Mad Libs

For Thanksgiving, we traveled to Maryland. It was a lovely visit with family, including a speedboat ride on the Chesapeake, the annual football game, swimming at the hotel, and the biggest turkey I've ever seen!

On the trip down, Jenna brought Mad Libs... a family favorite of ours!! Always a funny story, especially with Jim and Jimmy's funny parts of speech choices (use your imagination - you know, a "Smelly Birthday", or a "Hairy Christmas"... the words that make the boys laugh!!!)

Jimmy and Jenna just love them, and in only first grade, Jimmy knows what even adverbs are!!! Jenna is such a good teacher and takes such good care of her brother!!!

Well, I'm sure I mentioned in the past that swimming makes the insulin pump site a bit less adhesive... well, it ripped off on Thursday morning after we arrived at the hotel and took a dip in the pool before we made our way to our Thanksgiving extravaganza... Jimmy was getting dressed when it came off... no doubt due to the chlorine...

So, he sucked it up and accepted a new site (after avoiding it at first by locking himself in the bathroom, bribing him with extra dessert, running down the hotel hallway, scratching his back, allowing him to pick his own site, and more...)

The site was done on Thursday at about noon... only to have the site rip out after Friday morning after another swim...

Poor kid. It's so awful to have to handle his diabetes, and it's NOTHING compared to what he goes through. I almost cried for him that he would have to have a new site within a 12 hour time period. He cried, screamed and locked himself in the bathroom (again) to avoid it.

As you can imagine, it wasn't pretty.

I had to talk Jimmy into it, and Jim had to talk me out of losing it from how upset I felt I made Jimmy feel. He was almost as upset as the time I hound him hiding in my closet when he didn't want a shot early on in his diabetes journey...

After the site, I held Jimmy, rocked him scratched his back, whispered good stuff to him, tried to make him smile (to no avail), etc... He acted as though it was the end of the world. My heart broke for him.

And then came Jenna to the rescue with Mad Libs!! Jimmy finally started to open up and let it out. Jenna asked for an adjective. Jimmy offered, "mad."

Jenna asked for a noun. Jimmy said, "frown."

Clearly he was expressing how upset he was with the site insertion. My poor little Jimmy.

I'm thankful that he let it out, but my heart continues to break for him.
I'm thankful for so many things, but I'm not a fan of diabetes.
I'm thankful.
Peace,
June

I hate this

At 11pm, I ripped off Jimmy's site on his belly. It was 2 days old (the norm), he was itching it, but he didn't want it off (and that was at 6pm). He'd prefer to be asleep when I change his site...

Poor guy, at 11, he was sound asleep, and I thought it would be ok to take it off. He woke up enough to proclaim, "Owwwwwww!"

Tears came to my eyes as I scratched Jimmy's back to make it all ok again and let him go back to sleep. I HATE that I have to interrupt his sleep to take care of DIABETES.

Just the word is awful. I've got tears in my eyes.

So now, I've put in the new site. It's in his arm. I tried to roll him over, and he held his arm and told me, "NO!" But, I waited until he fell asleep again and then I put it in. He didn't wake up. Thank God. Jimmy's regular life is constantly interrupted for D. It's not right. It's so not right.

He won't remember the removal of the site tonight, or the insertion of the new site tonight, but I will.

I hate hurting him. I hate diabetes. and I hate that it gets a capital d everywhere. It doesn't deserve a capital d.

I've got to test him again in an hour, so I've got to get some z's.

My sister told me today that I've got a lot on my plate. I told her, "Everyone has a lot on their plate. Right?" Everyone's got something. Everyone has something on their plate...

And besides, I signed up for what's on my plate. I don't mind at all the work I've got in front of me... I just hope I can absorb a percentage of what Jimmy has on his plate. I'll take whatever I can for him.

I hate diabetes.
Peace,
June

where do i begin?

My little King.
Jimmy was "The Burger King" for Halloween, and he was a big hit!

I'm so proud of Jimmy. For only 6 years old, he is becomming so incredibally responsible and wise beyond his years - yet somehow, he remains a little boy!!! He manages to test his own blood sugar, deliver insulin when he's high, and count the carbohydrates he eats (what other 6 year old does this?) all while being funloving, mischeivous and getting into trouble regularly!!

It's been so long since my last posting - and my only excuse is that I'm too busy to post. Blogging has been kind of cathartic for me to get my feelings and thoughts down... and to not be able to do that has been rough.

It's just too much at times, yet we have no choice. It doesn't end.

But no matter how much it puts me back, Jimmy has literally NO end. This is with him for life...

The picture above is from the Molly Center & JDRF's Halloween party. The caricaturist they had last year was there again this year, and she was able to capture the essence of Jimmy to a tee!!!

Much more to come - I am going to budget time to post more often....
Peace,
June