~The Boy LOVES his pump. Not so much the insertion sites, but we all see the ease with which the daily arm-wrestle that is Type 1 Diabetes goes down whilst pumping. Pump on!

~In May, the Vereen side of The Boy’s world, plus me – I think I still count, walked in the JDRF’s DC walk. The Team was The Boy’s Dad, Grandmother (Mom-Mom), Grandfather (Pop-Pop), an old family friend that lives in DC now, and myself. I was feelin’ all bad about not meeting my fundraiser goals since the rest of the team had. That is, till I looked and realized I’d set a higher goal than the rest. We ROCKED, and raised about a grand total. The DC walk raised buckets. Now we just need a cure.

The Boy - JDRF Walk at Nationals Park

~The Boy is now a 9 year-old fourth-grader. Oy. Howtheheckdidthathappen??

~To celebrate the above item, my mom, sister, and I took The Boy (notice the theme here – it’s all Boy, all the time) to . . . . . .. . . . WWE Capitol Punishment. I am torn as to which is best – live where you don’t have to hear the goofy announcers, but just pay attention to the action, or at home on the couch with some knitting where you get close-ups of Randy Horton’s . . . well, LOVELINESS!

~The best part of the night was torturing The Boy by not telling him where we were going. He HATES surprises, but seemed to like this one once he realized where we were. The jig was up when we turned in front of the Verizon center and saw the massive lines and all the wrestler’s trailers lined up along the road.

~I’m workin’ on gettin’ me a boyfriend. Possibly. Maybe. I’ll let you know. He’s brutiful (manly and beautiful). Cross your fingers. (No, it is not Randy Horton, but just as good-lookin’ if you ask me – smells good too).

~Took a trip to Colonial Williamsburg. There’s so much to see. We may go back next year, but with water park and historic triangle tickets to boot.

~Family Camp at Lions Camp Merrick is looming. I’m taking plenty of Lysol and hosing the place down. No stomach virus for me this year.

~I’ll be at family camp when the last Harry Potter movie premiers. I’m having issues with this. I am planning a rebellion. I’ll fill in the blog if it works!

~Summer is FLYING by. I tried to make my 2 week follow up appointment with my hairdresser, realized I’d be at family camp, then realized that the next 2 week time period would be – gulp – the end of July. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

~I’ll have a new boss when I return to school. I’m scurred. My old principal was unbelievably awesome. She’s gonna be hard to follow. Hopefully everything will be cool so I can stay there with The Boy till he runs off to middle school.

~I’m taking an online course this summer for my job. I feel old. Thank goodness I’ve already done my master’s, because this class is kicking my boo-tay!

~It’s Tour de Fleece time. I’m spinning a lovely Dragonfly Fibers merino/silk braid right now. It’s completely lovely. After that, I’ll be spinning more laceweight singles, Madelinetosh style, for a pi shawl. I’ll probably knit the Girasole pattern for it as a kind-of KAL with my sister, but I haven’t decided for certain.

~Tonight, I cast off for the Holden Shawlette. Might take me till morning – picot cast-off on the long edge of a shawl that’s 309 stitches wide. Fun times.

~I could go on and on, but I’ll stop here.

~I have company coming, and I need to do some classwork. Ugh.

:O)

Today was “Clean-the-Bathroom” day for me. I’m not a huge-mongous fan of housecleaning. I do what needs to be done when it absolutely has to be done. So, today was the day that the tub’s nether-regions got scrubbed, the commode was cleaned top to bottom (not just the bowl and bits that we sit on), the mirrors were washed and the ‘collections’ were moved, dusted/sanitized and then put back, all in the same morning. This meant that all my zillion (more like billion, but still) perfume bottles were given the once-over as well. I tossed a few, as I usually do on Clean-the-Bathroom day, but there’s this one. One that I RARELY use, but yet won’t throw out.

Seriously, I wear this scent maybe twice a year. I love the scent. I just don’t (can’t?) wear it. But I won’t throw it out.

The scent reminds me of a time in my life that I WISH was still active. I wore it a lot during a wonderfully romanitc time in my life. I loved that time in my life, and I wish it was still going. But it isn’t. And every time I wear the scent, I think about that time on and off all day long, until finally, I come home from work or wherever I’ve been and jump immediately in the shower to get rid of the offensive smell.

**Sigh**

I really like that scent.

