New Blog Website

We're moving! You can see the new blog here As you may recall, we got a little uncomfortable with the fact that by clicking "next blog" above on the blogger toolbar, you have a pretty good chance of seeing something for mature audiences only. We're checking out the new digs - unpacking and getting used to the surroundings. The actual website address is http://blog.wbt.com/stacey/If you have any trouble getting there, please email me at staceysimms@wbt.com. Thanks!

A Bad Button

We love our insulin pump. It's really changed how we treat Benny's diabetes, gives us more flexibility and allows us to let him eat almost whatever he wants. The only problem is when there's a problem. And we had a big one yesterday. Benny's "button" came out at daycare. That's what we call the inset, the way the pump is actually attached to his body. The button's come out once before and our care providers know what to do. They're just incredible people and I'm so grateful for the way they take care of our little guy. They replaced the button and went on as usual. But something was wrong. Benny's numbers started going up. When they checked him - and Slade had just arrived to pick him up - he was above 500. If your blood sugar stays that high, it can get dangerous. (here's a good explanation of how an insulin pumps works) Slade gave him a huge dose of insulin and took him home. I was at gymnastics with Lea (every Thursday!) and he called me with the update. I wanted to run home, but Slade knows what he's doing, Benny seemed in a decent mood, considering he probably felt really lousy, and he was eating a snack - which is a good sign. Sometimes when he's really high he doesn't feel like eating. On the way home, I warned Lea we might be in for a rough night. I wasn't trying to scare her, but I wanted to prepare her in case Benny was sick. I was worried about ketoacidosis. We haven't had a scare that like yet, but a friend had just told Slade her teenage son with Type I had let his blood sugar run high for two days and he was throwing up and sick. Scary stuff. I also told Lea that her brother might be just fine, and we'd have to see what we got when we got home. She wasn't phased. She had a few new books from school - High School Music the Junior Novel!! - so she was set for a while. We walked in the door at a pretty tense time. Slade had decided the new "button" wasn't working so he replaced it again. Every once in a blue moon the cannula will be inserted into a capillary and it doesn't seem to get the insulin where it needs to go. That's what happened to us the very first night we started on the pump. You can tell because when you pull the button off, the skin will bleed. That shouldn't happen. So Slade replaced the button AND gave Benny an insulin shot. His first shot since going on the pump in July. Sad about that, but it's more important that we got the insulin in him and get his blood sugar down. Then we hooked the pump back up and started checking his blood sugar every half hour. A few minutes after I walked in the door we decided to check for ketones. Benny loves this. I don't know why peeing in a cup is such fun, but that's party time at my house. Luckily, he was negative. Just after that, the insulin shot seemed to kick in and you could tell he was feeling a lot better. A good, but late, bedtime and great blood sugar numbers all night long. Whew! I was scared we'd be up all night, but both kids were asleep by 9pm and no trouble overnight. All good till next time!

Movin' Out

The next time you read this blog, it may look a little different. We're working on moving it to a different sort of site. I admit, I have very little idea how this all works, but I think we need to make a change. Right now, my host is "blogger," an amazing website that lets anybody post a blog about anything. The downside of this is, anybody can post a blog about anything. Turns out, a lot of people like to write about, and post pictures of, stuff that is for mature audiences only. And you can actually get there from here. See that tab up on top of the page? It says "next blog." Click it and you'll go to a randomly generated blog page. Could be movie reviews from Spain, some kid's homework in India, or dirty pictures from right here in the USA. I don't expect a lot of kids to read this blog, but I'm not thrilled that what I write could be linked, even inadvertently, to pornography. So we're moving. Hopefully, it'll only take a few days to pack up and find a new home. There goes the neighborhood.

Under Cover

For some reason, I've been thinking more lately about what I put on under my clothes. This all started for me when Keith Larson spent a whole show talking about an undergarment that enhances the size of your rear. I don't remember what it's called (please don't ask!) but it's only sold locally at one store. I found myself right near that shop on some other business and I couldn't resist going in to find out more. You see, it has perhaps the best retail name ever: I C London. Don't get the joke? Do you see France? Turns out, there is an entire universe of undergarments I knew nothing about! I'm not talking about the usual stuff here. There's a whole industry now to provide smoothing and cinching of body parts I don't usually think of as underwear friendly. Arms, for example. Your entire leg, down to the ankle. Apparently, there are women who would be horrified at the idea of wearing a 19th century corset but who think nothing of encasing their entire bodies in a stocking sausage thing. Okay, I'm exaggerating, but just a little. A few days after I went into I C London, I saw this article in the NY Times Dining Section. The Dining section! Please. It's not like you can eat comfortably while wearing this stuff. This is where I'm supposed to talk about being a strong woman and not giving in to "image," etc. Whatever. I went back to I.C. London last week and bought something called "slim cognito." Don't judge me - I have a very formal event coming up with a very clingy dress. We'll see how it works out. I know I won't look like her, but I'm afraid I'll feel like Scarlett O'Hara cinching in that 17-inch waist!!

