Good News!

Every week, I have to call our Diabetes Management Team with Caleb's numbers. "Numbers" includes his blood sugar readings at

• 2:00 AM
• 7:00 AM
• 9:30 AM
• 11:30 AM
• 1:30 PM
• 5:00 PM
• 9:00 PM

It also includes reporting the number of carbohydrates he has eaten at each meal and the amounts of insulin he's taken after break, lunch, and supper, and at bed time.

Please realize that every one of those blood sugar readings and insulin shots means that a needle is going into Caleb's skin. Every single one. Eleven times a day, he either draws blood from a finger or injects insulin into his body. School started this week and he is doing most of it himself now, which is a big hooray! but this still just breaks my mom-heart.

So what's the good news? Yesterday when I called in they said that the numbers were actually very good for a first week of school (hooray!) and that things were looking pretty balanced overall. In fact --- drum roll please -- WE DON'T HAVE TO DO THE 2:00 AM BLOOD SUGAR MONITORING EVERY NIGHT!!!

This is huge. As believers, I think we all have the ability to get up and do what needs to be done each day, but I was beginning to wonder how in the world I was going to manage to continue with this one now that school has begun. During the school year, it is not unusual for me to be up until midnight doing laundry, doing meal preps for the next day, or just grabbing a rare calm moment before going to bed. Most days I get up at 5:30 so taking a 30-45 minute chunk of sleep out of the routine was getting very tiring.

So hooray. Hip hip hooray! (Feel free to rejoice with those who are rejoicing right now!)

And now I have a request. Caleb's diagnosis is still very new to us and we are still adjusting to what it means to live each day with Type 1. Last night we went to a community back-to-school event and didn't plan to come home between school and the hoopla, but we realized that we didn't bring the insulin pen with us so Keith had to run home and get it. It's the little things that continue to catch us off-guard, but there are people and families who have lived with this for YEARS.

For Caleb -- for all of them -- we need to make sure that money is available to continue with the research. Our care providers have told us that it is very possible that there will be a cure for Type 1 Diabetes within Caleb's lifetime. On Saturday, September 19th, I will be walking in the 2009 Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation's Walk for a Cure in Little Rock, Arkansas. I haven't set a huge fund raising goal, but I would love to meet the $100.00 request that the organization sets for individual walkers. I'm not trying to form a team, but if you live close to Little Rock and walk to sign up as an individual walker and also raise $100.00, I would love to have your company as I stroll across the Big Dam Bridge that day. Because we just learned of Caleb's diagnosis and of this walk, I don't have time to do a bake sale, yard sale, or online auction --- I'm just simply asking you to either help me raise $100.00 or join me and raise $100.00 yourself. You can either find me in person, mail me your contribution, or give online at my JDRF profile page.



And just FYI -- the $100.00 I'm trying to raise is less than half of what we will spend on insulin and testing supplies each month. After insurance coverage we will still pay between $200.00 and $300.00 every month to be Caleb's external pancreas.

Thank you for reading through to the end of this, but mostly thank you for being people who care about me and my son.