I wish it didn’t remind me of that time. I think I keep it around hoping that the next time I put it on, my brain will have given up it’s stubborn fight and won’t keep ‘going there.’ My brain just doesn’t get the hint. Or maybe it’s my heart.

How about you? What scent does it for you? Is there a perfume/scent/smell that triggers that scent memory every single time you smell it? Does it bring back good memories or bad? How does it make you feel? Do you like to smell it, or does it make you feel some other emotion?

Longing.

That’s mine.

(And in case you’re curious, the scent is Ralph Lauren, Blue.)

:O}

The deliveries I mentioned in my last post also included the pump we chose! He went with the Animas Ping in the end, although he was starting to lean toward the Accu-Check Spirit at first. It finally came down to the more updated system and the COLORS! available with the Ping. He went with a nice blue that reminds me of our cute little car.

We are all very excited.

Since the pump arrived a couple weeks ago, we have been slowly reviewing things like the owner’s manual (bigger than the one for the above-mentioned car), and attempting to watch a video to learn about the pump features, but the hands-on practice at today’s mini class was what’s really got me feeling like I know what I’m doing a bit better.

Since visiting the hospital, we have been practicing by asking the pump to bolus for meals like we would if it was really up and running, even though it’s just loaded with saline. We go back early next week to actually put the ‘good stuff’ in. We will continue to fill the pump with saline each time it runs out or needs changing, practicing infusion sets/sites (where the pump attaches to his body to deliver insulin), and we are allowed to “play” with the settings as well, since he’s only getting saline and not “real” medicine.

Now that everything is finally underway (it seems like we’ve waited to get here forever, although I DO understand the reasons why), I am personally very excited that next week we can do something effective to stop all the high numbers in the middle of the night for my little guy. The nurse today even stated what I’ve been feeling – “You can’t fix that with injections.” I will dedicate a post to the whole nasty mess once we’ve successfully gotten rid of the late-night nonsense, but just know that I’m very anxious for all this to be over.

We look forward to no more shots. Our GOAL is no more shots. We hope and pray for NO. MORE. SHOTS!!

:O)

Here’s some of what the other players generously sent:

My sister was in the same group as me, and treated me to a “Yowsa” skein of Ms. Babs (in the French Marigold colorway). I plan to make a pair of fingerless mitts and some quick, warm socks with this monster skein, and I’ll almost bet I’ll have enough to treat someone to a cute little baby hat. All babies should wear orange, right?

MMMMMMalabrigo. Enough said. (?colorway “Solis”? I’m not a frequent flyer with the Mal – too many beautiful colors mean I can never make a decision, so not sure if Solis is the name of the yarn or the colorway).

More Ms. Babs, this time in yummy sock yarn. This is the colorway “Forever”, making me want to knit the sock pattern that I got from Ellen’s Half Pint for socks with hearts on it. The hearts, and the fact that I’ve been meaning to knit the pattern FOREVER just seems to fit all around.

I also got two (TWO!!) skeins of a Fiberphile sock yarn that’s superwash merino, CASHMERE, and nylon in a dreamy colorway called Willow. I think it may be my next Clapotis!!

I hope I got all the yarn contributions and didn’t forget anyone.

The rest of the knitters contributed to my online addictions, and sent gift certificates to my favorite – Crown Mountain Farms, where I purchased enough of their superwash merino roving in the colorway “Rise of the Phoenix” to blend with some Neighborhood Fiber Company reds that I already had, so that I can make a handknit/handspun sweater. This is a new found love of mine, one that I’m sure will be a post or two on it’s own soon!

I also got two gifties for The Loopy Ewe, where I was able to FINALLY get a Namaste bag. When I saw that their hipster style came in that durable nylon material, and in the blue/teal that I am so in love with lately, I jumped right on that! It’s now holding my current Cookie A sock, “Pointelle.” I also purchased three more sock patterns (one being Cookie A’s “Mingus”), as well as a skein of Trekking sock yarn in the Carribbean colorway.

I want to say thank you again to all the participants of my group for their generosity, as well as to the moderator, Natalie for helping out and running the show in general. I’ve had such a great experience with the pools, and winning this time around has just hooked me all over again!!

I am thoroughly and horribly spoiled, and I love it!

Pics soon. Enjoy the links for now!

