Peoria Visit

Since Noah's diagnosis, we've been having to make trips to the Peoria Pediatric Diabetes Center to not only meet with his doctor there, but also to have education classes on how to manage this disease. Our first trip down there was the day after he came home from the hospital. We had to leave at 5:30am to make it for our 8am appt. It was a very helpful, very needed education class and they introduced us to the early care of Noah. We were supposed to go back on Tuesday, the 1st, but that's when the blizzaster came, so we finally made our second appt yesterday. This was at 1pm, instead of the crazy 8am one, thankfully. It's an hour and a half to two hour long trip each way, so when we go, we're gone all day.



We took all the kids with us this time, because having Livie stay with a babysitter last time was hard on her. Especially because it is an all-day process. Plus, it's not a bad thing for them to hear about what's going on with Noah, so they can be educated too. Though, Livie was less than interested. Madie, however, was VERY interested and listened quite closely. Noah is also, obviously, very interested. He was excited to be there in a lot of ways, because he enjoys the science and math that comes with it. He's read up a lot on diabetes since his diagnosis 3 weeks ago.

We meet in this little room and talk for about an hour with 3 different gals - a nurse, a dietition, and a social worker. The nurse educated us last time on how to give him insulin and care for him physically. This time she talked to us about low blood sugar and the "Rule of 15", which talks about what we do if we see signs of hypoglascimia. I think this scared Noah a bit, because we had to talk about what happens if he goes into convulsions or passes out. I told him he just needs to make sure he tells us if he's feeling weird and we can catch it before it gets low enough to have those things happen to him. We've been so focused for the past 3 weeks on bringing his levels to a normal range that we haven't really considered low blood sugars to be a problem. Sounds a little intimidating honestly, but I'm sure we'll be able to tackle that one too. :-) Next came he dietician to educate us on carb counting. She talked to us about that last time too, only she was more specific about how to measure properly and even used rubber veggies as a tool with the kids. They had to measure it on the scale and multiply it with the number of carbs per ounces. She showed us with rubber broccoli, which started a whole debate about how we think it's evil and she (and Madie) think it's the "super-food of all mankind". It was entertaining. ;-) Lastly, we met with the social worker. She works with Noah and our whole family on how we're feeling about all this. Noah was so cool about it. She asked him if he felt ok with everything and if he thought the shots were ok and he said, "Uh...totally." It was really funny. And, Madie talked about how she was scared Noah wasn't going to be the same, but that he's still really funny and still talks about inappropriate stuff at the dinner table, so she knew he was fine. Cracked us (and the social worker) up!

We didn't meet with the doctor this time, because it was strictly educational stuff. We met with him last time and will meet with him again in April. So, we scheduled our last educational class for March, then we'll meet in April with the doc and hopefully then our appts will only be every 2-3 months. It's hard to have Pete miss an entire day of work every time we have to go down. Not to mention pulling the kids out of school for the day. The gal behind the desk is Heather our social worker. Very nice gal!

So, we tackled another appt! Livie the Yeti, Noah the Superhero, and Madie the Diva made it out of there in 3 hours energized and ready to take on the world!

Time to get back home and back to our routine. :-)

Noah's Birthday!

The day has come. Noah Paul Sock Monkey is 8 yrs old! Hooray!! (insert applause) We were so excited to celebrate Noah's birthday today. Now, we opted to throw a simple party just with the 5 of us, because in 3 weeks we're headed to Rockford, IL to go to the annual Sock Monkey Festival! Yes. There is indeed a SMFest, so that will be where he has his "real" party. :-)

As is our custom, we decorated after he went to bed on Sunday night, so he could wake up to a fully decorated dining room. The kids look forward to this every year. I, once again, was worried about whether or not I had enough stuff to decorate with. Thank goodness for printers and leftover lanterns! Oh, and of course, an ample supply of sock monkeys with which to decorate. :-)

When Noah woke up, he was super-duper excited! Can you tell?? When I asked him what he wanted for a cake this year he said he wanted a cinnamon pancake cake. Noah doesn't like regular cake, which I guess, given his new diagnosis, this works in our favor! In years past we've done the infamous crescent roll cake and ginormous donut cake. So, a pancake cake was a fun idea!

