dLife - Food

Part of That World

Carey Potash — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 15:48:34 +0000

"You suck on it for a while until it gets soft and then you bite into it."

"This one you just chew."

"Don't bite into this one. You'll break your teeth."

It's so sad. Am I the only one who has to instruct a 10-year-old kid how to eat candy?

When you grow up type 1, I guess that happens.

We hitched a ride with Charlie's hockey coach for a game about an hour away in Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania. Charlie hopped in the back of the minivan with two of his teammates whose mouths were pre-stuffed with glazed donuts.

I could tell that Charlie was enticed.

The Buttered Bagel Kerfuffle

Carey Potash — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 16:38:34 +0000

Only in our diabetes-centric world would a giant argument go down over a stupid buttered bagel.

The thing was an absolute behemoth, weighing in at 70 grams of carbs. There was no question that we would have to either shave off at least a quarter of it or scrape out a fair amount of dough from its insides.

Charlie was apoplectic.

"But that's not fair," he said, his voice beginning to quiver. "Maeve and Ben get to have the whole thing."

We've been down this road all too many times before.

The Literacy Conundrum

Brenda Bell — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 13:13:35 +0000

Among the standardized tests we had to pass to graduate high school were "minimum competency" tests in reading, math, and citizenship.

While almost all of us knew the alphabet, how to sound words, and how to put words together into thoughts, sentences, and paragraphs, some people had difficulty putting those words down as text. Others had difficulty with our standard abbreviations. And in my first foray into big-box retail, I learned (too quickly!) how difficult it was for many cashiers to do something as simple as counting out change. These tasks fall into the realm of "functional literacy": knowing enough about a task or specialty to be able to understand it and do it, though not necessarily excel at it.

Differing Perspectives

Carey Potash — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 17:50:36 +0000

Dig if u will the picture.

The boy's blood sugar is just crap. Crap when he wakes. Crap in the early morning. Crap at lunch. Crap in the afternoon. Crap in the late afternoon. Crap at dinner.

I get the "he's been high all day" phone call from Susanne a few times. There was a time when I might have interrogated her with questions about what he ate and whether or not he was bolused correctly for everything.

Now I use sarcasm.

"Fantastic."

This news of Charlie's blood sugar makes a good day at work suddenly bad. It makes a bad day worse.

Year in Review - 2012

Carey Potash — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 16:27:15 +0000

I'm jumping (or rather, hoisting myself up awkwardly and pulling a muscle) on the meme bandwagon with a review of 2012. The first few lines of a blog post for every month.

January: I'm sorry I stumbled into bed at midnight and woke you up; piss drunk on TLC and Discovery channel programming. Back-to-back episodes of Hoarders, dysfunctional tattoo artists and the fascinating sex life of giant sea clams of the Pacific.

February: Sometimes I'm like a state trooper knocking on her window. "Ma'am, are you aware of the fact that your son's blood sugar is 444?"

March: You flop and roll on the floor like you've been hit by an arrow. Wounded.

Please No Repeats

Lindsey Guerin — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 07:03:16 +0000

Today hasn't been the best of days in the diabetes realm. I've consumed 1000 calories in low treatments alone, which meant that I exceeded my daily caloric intake (per my calorie counting weight loss plan) by over 50%. I do not like when diabetes messes with my calories, nor when it pushes me to the ground and kicks me until I can't take anymore.

At 2am this morning, I was getting ready to fall asleep (yes, my sleep schedule is off, if you must know) when I decided I didn't feel quite right. The meter showed 67. In two hours, I'd dropped from the low 200s to 67 without any correction. I attributed it to the holiday party I'd been at...weird food, a glass of wine, and nervous chatter. I treated with juice and crackers while watching Gossip Girl.

Not Today

Carey Potash — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 19:05:47 +0000

It's hard not to look inward. At our own lives. At our own families. Those beautiful faces are the same faces we see bursting out of our elementary schools every day when the bell rings. Rushing out like a happy herd of puppies. They are the same faces singing holiday songs to us through missing front teeth with smiles as wide as Texas. Comforting us with their tiny arms around our necks when we're feeling sad and sensing our sadness with an intuition only a small child has.

They are perfectly innocent. They were perfectly innocent.

To imagine the terror they must have been feeling. The bravery in the face of such horror. It's just unthinkable to me. It hurts my heart to even think of it. Susanne refuses to see a photo of the shooter. I had to see the face of the person capable of such despicable evil.

The Great Big But

Carey Potash — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 17:12:41 +0000

Whenever we have our quarterly meeting with our nurse practitioner, there's a great big but in the room and it's always mine.

Overall, the most recent appointment went very well. And although I thought it would come in slightly lower, I was still quite pleased with an A1c of 7.5 - matching our best result ever.

When blood sugar trends are generally decent, it seems the only thing left to talk about is the number of times we test Charlie's blood sugar.

"So why are you testing at this time," she asks, dragging her finger along the logging sheet.

"Yeah," she says, looking closer at the timeline. "I'm thinking we can eliminate that one."

That's when my big but enters the conversation.

"But, what if he's very low?"

The Worst Christmas Gifts

Lindsey Guerin — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 01:29:52 +0000

Christmas is just around the corner and I still have a few last minute gifts to buy. Buying gifts always has me thinking of what I want for myself or what I've gotten in the past. Over the years, I've gotten a lot of awesome things. My parents were always good about going from our lists and not buying ugly sweaters. But some family members and friends don't always think before they gift.

The worst gift, of all time, is one that I actually got over and over again back when things were "sugar free" (and sadly, many, many years after we switched to carb counting). A particular family member would always send these terrible sugar free chocolates and candies for me while my brothers got regular, tasty candy. I know they were trying to be sweet and only thinking of my diabetes, but it was not appreciated. Everyone who's eaten sugar free chocolate knows that it tastes pretty terrible (especially 15 plus years ago).

In the Wild

Brenda Bell — Sat, 08 Dec 2012 05:13:11 +0000

When one works in retail, one generally meets and serves customers of all ages, genders, and walks of life. The demographic distribution of customers may be skewed by the goods sold at the store, but unless the store requires licensing by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, there's not likely to be a cut-and-dried "we will not let you in the store and we will not accept your business".