:O)

No, what I anticipate most right now is the arrival and start-up of my son’s insulin pump. It is supposed to be delivered today (although time is running short. . .), after which I can call our CDE to set up his starting classes.

So, why am I looking forward to this so much? Well, there are many reasons and I am his Momma, so anything that he really wants and looks forward to is something I am going to try my best to give him. He has wanted a pump since the day he saw another little guy at camp this past summer with one (this was probably about 4 months past diagnosis), as he is most interested in not having to do multiple shots each day. I like this part, too, since I know how much he hates them!

He also seems to be coming out of his honeymoon, with spikes at night A LOT during growth spurts. Funny how theyLre called ‘spurts’, though, when they last for weeks at a time. . . So corrections at night should be much easier when I don’t have to go waking him up to roll over for easy access to his sleeper zipper. Cause that is always so much fun in the middle of the night.

And I also want my little guy to be more comfortable eating his meals whenever and wherever he needs to. Several times he has been offered meals out, but has turned them down because he doesn’t want to do a shot in front of strangers. Ugh. So anything that brings things a little closer to normal is good.

I’m sure there will be more posts later, once we get into pumping and actually know what we are doing. For now, though, I’m just waitin’ on the Fedex guy. . .

:O)

So, I read Kerri’s blog. I read Chris’s blog, and I surf around to the folks that they mention, because I want to know that people actually DO make it to the other side of this. I want to know that all this is working, and it’s not all useless and doomed. I want to know that my anger and frustration will pay off in the end.

‘Cause seriously? I’m sick and f%&$#?* tired of asking my son to check his blood sugar. I’m sick to death of telling him “no” to the extra snacks he would like to have – you know – because he’s eight and a growing kid!, and I am DEFINITELY sick and f$&%#?$ tired of giving my kid shots in his tummy in the middle of the night when he’s gone high.

This disease SUCKS.

BITE ME, DIABETES. BITE ME.

:/

I know it won’t be easy, but it might be fun, inspiring, awesome and wonderful. Therefore I’m promising to make use of The DailyPost, and the community of other bloggers with similiar goals, to help me along the way.

I plan to continue to post about the successes, trials, and methods of fighting my son’s Type 1 diabetes like I have been recently, but I also want to get back to the fibery aspect of this blog. With all the stresses around diabetes these days, the fiber really keeps me sane, and deserves it’s just space. I miss the knitting blogs I used to peruse (now I peruse diabetes blogs and scan Ravelry for my fiber fixes here and there). I hope to reconnect with the knit-bloggers in this adventure as well.

If you already read my blog, I hope you’ll encourage me with comments and likes, and good will along the way.

:O)

~The Neely’s KNOW how to make cornbread dressing. It was a hit on Thanksgiving.

~The Boy’s #s did a mountain climb on Thanksgiving that gave me the fits. Can you say carb-o-palooza!?!??

~Megamind was a really great movie.

~I got less sleep over the Thanksgiving “break” than I normally do during a school week. Checking blood sugars and bolusing in the middle of the night is NOT fun.

~I am in love with the idea of an Advent Calendar Scarf. How. Brilliant! I’m knitting two – one in Brooks Farm Acero, one in Elann Baby Lace Merino because I felt like a punk for not knitting with laceweight.

~Mealworms stampede when they’re thirsty and smell cucumber.

~I think it’s funny that the above statement makes me laugh. I should probably be sad about it, but I really don’t care!

~I am ‘free’ to go to my knitting meeting this weekend. That makes two in a row, and I’m psyched!

~There is a Lego kit to make the Hogwarts castle that costs $500+. Seriuosly. Seriously? Who buys that? Probably not a single mom who’s a teacher.

~I am not ready for Christmas at all. How did it get to be December? (I think my world stopped last March.)

~Oprah rekindled my Beetle fever. I’m considering trading in the Civic next summer.

~Poodles have necks like owls.

~Driving makes me nuts. I have a 10 minute, 5 mile (if that) commute to and from work, yet every day I manage to get annoyed at someone else’s rudeness on the roads. Yes, this means YOU, Mr. Cadillac Escalade. Why does anyone even need a vehicle that large? I’m glad I don’t have to fill up your gas tank!

~We go to another class at Children’s in two weeks – this time to begin the process for getting on the pump. It’s a little scary, and yet I can’t wait. The Boy DEFINITELY can’t wait.