This was taken after some of the candles had been taken out, but it's a tall stack with bacon trim, covered in butter and syrup. And, guess what? He got to eat the whole upper layer without a worry about carb intake. Yay!

He really wanted his cake for breakfast. Guess that's why he chose pancakes. So, we all sat around and enjoyed a morning breakfast, which doesn't happen ever during the week, because Pete's always off to work by 7. What a special treat!

Of course, letting him go to school without opening a present wouldn't be fair, so we let him have just one.

He was very happy to see a sock monkey travel mug! He kind of already knew he was getting it, because I promised it to him in the hospital. Told him I'd get him a sock monkey cup to take to school to hold his water. :-)

When he got home from school, he sorted through valentines and built his lego present from Keeden, as he waited for daddy to get off work. Once Pete got home, we had him open his presents, so we could head off to Cracker Barrell for dinner. Wow! Check out those presents! Nana and Papa T. got him a gift card to Walmart. Nana and Papa D. got him a Phineus and Ferb DS game. My brother actually sent him a birthday card, which, if you knew my brother, is very, very exciting! Noah won the bday card lotto this year by getting that card. ;-) Then we got him the sock monkey, the sock monkey shirt, and the Mario Yahtzee game. He'll get another present the day we go up for the sock monkey fest. It's a custom order, so it won't get here for another week or two.

Anyway, after his presents were opened, we headed out the door for some supper. Yum! I love the kids' birthdays almost as much as they do, because it means I get out of cooking and doing dishes for the evening. Happy Birthday to me!

Noah ordered like 3 plates full of food and went to town. He is soooo like his father. Pete will take gravy and literally cover everything on his plate in it. Basically making a giant gravy lake. Noah has taken to doing the same thing, only with syrup. So, he got himself some sugar-free syrup and drenched his bacon, his eggs, and his chicken. Ugh. Didn't sound appetizing to me, but hey...

... looks like it wasn't a problem for him! ;-) So, once again we celebrate a birthday of one of my amazing kids. Every year they get older, I find I love them even more. They are pretty amazing and I think, without a doubt, we've seen just how AMAZING Noah can be after these 2 1/2 weeks of change. Love you, m'boy. You are a one-of-a-kind, sock monkey lovin' kid and we love you to pieces. Happy Birthday, Noah!

Here's a little video of his birthday song and candle blowing. :-)

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Valentine's Day

Since we've finished with the parties, I figured I could post about them now and post about his birthday once he's in bed and the celebrations have ended. :-)



It's such a beautiful day outside, that the kids seemed to be in especially good moods, as were we parents! They were ready to get the party started! This is Noah with his friend Bianca. She's been in his class since kindergarten. She is so sweet and since Noah's diagnosis, she seems to be taking extra special care of him. He even has another friend Madison, that's been in his class since kindergarten, that brought him a bag of candy for V-Day today of all sugar-free stuff! He's got some great classmates!

Noah sits in the back. Can you see him there? We were playing a rousing game of JINGO - which is BINGO, but with pictures and clues. Everyone won a game and were excited to get prizes. :-) I spent most of the partytime down in Noah's classroom. The room parent bought the kids pizza from Pizza Hut! Sweet!! Noah doesn't like pizza, so he stuck with strawberries that I brought for the class instead. :-)

I joined Madie a little later in the hour. I dropped off her snack, though, beforehand. The kids were all reading, just waiting for all the snacks and parents to arrive. We brought in some cinnamon popcorn as a treat.

The teacher had this great Bozo the Clown game, where you toss the ball into buckets. The kids LOVED it! Look at my tiny little 4th grader! She's a peanut!

When we got home, Noah opened up his Harry Potter legos, which his best friend Keeden got him for his bday.

Livie and Olive decided to look through all her V-day cards. She got lots of candy too, which thrilled her to no end!

Madie got some really cute V-day cards too. Another Valentine's Day success!

