Win a FREE Level Life Premier Bundle!

So, recently I was given the chance to try out a ton of Level Life Products and tell you folks what I thought about them. I've been offered other products to try and review before, and I am careful about what I would recommend to anyone: there are many, many, MANY products out there on the market claiming to understand the needs of persons with diabetes, and selling all manner of things, particularly shakes and meal replacement bars. I hate most of them, and tend to not endorse many. They tend to have a lot of sugar, or be a lot higher in carbohydrates than I would personally want. Enter Level Life. Level Life started out as a company...

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Why I do nighttime checks.

In some circles, it’s a stigma attached to parenting a child with diabetes.  If one admits to doing nighttime checks, one is fear mongering, and working from a state of unreason.  And in some circumstances I've seen it serve as a dividing line between parents in the online community.  Today I would like to set differences aside and outline why I often find myself doing the nighttime check.  (Other than the fact that I have three boys with Type 1, which gives me triple the reason to get up.  Obviously.)ONE:  The A1C.  Nighttime is half of my boys’ lives.  It is much easier to control their blood sugar at...

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Five years a'blogging.

Five years ago today, I started this blog.  I have a lot of sappy things to say, but I already posted a sappy post today...so I will fall back onto the past and re-post a post (I'm keeping that sentence, I don't care,) that I think sums up exactly why I started this blog in the first place.  To find "same."From 2010...There are a few things I want you to know.I want you to know, when your daughters pump ran out of insulin within the first hour of school last week…I have felt that very same anger and embarrassment that you did.I want you to know, when your baby wets his bed at night from a high blood sugar…I have felt the same sadness,...

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Love with a side of Polynesian Sauce

In 10 days our family is going to pack up and return to Orlando for the 2014 Children with Diabetes, Friends for Life Conference.  Every year the conference switches between a Disney hotel, and another hotel off campus.  This year we will be returning to the Marriot World Center, the location we attended the conference for the first time two years ago.The same place we attended the Summer Ryan was diagnosed…in the throes of treatment.  In the depths of uncertainty and fear, and unending hope. The memories I’ve tried so hard to push down are forcing their way back up my reality.  There is no mental dam strong enough to keep...

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New A1C targets for children with diabetes.

I was privileged to attend the 74th annual ADA Scientific Session in San Francisco this last week.  I have a whirlwind of information to get out to you, so much so, I’m honestly overwhelmed.  I hope I’m up to the task.As I try to get my mental ducks in a row, I decided I needed to address the biggest duck of all: New ADA guidelines on acceptable A1C targets in children.It affects us all, and as I’m sure you all do, I have mixed feelings on the subject.For those who haven’t heard the details, a position statement by the ADA was released yesterday indicating a new A1C target in pediatric patients, specifically for those with Type 1 Diabetes. ...

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Diabetes will always be crazy.

It will always be crazy.Somebody has to say it.When people are newly diagnosed with Type 1, they are told that honeymoons can be crazy.  Yes, the pancreas kicks in as much insulin as it feels like.  Yes, sometimes it likes to overcompensate for the highs.  Yes, one never knows WHEN it will help and when it won’t. Yes, it is crazy.But when the honeymoon is over, the crazy doesn’t end…you are only introduced to a new brand of crazy.  Figured out the correct amount of basal insulin to use?  Things going good?  GREAT!  It’s going to change next week.Is that first year crazy after the honeymoon is over?  Absolutely...

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