I was contacted last month by Laura from Extreme Southern Couponing. She has a 9 year old daughter who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes two years ago, so she was putting together guest posts to feature on her blog throughout the month of November. She had come across my blog and asked me to share my story with her readers. Many of you already know most of the details of my diagnosis and journey thus far with T1, but if you're interested you can read it on her site here.
On November 15th, I had an OB appointment and ultrasound in Amarillo, so my mom, sister, and I met my aunt and cousin at Beef O'Brady's for their second "Dining for Diabetes" fundraiser. They donated a portion of their ticket sales that night to the JDRF, so we got to eat some good food for an awesome cause! I also got to meet the Branch Manager for the Panhandle JDRF in person, as well as some of the other board members. They are all incredibly nice, welcoming people, and I can't wait to work with them.
The next day, the article I wrote for the local paper on diabetes awareness was published. I was incredibly excited to see it happen, because it's something I've wanted to do for a while. I decided to focus on the myths related to diabetes, because there are so many misconceptions surrounding the disease. For those of us living with it, having to clear up these myths on a regular basis adds to an already challenging life, so my hope was that by reaching people in our community on a larger scale, things would be a little easier for people with diabetes--especially the kids and young adults who have to deal with it. It turned out to be a long article, so I'll save it for another post!
I *think* that covers everything diabetes-month related thus far, but I could be missing something. I was reading "Do Chocolate Lovers Have Sweeter Babies? The Surprising Science of Pregnancy" a few nights ago, and it said that a woman's brain shrinks by 4-6% during the nine months of pregnancy in order to build the baby's brain (at least according to one theory)...my husband says I'm definitely on the 6% end of the range! Either way, my brain power has been somewhat diminished for the past several months...it's a strange feeling, being in a constant fog. Then there are the days that I'm convinced I'm losing it, like the day I posted this on Facebook:
I've come to the conclusion that I'm losing my mind! I had to call Mom to ask her a question, but when I dialed her number on my cell phone, the office phone started ringing, so I had to hang up on her. I then picked up the office phone, and no one was there, so I tried Mom's number again. About that time, the office phone started ringing again, so I had to hang up to answer it...And once again, there was nobody there. This went on about five times and I was starting to get extremely frustrated before I realized that *I* was actually calling the office instead of Mom's cell phone number and hanging up on MYSELF. I think I need a break...♥The diminished mental status and achy hips and back, though, I can deal with. They're constant reminders that my body is on a higher level of functioning right now to make sure our baby gets everything it needs, and I'm completely okay with that. When I had my ultrasound on the 15th, I was nervous once again--though not quite as nervous as I was before our first big one in September. I suppose the worry that everything is developing as it should never quite goes away, but I'm glad that things were still on track with our little one! She's in the 60th percentile even though I'm measuring smaller, and although she was breech, everything else was where it should be. As it is in diabetes, "normal" is an amazing thing when it comes to your baby's development! I'm just hoping she decides to head south sometime in the next 9-10 weeks...=)
My sister also had her baby a month ago after she developed preeclampsia and had to have a c-section at 34 weeks. Her baby is still in the NICU-she had some breathing problems in the beginning and digestive issues after that, but she's stabilized and is doing better. She just has to meet all of her milestones before they'll let her go home! My relationship with my sister has been better since her baby was born, and I'm glad that we've been able to put most of the anguish of the past several months behind us. The selfish part of me still finds it hard that everything is revolving around her and her baby at this point, but that's just because everyone is so focused on all of that that I sometimes forget we're having a baby soon. I hear about it so often that I sometimes think of our little one by her baby's name, and that frustrates me!
It's also been hard having my parents gone so often, because it leaves me to take care of the office by myself--something that isn't out of the ordinary, but that can be incredibly stressful at times...and right now, I need to start slowing down rather than taking on more than my share. We don't have much longer until she'll be here, and we still have so much to do! I know it will all get finished, but it's still hard sitting at the office when I know there's so much I could be doing at home. Hopefully I'll have enough time off in the end to get a few things done that I haven't been able to work on, like the quilt that I started over a year ago...The quilting part is not far from being finished, and then I have to bind it, but I never have a solid chunk of time to get it done.
Then I still need to get in touch with a pediatrician, work on my birth plan (/wish list), and about a million other things to prepare for the actual labor and delivery part of things...I try to not let it all stress me out, but sometimes the amount of things I have left to do hits me like a ton of bricks--or at least with the force with which our little girl kicks me sometimes! Oh-speaking of her kicks, my hubby finally got to feel her kick for the first time about a week ago...I'd been able to feel it from the outside for about a month, but she never would cooperate when he was around!
Well, I think that pretty much covers what's happened over the past few weeks, so I guess I better get back to work!
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