Hunting and Pecking

We have a saying in our house, "if it doesn't say 'Type 1,' it means 'Type 2'". 

It's an oversimplification, of course.  There are many products that are beneficial for people who have either Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes, but far too often we see "Great For Diabetics!" or "Low In Sugar!" on the front of the box, then flip it around to find a very typical carb level.

For some reason, Costco seems to often be testing "diabetes-friendly" foods and snacks, but realistically they aren't something we would buy.  Hearing the word, often we will be drawn to the sample table only to turn around with the first glance at the label.

It gets frustrating to hunt for products that are beneficial to Bg level and yet are appealing to the palate.  We've learned to balance the two - if two similar products come at 36 carbs vs. 32, but the higher carb count will be consumed with less push-back, we'll often go that way.

The same generaliztion often applies in media articles; if the article or news report doesn't mention T1D, we quickly assume it's aimed at T2s and turn the page or dial toward the next shiny object.

Get it out of my head!

I've had all I's can stands, I can't stands no more.

It's early dismissal week and my time is limited - eventually they will notice the house has been quiet for 20 minutes.

Literally since I awoke almost twelve hours ago I've been humming this song.  I've tried.  Still stuck.  Moved on to a different track.  Tried this, even.  And yet, I will be sad when such a simple show with a fun message no loger appeals to our boys.

Already they think they care more about hockey and Pokemon - but I plan to dig my heels in if I must.

Oops they found me, got to ru

It's been a great season, hasn't it dad?

Every parent sits amazed at how much their child has grown/changed/accomplished over x-amount of time.  We annoy our child-free friends, while those with older kids just nod along, remembering; "Three weeks ago he was barely standing up, now he walks from the couch to the dining room without stopping".

Last year about this time, the Spokane Chiefs were beginning a playoff run that would take them to the Western Conference Finals, before losing to Portland.  As I've explained before, Cameron was at the time unfamiliar with the whole "playoffs" concept, and actually quite distraught as the much-better Winter Hawks beat the Chiefs rather solidly before losing the WHL finals in the next round.  There were tears, we tried to explain the next season would come up soon - but the guys did their best and actually did better than predicted before the season, and that was something really great.

After you've been around the block a few times, especially in the upper-left quadrant of the United States sporting map, you tend to be less emotionally-invested in the outcome of a given sports season.  During the actually-competitive Mariners run of 1995-2001, we may get our hopes up emotionally, but up here we knew they would eventually meet up with, and get their hats handed to them by, the Yankees.

We become ultra-realists: Sonics fans knew that their playoff battles had to be won in six games, because their was no way in David $tern's green Earth they were going to be allowed to beat Barkley's Suns or Jordan's Bulls on the road, in game seven - it was as foreign as a hippie in Bellevue.  One-game scenarios are a tad different, but when every Super Bowl week headline mentioned Jerome Bettis' Detroit ties, we knew the Seahawks were not the league's preferred victor.

So we bring it around to Cam.  As I sit here, The Chiefs are down 0-2 to the Vancouver Giants having allowed approximately 85 goals between the games.  It's not looking good.  They haven't had a home game yet, but as the lower-seeded team they need to win at least one in BC - and again, 85 goals.  He realizes that it's an uphill climb with not a lot of horsepower behind it.  But still he roots for his guys.  He has his favorites, takes his grandma-gifted Lego alarm clock to bed to listen to the final period, overtime, shootouts and post-game shows with Mike "the Boyler" Boyle.  When the season ends, he will be able to tell us when training camp opens and the public scrimmages are scheduled (yes, he checks the team's press reports).  But I don't expect as many tears this year, and next year maybe there won't be any.

"Oh how fast they grow up"!

Up front

Our refrigerator was slowly ceasing to refrigerate its contents recently, which caused us the same stress it would, or has already, cause most folks - is the food inside going to go bad?

Parents of T1Ds have an additional concern, "what about the insulin?"