Read the Label!!

I haven't written about our daily life with diabetes in quite a while. We seemed to get the hang of using the pump and even though it's not yet a year, it's actually hard to remember what things were like before Benny's diagnosis. A reminder this week that we're still learning. We check Benny's blood sugar (also called blood glucose or bg) several times a day, sometimes as many as 8-10 times during they day and even overnight. We use a lancet to prick his finger and get a drop of blood. That goes onto a test strip inserted in a meter, which gives us his bg number. Here's more info on how it all works. The test strips come in little cylindrical containers - they look almost like what 35mm film comes in. Each little container has a number on it. When you put the test strip into the meter, the same number should come up. On our meter you have to manually reset that number each time you change containers. After that, you just press "okay" on the meter when the number comes up. We been doing this for about 10 months now (wow) and we know the drill. Or so we thought. For about two and half days we were getting crazy bg numbers. 95 one hour, 405 an hour later when Benny hadn't eaten anything. Or 250 overnight and 350 in the morning. Just didn't make sense. We didn't know if the pump was broken or if the inset was off. Finally, Slade figured it out. Seems that when I changed from the #11 canister to the #17 canister I mixed up the numbers and never reset the meter. 17 looks just like 11, right? We got lucky. The only time Benny really got low was right after Slade figured out the problem and checked him. A quick juice box and we're off and running. More frustration, one night later. We usually check Benny about an hour after he falls asleep. I go into his room, hold a small flashlight in my mouth (I need both hands!), prick his finger and get the number. Then, if we need to, we treat him using the pump he wears 24/7. Believe it or not, he usually sleeps through it. This time, though, it took me five test strips, woke him up, he's telling me to give him the flashlight, he wants to turn it off. Aarrgh!! At least the number was great when I finally got it.

The Mayor and Me

Yes, that's Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory showing me some respect. We're both laughing so hard I'm surprised the picture even came out! Here's what happened:

This week Al & I played in the Charlotte Rotary Club's annual golf tournament - it's a great time, tons of people and they raise lots of money for scholarships. Instead of putting us in a foursome, they sat us out on one of the par 3 for a "beat the pro" contest. One of us would hit and if the other players got closer to the hole than we did, they'd win a prize.

The weather was great and we had a terrific time. We made a lot of people very happy, because for every good shot we hit, we shanked a lousy one nowhere near the green! They gave out a lot of prizes. You can see some more pictures at WBT's photo gallery.

But timing is everything - my best shot of the day (thisclose!) came when the Mayor's foursome came through. They couldn't beat me and you see the Mayor's reaction. It was very funny, but I was completely mortified. You see, the Mayor takes a lot of heat from WBT - our talk show hosts beat him up pretty consistently. Turns out, he can't even get a break on the golf course!

Anyway, Mayor, thanks for being such a great sport and giving me a moment of glory. I'd love to play a round with you sometime - I promise not to outdrive you. Much.

America At Home (part 2)

Okay, so it wasn't a disaster, but it didn't go exactly as planned either. Friday night, photographer Gayle Shomer came to my house as part of a nationwide project called "America At Home." Her goal was to capture our family on film during the weekly Shabbat dinner. This past Friday also marked the start of the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur, so my parents were in town. It also meant we were racing out the door for a 6:30pm service. My daughter gets out of school at 3:30 and my husband had to be at Temple early so we had a pretty small window. As soon as Gayle started snapping pictures, we had trouble. You see, she started with Benny. So Lea decided she was being left out and would have nothing to do with any of us. You can't make a five year old get in the picture and smile, so we went on without her. After we were well into dinner, she decided to come back and Gayle got some great pictures. By that time, though, Slade had left! I don't know what she's going to wind up with. It's going to look like we either only have one kid or no dad. Oh well. I think the book comes out in November - it'll be fun to see if any of our pictures make the cut!