~I STILL can’t figure out how to properly link using this blog format. Part of it is my unwillingness to upload much on this computer – it’s a ‘donation.’ After the holidays, I will be replacing it. Unless Santa brings be a new one!

~I just learned what a ‘nupp’ is in knitting. I also learned, I can’t do them!! Hrmph!

:O)

I wanted an easier format to add ‘things’ to (ha ha), and I thought that this would be the best one, but I’m having problems adding the links and such that I want to add! ARGH! I’d really like to add the D-moms pic and link, but it’s just NOT happening! UGH!

I will try again tomorrow, Leigh-Ann, promise!!

:O)

Also, our house will be lit in blue (thanks, Target!) tonight (and maybe for the rest of the month???). Again, hopefully a neighbor will ask why and we’ll get to share.

I’ve been seeing on a couple of the diabetes blogs I read an idea that some people did earlier in the week. I’m new here – I didn’t get the memo!

But, the idea is, tell 6 things you want everyone to know about diabetes, so that then they’ll know. And, since the people that come here are probably knitters and most of them not part of the diabetes community, I thought it would be great if I posted my list of 6 things now, even if I AM a few days late!! So, here we go:

6 Things I Want People to Know About Diabetes:

1. There are TWO TYPES of diabetes. Type 1, which is what The Boy has, used to be called juvenile diabetes. It is an autoimmune disease, and is becoming much more common in today’s world, and is being diagnosed later and later in life. These days, it’s normally referred to as Type 1. Type 2 diabetes is what MOST of the world knows about, and what MOST people with diabetes have. Type 2 diabetes is often genetic, and TENDS to be most prevalent in people who are older, tend to eat unhealthy foods, get little exercise, and/or are overweight. This does NOT mean that everyone with Type 2 diabetes can be described that way. Often these people can treat their diabetes successfully by eating better, adopting a regular exercise program, and taking medicine in a pill form. Sometimes, it is best for people with Type 2 diabetes to take insulin injections. It is ALWAYS necessary for people (like The Boy) to use insulin to treat their diabetes. There is no choice. Without insulin, someone with Type 1 diabetes will die. Pills are not an option (no matter how much their mommies wish it was!).

2. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease. There is NOTHING we could have done to prevent The Boy from getting it, and there is nothing he can do to get rid of it. Not even exercise more (and I’d like everyone who’s ever suggested that to me to just TRY following this tornado of a kid around for a week – or even just a day – and see if they’d like to ammend that suggestion!), not eat “better” (I wonder how many of THOSE people eat as many fruits and veggies in a day as The Boy does), not even eating nothing but ham and greens. Yes, that was an honest-to-God suggestion from someone last Spring. I KNOW!!! We do not know what caused The Boy to get diabetes, we only know that his immune system attacked his pancreas, his pancreas now doesn’t make insulin properly, and that means diabetes.

3. About 220 million people around the world have diabetes. Only about 2 million of those people have Type 1 diabetes. The Boy does not have the type of diabetes your grandmother or overweight uncle do.

4. Yes, people with Type 1 diabetes can eat what they want. Within reason. There are no “forbidden” foods. Their pancreases don’t work. They (or their parents) learn how to administer insulin properly, thereby acting as their body’s pancreas. Each. Time. They. Eat. So yes, they can have that doughnut. And yes, a cupcake is allowed. Of course, they should not eat those things ALL the time. Neither should you.

5. There is no cure for diabetes. People with Type 1 diabetes will have to take insulin for the rest of their lives. Insulin is a medicine to control diabetes. It is not a cure. They will not ‘grow out of it.’ They will have it for life, unless a cure is found. Sad, but true.

Occasionally, someone with Type 2 diabetes will loose weight, exercise, and be able to get by without taking medicine to control their diabetes. This does not mean they are cured. This means they are using diet and exercise to control their diabetes.

6. For Type 1 diabetes, the method of treatment is not an indication of ‘how bad’ the person’s diabetes is. The Boy is looking forward to using an insulin pump soon (we hopefully will get the go-ahead on Wednesday from the endocrinologist). He HATES shots and still isn’t satisfied with the tiny pen needles he gets to use these days. He still takes a very small amount of insulin, and has only been dealing with diabetes since March of this year. His diabetes is not ‘bad’ at all, but he will be on a pump.

For now, that is all. There’s actually plenty more, but the idea was share 6.

:O)