Fortunately, while most modern insulins are indeed stored cold, a slight moderation shouldn't cause a drastic change in its effectiveness - but it could.  Just like anything "could".  There's a saying among us parents, "your mileage may vary", that applies to virtually any situation.  And virtually any child on any particular day.

In this case it was just an added blip to the fridge scenario - will this affect the insulin?  And we won't know, probably, until we go to use it and even then we won't know for sure if it's the insulin, or a nervous child, or the barometric pressure, or because it's Thursday.  With a million "ors", all we can do is keep paddling

Happy Muppet Tuesday!

IT'S HERE!

Life's a fillet of fish!  Yes it is!

That's right, today marks the home release of The Muppets!  I can't stop exclaiming!

(Pause for breath! Ponder this!) 

OK, there we go.  Indeed, today is one that should have been circled on the calendar, for I can only hope this marks the re-entrance to the mainstream for the Muppets.  It's been over thirty years since The Muppet Show went off the air, and the last of the "classic" movies, The Muppets Take Manhattan, came out in 1984.  I enjoyed The Muppet Christmas Carol, but it was never "big".

Then came The Lull.  There were a few attempts, but none really made the public consciousness like 2011's The Muppets.  Memorable songs, a paper-thin plot, travelling by map - it's all there.  A sequel has been green-lit, and as great as Jason Segel was, hopefully the hand-off won't mean a drop in care and attention to detail.  after all, the original trilogy had the same kind of rotating cameos/not-really-a-stars, so in the hands of a studio and producers that care, we can hope for the best.

Another first-round upset

Who says a #1 seed has never gone down?  In a history-making comeback, Chicken nuggets came back to upset pizza in the 2012 Cameron Bracket!

The first-round upset threatened to overshadow the rest of the tournament, including ultimate champion Anthony Bardaro.

Confused?  Let me explain.

For many years, in the midst of "March Madness", I have created Brackets for each of the boys.  I use the standard college bracket, with "regions".  This year's regions were "favorite foods", 'activities", "leisure recreation", and "people, real & pretend".  I AM the selection committee.  I seed each bracket to come up with the "ultimate champion".

Cam's elite 8 had some classic elements: Cheeseburgers beat hot dogs in the Food region.  Going to Chiefs games trumped a day of water slides at Raptor Reef.  Ex-Chief Anthony Bardaro out-physicalled Grandma Carol in the People bracket.  And NHL 12 for Xbox fell short against Legos.

Ultimately, Bardaro nabbed the game winner versus actually going to a Chiefs game.

Hayden's top 8 also featured some epic battles.  Pizza edged waffles in the Food region.  Ice skating lost to Silverwood in Activities.  Lego Star Wars beat Xbox 360 for Leisure, and former Chief Tyler Johnson beat up Grandma Carol among People.  In the finals, pizza got its revenge, outdueling Lego Star Wars to take home the trophy.

There are no-brainers ("Chiefs games" vs "cleaning your room").  And sometimes they have to think hard ("swimming" vs "Silverwood"). They think I'm crazy - but I wouldn't consider skipping a year.

I've seen parents who take a photograph annually that wraps a newborn in their favorite Larry Bird jersey or football helmet, then marks the passage of time as they gradually fill that helmet then, ultimately, start wearing their own.  This is one of those for me.  I think some trips to the Hall of Fame to revisit the "Boys Brackets" are in order.

Doo-do-do-dooh, duh-di-do-doo!

I used to get more excited about the NCAA Tournament and Selection Sunday specifically.  Routinely, that Sunday through to the first weekend was the greatest eight days on the sports calendar.  Perhaps your team being in the World Series would come close - but I grew up in Seattle, so I wouldn't know.

It's still great and there are definitely moments of inspiration - but nothing like it used to be.  There were a few factors, but the biggest to me are the homogenization and regionalization of the the sites.

First, homogenization.  Around a half-decade ago the NCAA began use their own courts instead of those of the home arena.  I confess, I'm a dork, but I looked forward to seeing the different arenas and what court they would use.  How well would a NBA arena mask their professional markings - Sacramento always seemed bad at it - putting a big beige splotch over the Kings logo.  KeyArena used the court from the state high school tournaments.  If nothing else, you could tell at a glance what game you were watching when CBS would switch.  You knew that this happened in Boise. This was fairly boring, but at least Indianapolis was written in large letters on the court. This happened in the city that stole the Sonics.

