our angel more like Kailyn's Angel remember the story above, Amiee was pronounced dead on April 3rd Kailyn's birthday, the same day that Kailyn was in a hurry to eat the cake that I made because it was her favorite and that she had choking on and I believe was very close to passing out and maybe even dieing until somehow it just come up. Thank GOD and thank you AMIEE, we love you forever xoxo April was also the month that I started blogging and it looks like Chasiti at Forget the Chicken nuggets..You can't play on the playground until you eat all your fries! may have introduced me to a new world, new women and my new support. Kailyn also entered the Kiwanis Music Festival for singing. She won 2 first place and a third place for her songs. She also took home The Theatre Intrigue Society Award for Most Promising Student Junior trophy. If you would like to listen to one of her songs from last year it is posted at the bottom of my blog. We are looking forward to 2010 competition.
May: May brought another birthday, Kirstin turned 2. Kailyn got involved with the JDRF and fundraising all on her own and it made us very proud. She and a few friends held a Sneaker Day to help raise funds for the JDRF during a week in May. They made posters, made announcements at school, spent their recess selling tickets and displaying the sneakers that where sold. She really did a great job and with very little to no help from the adults at the school which I was a little disappointed at..... O.K. I was very disappointed with the teachers and principles lack of interest in Sneaker Day. It just goes to show no matter how old you are you can still make a difference.... Way to go Kay!! and I guess life may have returned back to normal for awhile. It seems like it just must have been day to day stuff, which trust me is enough to deal with around here. I have many, many stressers in my life on a daily bases...but that is life and you go on living one day at a time and just keep swimming :)
June: WOW what a crazy month. Yet another birthday Kylie turned 5 and she had her first birthday party with friends. It was a little mermaid theme "under the sea"....very cute. We made sea shell invitations, decorated the whole house in an under water theme and had a treasure hunt outside. We had our very first Telus Walk to Cure Diabetes and what a wonderful walk it was. We had so much support from our family and friends, some did let us down but I really think those are the people that just don't "get it" or this disease. Maybe that will be my job for the next walk 2010 to make people get it!! We had beautiful weather and a huge amazing team and raised over $2,000. I was very impressed and happy :) Cara also came down with lyme disease in June. Luckily we caught it early because of a rash that she developed on her arm, she was very lucky only 70ish% of people with Lyme disease produce the rash and without the rash it is very hard to diagnose and the disease can cause sever complications. Also Connor was hospitalized for 4 days in June, he had some virus no one really knew what it was but he just could not keep anything down. I had changed my cleaners from bleach and chemical cleaners to the "green" safer cleaners a week prior to him getting sick and I swear I will never, ever do that again. He was really sick and we were back in the hospital again, I felt like I just left with Cara and I felt like such a failure as a mother. Connor had a blast though, he was confined to his room but the nurses and play therapist where bringing him any thing that he wanted. He felt like a KING he said....he is quiet the funny kid!
July: What a shock another birthday, Cody my last baby turned 1 in July. We also had a new addition to our family in July, our dog Ressey an Airedale/Golden Retriever. I remember looking at puppies for a while really not wanting one but just seeing what was out there. I ran across her add and it was love at first sight, I knew I needed this dog in our lives, she is not the cutest dog but there was just something about her.... I NEEDED that dog. That weekend we took the kids out for a "ride" and we went to look at Ressey and her siblings. We needed a dog that Connor was not allergic too (Airedale) and we needed a good family dog (Golden Retriever) a match made in heaven.....she is a lot of work though!! lol
August: Was full of anticipation Cara was starting school in September and I was really nervous. She just was so young, because her birthday is in November she was only 3 starting school and newly T1 dx she still was not telling us if she felt any highs or lows yet. August was just a month of preparation and organization. We organized to have a nurses at Cara's school to take her BG before getting on the bus, we talked to all her teachers and principals and even arranged for a educator for the Diabetes Association to come talk to the teachers and Cara's peers. We where also getting the rest of the kids ready for school too. I think August is also when we started talking about opening the candy store and making plans for it.
September: Cara starts JK with many many problems, we almost pulled her out it was just so frustrating and scary and for a time she did not even want to be there. The rest of the kids started just fine, we got some programs in place for Connor, which was a huge relive and a huge battle. Kylie and Kailyn had no issues with school, I think that they were just happy to be back.... I know that I was!! We also made a major change to Cara insulin, we got off NPH and started Lantus...thank Goodness. It has given us so much more control and really took a lot of stress and guessing out of our diabetic life. Why is she high now? what did we do? is her NPH peaking? BLAAA BLAAA BLAAA so glade that is over! We also took the kids on a much needed weekend get away, it was great just to get away and not worry about as many things and just have fun with the family!
October: Connor turned 8 years old, my first baby boy was getting so old, good thing he still looks like he is 6 or I might have shed a tear!! He wanted a birthday party for him and his friends and we had the perfect place for that at our new candy store. The Reel Sweet Candy Store had a sneak peek in October it was packed. To this day however Connor has yet to have his friend birthday party we are still working on the party room at the store...things just take time and he will get that party we promise. October was also our first Halloween with a T1 child, but it really did not work out that bad. Funny thing is Kirstin's peanut allergy took first priority on Halloween. Connor had to tell every house that was giving out peanut butter somethings "oh she can't have that she is allergic" and every time I would yell to him "it is O.K. I will go through the candy later". Too funny!!
November: Well, we all know what is in the month of November.......Cara's birthday hahah.......and World Diabetes Day! :) We did a great job of promoting World Diabetes Day, I'm very proud of us.....way to go ladies. We got our t-shirts thank you Joanne at Death of a Pancreas and wore them proudly, we just rock! My family spent the day out and about in our community. We attended a Christmas parade with our t-shirts on, lit our house up blue and went out to dinner with our t-shirts on and even gave Cara her insulin shot out in public (remember that poor sad man). Like I said November also brought Cara's 4th birthday, we had a nice little family party for her and YES she did eat cake!!
December: Cara got her medical id bracelet in December, I had to wait until she turned 4 to get a free one through a program at her school. She is starting to like it more and more each day, I think that it's really cute. I started on a JDRF committee to plan our 1st ever gala, I'm very excited about this. This year we were able to visit all our family and friends for Christmas, not one of my kids where sick. That is until we finish all the visiting and came into contact with all those nasty germs. Now in January 2010 we started the New Year all sick except for Kailyn and Cara....so far. We also officially will only have one child in diapers in 2010, Kirstin is potty trained. I really can't remember the last time that I had only one kid in diapers, the last four kids where so close together. I would just get one out and a new baby would come.
WOW I think this just may be my longest post ever. There are just sooo many things that I did not get to talk about that happened in my life but I just wanted to share a few highlights and lowlights of 2009. I'm hoping for a better 2010, better health, better stories to share.... really a better me. And I also want to take the time to thank all my new friends in the blogging world, without you 2009 would have been a lot more confusing and a lot more lonely....Thank you ALL xoxox
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