The Whiteboard Solution.

Last week's DSMA chat was on looking at blood sugar trends. Or rather, DO you look at blood sugar trends? Or rather, what do you do to see blood sugar trends...I'm confusing myself already.Point is, I've been having a tough time for awhile spotting current trends in the boys' blood sugars. Back in the day, my memory was money...not so much anymore. It seems the older I get, the harder it is for me to retain information. AND, there are three of them. It gets confusing, ok!?!Spotting trends has especially been an issue since Ryan has taken over most of the nighttime checks. I am a firm believer that nighttime is THE most important time to get things...

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Teeter. Totter. Breathe.

I'm on a teeter totter.I'm up in the air...I can feel the wind in my hair...the view is just fine.Diabetes isn't that big of a deal.I'm on a teeter totter.I've hit the bottom...I feel the hardness of the reality...My head aches from banging the ground.Diabetes is SUCH a big deal.I'm on a teeter totter. I'm sitting in the middle. I'm neither up nor down.I'm ok.That is my life.Riding the teeter totter day after day.I can't make it stop.I'm up.I'm down.I'm ok.Tis Our Diabetic Life.Some days I feel like I'm stuck on the ground. My pockets are filled with weights. I can't move. My tears water the dandelions. On these days, all there is...is...

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The one where I get a little religious.

This morning at church I was checking L's blood sugar while the congregation sang the opening hymn. The lancet must have been set at deeper setting than usual, as his finger bled profusely after the shunk. Unprepared, I wiped the blood with my hand...cleaning it from his fingers to mine. I looked at my blood stained hands as the chorus of the Easter song rang in my ears, "He is Risen!"Wiping the blood from my fingers, our mortality sat in grime reality in front of me.We are mortal.We are human.We are imperfect.Living a diabetic life is a never ending parallel to living our mortal one. Constant corrections.As I need to make constant corrections...

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Help Wanted: full time shoulder sitter

"I'm spinning plates and doing nothing well." I keep saying that over and over in my head and I have to wonder if it is really true, or if it is my self-deprecating "I'll-Never-Be-Good-Enough" inner judger doing all the talking. You know?It's like I have the devil on both shoulders."Meri, just give up...you are going to make a mess of it.""Meri, you are a joke, stop before you make it worse.""Meri, why even try? You don't have time to do it right!""Meri, you could do SO much better...you are letting people down!""BTW Meri, you are fat."Yeah...devils are no fun at all.So what does one do when the Devils spend the entire day picking on...one? Well,...

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CSI: Diabetes

If my house were presented before a judge and jury, we would be convicted of afternoon lows in a heartbeat.I've been cleaning up the crime scene all morning.Four juice boxes thrown on the blood sugar station, completely depleted of its juice. Crushed from the force of suction from a young boy's satiating eagerness.Test strips littering the floor from harried blood sugar testing.Tubes of yogurt and banana peels lay on the kitchen table like corpses...ready for their chalk outline.Inside the refrigerator, pieces of hot dog torn off...incriminating evidence that Lawton received a treat for alerting on a low.Four blood sugar monitors taking cover...

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DO, and his ugly step brothers WHY and HOW.

My heart is heavy.Several of my closest friends in the online community are facing new trials.It makes me ask the question that has eaten me alive in the past..."WHY?""WHY must families that already face hardships far beyond anything they ever imagined, WHY must they face more?"Unfortunately, back in the day, WHY and me used to be tight.And now here he is again, trying to worm his way back into the recesses of my swelly brain...persistently trying to buy tickets onto my train of thought.But I ain't selling him any.Because WHY gets us nowhere. We sell him tickets to our thought trains and SCREEEECH, everything comes to an abrupt halt. No progress...

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Sympathizing with Fred Sanford.

The other day after school I had the boys test their sugars and report back...well more like yell back, what their numbers were.L- Wouldn't tell me. He just did his march to the low cupboard all the while maintaining intense eye contact with me...it's a wonder he doesn't run into a wall. So I knew he was low.B- Came in and sat by me on the couch. "I'm 42."Me: "YOU'RE 42!!!!" Grabbing my heart...B- "No, ONE 42. 1-4-2"Me: "Geez B, no mumbling when you tell me your number. I'm having heart palpitations."J walks in with his 13 year old smirk. "I'm 489."Before I can ask what the what, he giggles like a 2 year old.J: "I'm just messin with you! I'm...

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Getting to know the man in the rainbow tie.

He was the gentle looking man in the corner with a rainbow tie. When I walked into the room after lunch and saw him there, I thought it would be nice to introduce myself.I walked over to him and said, "Hello, I'm Meri Schuhmacher.""Hello," he said, "My name is Richard Rubin.""Nice to meet you."And I walked on. As I settled into my seat, introductions for the next half of our session began. Dr. Francine Kaufman introduced him. She kissed him enthusiastically on the cheek and said, "Everyone in this profession has learned at his feet. If you don't know him...you probably shouldn't be here."I sunk in my seat. I had no idea who he was. Filled with...

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Meri Tyler Moore or Sponge Mom Sappy Pants.

I was bone dry.I entered the airport terminal like a weathered sponge who had sat in the sun for days. My body ached for relief. I didn't know what to expect from the Medtronic Advocate Forum I was to attend. It was a complete unknown, and although I was scared to death of traveling alone for the first time...to see people I had only seen within the 17 inch parameters of my computer screen, I couldn't help but smirk to myself as I walked through the jetway to the airplane...I was ready. As dry as I was, I was ready to soak up all the hope for the future I could. There was a heaviness to the moment...I knew this trip would mean something. But...

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