Where was this game played?  It says Portland on one baseline and Rose Garden on the other, but the blue-on-black isn't exactly easy to read.  What about this?  Back in Boise, believe it or not.  When you literally remove the color of the event, it dilutes the memories.

Second, regionalization.  Until about 10 years ago, only the top couple of seeds were "rewarded" by playing close to home for the first couple of rounds.  In 1999 Stanford was a 2 seed brought to Seattle, but number 3 was North Carolina!  travelling 3000 miles to play Weber State?  In a game that tipped at 10pm eastern?  That doesn't happen now.  By being a 3-seed, Carolina would never play more than about a day's drive from Chapel Hill.  And if Weber State isn't lucky, they get the 10am Mountain tip.  Then they came up with "pods" in which the teams playing in either the afternoon or evening sessions would play each other in round two, but almost never advance to play each other in the Sweet 16.

It's still great, and I'll still watch, but a lot of the flavor has been sucked out of it.



Hammy, Rufus and Hockey Pucks is proud to announce our own Bracket Tournament.  There is a prize at the end for the winner - which I will announce later in the week.  You'll need a yahoo ID to access it.  Yahoo allows up to five entries.

Go to Yahoo tourney Pick'em.  Search for:

Hammy Rufus & Hockey Pucks Group ID# 138622

Password Glucagon

Fit For Life

Last week began Spokane's build-up to Bloomsday - the first Sunday in May.

For many Spokane-area Public Schools, including Lincoln Heights, this includes a Fit For Bloomsday program after school, that teaches stretching, hydration & running, Running, RUNNING.

This provides unique challenges for a T1D student.  Por ejemplo...

Once this week, upon the bell ringing I pulled my student aside like always and did a Bg check.  63?!?  Okay, well - here's a snack, with glucose tablet chaser - we'll test again in a few minutes. By the time they took attendance, got everyone lined up & completed stretching was about 20 minutes, back up to 110 - better, but not "go ahead & run for 1/2 hour" better, so my instructions were to do 2 laps, then stop to check again.  As you can imagine, it's tough to build momentum when you're stopping 10 minutes in, but you do what's necessary - and for me, what was necessary was making sure he was still heading up, or at least level.

Sure enough, now he was 128 - yay, but not "go ahead & run another 20 minutes" yay.  Thus the instructions to do another 3 laps, enough to total a mile, and then pause again.  By the time those laps were complete, he had become distracted and bored and ready to be done.  Having completed his mile, I decided to accept this.  He moved to the bleachers and became a cheerleader for the other kids.  "Way to go!"  "Keep going!" "Twelve laps?  That's great!"

He knew we couldn't leave because I am ostensibly a volunteer for the whole program, beyond simply a medic alert level.  Once again, I was touched by his ability to cope with this constant inconvenience. 

Way to go, kid!  Keep going!

Coco

Deadline, shmedline, leave me alone.

Playoffs?

For most of us follow sports (and more recently reality game shows), even peripherally, we're used to the "season" consisting of a whole bunch of games with a lot of teams, being followed by a smaller collection of games until theirs an ultimate victor or "champion".  Baseball and basketball play series' usually best-of-7, but sometimes best-of-3 or -5?  Always an odd number to guarantee no ties.  Football and NCAA basketball have one-and-done scenarios, but they still funnel the victors through a bracketed structure until there's a winner.  Those are the most common, but there are others - double-elimination, the judges' vote.
It's a concept, once grasped, that you never really think about - until you have to explain it to a 7-year-old.  "But they said last week was the last game?" "Of the regular season, this is the Playoffs." "So they keep playing?" Until they lose a series.  They play one team until one of them wins four games." "And then the season's over?" "If they lose four games.  If they win, they play a different team for four wins."
Don't get me started on the Memorial Cup.
And so it happened last April 19 that I obtained tickets for myself and two boys to see the Spokane Chiefs play the Tri-City Americans - the FIRST PLAYOFF GAME THEY'LL EVER SEE.
Playoffs or not, it was still a school night, so Kim agreed on the following stipulation: home by 8:30, in bed by 8:45.  It is with that in mind that we watched as the Chiefs fell behind, 0-3 after two periods.  With the magic hour approaching, I packed our stuff, turned to the folks behind us, thanked them for tolerating the dancing fools, and said: "hopefully we'll miss the greatest comeback ever." 
Tee-hee!
This season's playoffs are coming up, and he gets it now, so he probably ever have to review the concept.  at least for 20 years or so.

