A Year Ago

So, let's forget dates for a second and just think about days....a year ago, tomorrow morning (It was Monday May 2, 2011) I got up for an early morning appointment with my OB/GYN. It was at 8:30am and it was going to be the last one before my scheduled c-section on Friday, May 6, 2011 at 12pm. Pat would fly in sometime that week and Friday at 10am we would head to the hospital...God's plan was AWESOMELY different.
At my appointment on Monday, I did my pee sample like I had done 2 times a week for the past two months. I then got weighed and noticed that I had gained 18lbs from the last Thursday (for a total of 30 lbs in only ONE WEEK).
I had noticed swelling all weekend and had had a headache on Saturday. I also noticed stretch marks for the first time that week (AGH-I had made it 37 weeks without them and then BANG they were there). The swelling was so bad, actually, that after going to a baseball game with my sister on Sunday, May 1, I had to wait 3 hours to take my "skinny" pregnancy jeans off because they wouldn't pull down my thighs and had to actually cut the seams by my ankles because they wouldn't fit over them still. But-despite all of the signs-I never thought about pre-eclampsia. However, my doctor knew EXACTLY what was going on (thank God she went to med-school, ya know?) At 9:08 am, Dr. Gregory walked in to the room where I was hooked up to the non-stress test monitoring Ryder's heart rate, and she asked, "are you ready to have a baby?"
SAY WHAT?!?!?!?!
No I wasn't ready-that's why we had scheduled a c-section, so we would know EXACTLY when my baby bear would be here. My husband wasn't here, my mommy wasn't here, my dad wasn't here!!!! I sent out a massive text saying "He'll be here by 4:30" and I think most people thought I was talking about Pat and not Ryder, but when they figured it out-I got calls...I called my mom right away and let her know and she made sure to get on the first available flight (which was difficult because of all of the red-cross workers flying to Alabama for the previous week's HORRIBLE tornado damage). I then called my sister crying. Thank God she was there with me through the whole process. She was walking into a meeting but she came to my rescue and waited in my room with me until the epidural and was then in the OR with me during the c-section, holding my hand and taking pictures. She was the very first person to see my baby, besides the doctors and I am so thankful that she could be there...It was a day I (hopefully) will never forget-EVER-not one detail.

Is It The Bad Kind?

So, I'm hopping on top of my soap box for this post. Recently, I've read a lot of news articles and magazine articles pertaining to the childhood obesity epidemic and the rising problem of childhood Diabetes. I would like to take a minute and clarify this...there is not a rising problem of childhood diabetes but of TYPE 2 DIABETES in children.
The naming of Diabetes use to pertain to the age in which someone got it but now there needs to be more clarification. So let me help the public and give a little insight to the two extremely DIFFERENT diseases.
Type I Diabetes (that's what I have had for 21 years) is Insulin Dependent Diabetes. It is an auto-immune disease and it is NOT curable. It doesn't matter if you know someone who knows someone who was on insulin and then lost weight and went off of insulin...they did NOT have Type I Diabetes. This disease occurs because something goes wrong with the body's immune system and it attacks itself and kills all of the islet cells (which produce insulin) in the pancreas. No matter how much you exercise or how much lettuce you eat, those islet cells will NEVER start producing insulin again. EVER- EVER EVER.
Type 2 Diabetes use to be Adult-Onset. That is no longer the case with the rise in childhood obesity. Type 2 Diabetes is what everyone is talking about in the news now-NOT TYPE I-This disease occurs because one's body can no longer keep up with the production of insulin that their body needs to break down foods eaten into energy and the sugar remains in their blood. This could be caused by a number of things. It doesn't mean you're fat but you're diet definitely needs to change...This Disease IS curable with proper diet and exercise. If someone doesn't find out they have Type 2 or if they don't take care of it through a doctor prescribed regimen of pills, diet and exercise, they may have to go on insulin to help...however, they DO NOT have Type I Diabetes...they still have all their islet cells, their immune system has not killed them all and with proper care their body can start working again (though damage done to limbs, eyes, etc is not reversible usually)
Though the consequences are similar and they issues are similar- the diseases ARE NOT the same...
I got really frustrated while pregnant because, when I was hospitalized the first time, the nurses assumed I had Type 2 Diabetes and did not give me the insulin I needed when I needed it (which is all the time). Maybe it was because I started gaining so much weight at the end of my pregnancy (115 total) because of it and they assumed because I was now "fat" that I had Type 2 or maybe they were just ignorant (that should give you confidence in our healthcare workers...SARCASM) I wanted to let them know that 'I don't have Diabetes because I'm fat! I'm fat because I have TYPE I DIABETES and I'm pregnant' ... but I didn't say anything. And one of the doctors even asked me if I had "the bad kind". **ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?!?!** He was a doctor-that was a dumb question. My OB ended up letting me stay on my pump the other 2 times I was in the hospital and let me take care of my Diabetes myself because I had a lot of issues that were caused by the 3 day 1st hospital stay of high blood sugars.
Let's re-cap...
There is no "bad kind"... Diabetes SUCKS (I have no better word to describe it, I'm sorry).
Type I Diabetes-->Insulin Dependent-->Auto-Immune-->NO CURE
Type 2 Diabetes-->caused from improper diet/lack of exercise/weight-->can be cured....

Thank you...have a good night

**If you have questions about Diabetes, I will be more than happy to answer them and if I don't know--I'll find it out**

Easter Egg Hunt 2012

I am so thankful for the amazing friends that I have, especially when my family is all the way in Florida. Yesterday, we went to an Easter Egg Hunt at a friend's of mine and had sooo much fun!! She had a few friends and their kids over and it was so fun to see Ryder with the other kids. He couldn't play and run around with them but he sure wanted to! Here are some pictures from our day :)