The Kindness of Strangers

The one thing that has surprised me most about having a child with Type 1, is how many strangers reach out to us. I understand the concern and care that come from friends, but I've had many strangers, that have heard about what we've been going through, reach out to us in love. In the hospital, I had a nurse come to our room and say to me, "I am a friend of Sally's and she called me to tell me about you. I have a son that has diabetes and since I work here in the hospital, I wanted to come up and talk to you and let you know that everything's going to be okay." First of all, the beauty of that situation is that my friend called up another friend that she knew could encourage me and instead of this person saying she was too busy, she took time to come up and see me. This stranger, though connected to a friend, was willing to hug me and share her story with me. And, the day she came in, I needed that. I needed it more than I needed much else that day. I was going on 30min of sleep, had held my screaming son down for numerous shots, and was physically, emotionally, and mentally exhausted. To have this stranger come comfort me in the midst of that was so amazing. And, it didn't stop there. A sister of a friend contacted me. She also has a son who was diagnosed. She talked me through what she's done with school stuff. She listened as I shared my fears about school and encouraged me about how to handle it. Told me how she managed it with her son. Yet another time I needed someone who was living through it to help me navigate it myself. Another stranger, this one from Missouri, reached out to me when I was in need. We all know about my Cracker Barrell angel. And, then today, I got an email from the newspaper editor. He received an email for me from yet another stranger, willing to share her story of hope. This is what she said...

Our daughter Emily was 8 when she was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. We went to a local doctor who immediately got us in touch with the team from Peoria. Diane from the Diabetes Resource Center was a lifesaver to us during education and training.

The good news for you is that with time and practice it becomes second nature to count carbs, to get up in the middle of the night to check sugars, to make sure you have more snacks in your purse than anything else. You will be your son's friends favorite mom when it comes to sporting events because you will have tons of juice boxes and skittles. The bad news is you never stop worrying. Emily is 19 now, a freshman in college and doing great. But, there isn't a day that goes by, when she jumps in the car to head to IVCC that I don't worry about her numbers....

I wanted to share with you that a normal life is possible. Emily played softball for a number of years, soccer, volleyball, basketball, and she cheered in high school all four years. Normal to you and your son will just look a little different than to other kids but the end result will be the same. He can do anything that anyone else can do.

If you would like, we can share stories together. I do know what you are going through and sometimes it is nice to be able to share things with people who have been in your shoes.

Take care and may God bless your family during this unfamiliar time.


I was so touched by this. Yet, another stranger, who took the time to write out and email to me. To share her story and offer up hope. And, not only that, but open herself up to a friendship, made over our similarities with our children. There are many more stories like this, where friends of friends offer their help. Friends calling me, letting me know that know someone who's been through what I'm going through and is ready to talk if I need them. It touches me deeply that people who don't even know us want to share their stories with us, just so they can encourage and bear some of that burden with us. I replied to this gal who emailed me and told her how much I appreciated her kind words. I also told her that I hope one day, when Noah is 19, I can reach out to a newly diagnosed family the way she did to me and offer up those same words of encouragement and let them know that things will find a way to work out and that life will seem "normal" again. Reminds me that, though we live in a fallen world, there are still amazing people out there, that care, even when they don't have to.

A Thank You

http://mywebtimes.com/archives/ottawa/display.php?id=424125&query=write team


I wrote this the day after we got home from the hospital. Wanted to write it when everything was fresh for me. I hoped to use the forum that I've been privileged to use for these past few months to thank everyone who helped us during that first difficult week. This is for you...

Getting Ready

Just as I often have to remind myself during the Christmas season that I have a child with a birthday right after, I have to remind myself that with Noah's birthday comes Valentine's Day! So, we got to work this week on getting the Valentines made up for the class parties on Monday.



This year we went with Little Miss and Mister cards for Madie, Olivia the pig for (who else) Olivia, and paper airplanes for Noah.

Madie's old enough that she doesn't want any help from me. She reminded me that she's 9 and can do that herself. So, I helped Livie get hers done. She was so excited to do them for the first time this year. :-)

Noah got to work on his and did his by himself as well. My kids are growing up so much that they don't even need me for those fun things anymore. But, that's ok. Glad to see them having some independance. So, the Valentines are ready to go and will be ready for Monday's exchange. :-)