Four Minutes

Something strange is a-brewing up at Lincoln Heights

Something is off with their days and their nights

For half of four years their clocks were ajar

The timings were simply four minutes too far

That time was precious, who knows its value

When you're leaving for pick-up at two-fifty-two

But last Monday - oh wow - as I opened the doors

Here came a stream of students galore

“That was odd” I thought, “it's not a long walk;

From my car takes two minutes of clock”

I should have been early, at the very least prompt

Where'd that time go, feels like it got chomped

So now two is two, six is six, ten is ten

But I wish I had back that four minutes again

I try to pick battles, try not to pick fights

But who fixed the clocks up at Lincoln Heights?

 

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss

Bring your own silverware

There's a small, tiny, minute chance (no greater than 100%) that my well-intentioned 6-year-old, put dirty dishes away in the drawer instead of putting his dinner dishes in the dishwasher.
Thus, should you deign to pop in for tea in the next week or so, that spoon may not be as pristine as one may hope.
Sorry.

45 Grams Of Terror (Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Maple Bar)

They look so innocent, laying there

Up until 625 days ago, our house had a mini routine prior to bedtime on Saturday.  It was a serious discussion with serious consequences.  We made a plan and we made a contingency.  It went something like this:

Me: What would you like in the morning with breakfast?

Child 1: "Chocolate with sprinkles!"

"If they don't have chocolate with sprinkles, what is your second choice?"

"Maple Bar!"

And the procedure would repeat for each child.  Once or twice, both choices were less than sure-things, so I would ask for a third alternative.  But usually choice A and choice B would cover it.

Then came June 15, 2010.  Or, as it is known in our house - "D-Day".  The day we started a crash course in Type 1 Diabetes that hasn't ended, and likely won't unless and until there is a cure.

With our particular patient, rituals and habits are very important.  And getting to choose a doughnut for Sunday morning was part of his planning.  It was okay to not be getting his chocolate with sprinkles in the morning, but the discussion needed to be held prior to Sandman Time on Saturday.

That crash course brought a lot of fears - and assumptions - and the thought of never having another doughnut broke his heart more than constant Bg checks and insulin injections.  I cannot erase the face he made from my memory, but imagine dropping your ice cream cone onto your new iPhone while watching Titanic, then double that.

You see, bakery items in general, are hard to pin down for carb counts.  How big was the cake?  What kind of icing?  How much icing?  How thick were the slices of bread?  Packaged loaves of bread or hot dog buns are helpful, but they can still vary.  But doughnuts?!?  They can vary so wildly from store-to-store that the best you can do is estimate, than retest Bg's in an hour.  Our most common guess is 45, but one with extra frosting, or none at all, can sway that - but it's still a guess.

Doctors and hospitals don't like guesses.

Over time, we have learned to live live with Diabetes.  He isn't "a diabetic", he is a person, a child, a young man, who has Diabetes.  It's an important distinction, that we have tried to bear in mind.

So we have gotten back into our Saturday Night routine.  As they are getting ready for bed, he will ask "Is tomorrow a doughnut Sunday?"  And usually the answer is no.  But about once a month it gets to be yes, and I get to see a smile that would light Monstropolis.

We still try to limit doughnut Sundays - keeping it special, and choosing birthday weekends or when we have visitors.

And there is nothing to fear, until the sequel: Second Slice: Attack of the Pizza!