America At Home (at my house)

If you had to create a snapshot of your family at home, what would it look like? What would you want it to look like? It's a question I have to answer this week. Remember those "A Day in the Life" books back in the 80's? Photographers fanned out around the country and took pictures all during the same 24 hour period. They're doing something similar this week called America At Home and they're coming to my house. I met the photographer a few months ago when she did a story on our congregation for the Charlotte Observer. She took some terrific photos of our service celebrating a new Torah we'd acquired. So when she called to ask if she could include us in this project, I was excited to say yes. Now, however, I'm wondering whether this is really a good idea. My idea of a perfect family picture has nothing to do with the reality of my family. I'm thinking of a beautiful Shabbat dinner, with challah and candles, my children dressed in their best and smiling as they share in a special family moment. What usually happens on Shabbat is that Benny starts grabbing food before we can say the HaMotzi prayer and then he tries to blow out the candles. That's while Lea is telling me she doesn't want to eat what we've made for dinner, she'd really prefer pasta and can she have dessert first? And unless they've spilled enough to constitute an actual change of clothes, they're still in their mucky school clothes with some leftover lunch on them. Friday also begins the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur so we'll all be going to temple right after dinner. That's probably a good thing - we won't have very long to take the pictures so I can only stress out for so long. A couple of years ago, I was profiled in Little Ones Magazine here in Charlotte. Taking the pictures was so stressful for me that Slade and I decided to set a policy on family pics in the future! Rule#1 no outside shots when the temperature is above 90. Rule #2 no sleeveless shirts Rule #3 Stacey will remember that we are not perfect. I'm not sure what the odds are of actually getting into the book. I'm probably getting all worked up for nothing!

Early Hours

My alarm clock goes off at 3:20am. Sometimes I hit snooze, but I'm usually out the door by 4am. Not a lot of traffic, but it looks like that might be changing. USA Today this morning does their cover story on what they call "commuting creep." (Funny, I wrote that first as "creeping commute," which pretty much describes our rush hour traffic.) The article talks about how we're all living farther from work and leaving earlier just to get there on time. What's great about the article, at least to me, is that it goes on to talk about how this has changed other industries. Fast food places open earlier to serve drive-thru breakfast or coffee. Radio and television stations adjust their broadcast day. I experienced that first hand in Syracuse. I was hired to do the morning show at the NBC affiliate there. The broadcast started at 6am and ended at 7am, just before The Today Show. The following year, they moved the show back to 5:30 and added a co anchor (Jeff Glor, now national correspondent for The CBS Early Show). The next year, they moved us back to 5am. I got sick of getting up in the middle of the night and moved to Charlotte for better hours. We all know how that turned out! Funny story about that time in Syracuse. When we moved back to 5am they sent me and Jeff to New York City to tape a promo with Katie Couric and Matt Lauer. They do a bunch of these with local anchors from all over the country. We were pampered in their makeup room and then herded out to the set. We had our 5 minutes (it was probably less) with Matt & Katie, making small talk and then saying our lines. I wish I had some tape of that promo - I probably look scared out of my mind!

A Day At The Fair

We recently took the kids to Tweetise Railroad, out in Boone. We had a terrific time - as the ads say, it's a blast from the past! A big steam engine train, carnival games, rides even my 2 year old could enjoy. I'm not sure it holds up for older kids (maybe older than 10?) but we loved it.

My parents joke that they took us to every amusement park up and down the East Coast. I do have some great memories of Story Town in NY which is now called Great Escape. We used to make my dad take us on the scrambler. My mother refused to go - now I do the same thing with my kids. Slade is the designated throw-up ride guy.

We lived pretty close to Rye Playland and I couldn't wait until I was old enough to ride the Dragon Coaster. I remember when I finally got to ride it, I was absolutely terrified. That click-click-click as your cart inches up the first incline, knowing that a huge drop is coming and then the turn into the dark as you head into the dragon! We went to Hershey Park at least once. I have never seen so much chocolate in my life. I seem to remember a ride where your boat actually floated on a chocolate stream. Is that possible? My town had two big events during the year. The Fireman's Carnival and the Grange Fair. The Fireman's Carnival was all about old fashioned rides like the tilt-a-whirl and carny games where you could win the big teddy bear. It was a big deal when you got old enough to run around the Fireman's Carnival with your friends on your own. That was usually 8th or 9th grade. The Grange Fair was more about agriculture I think. I remember muddy shoes. We had the Westchester County Fair, too, but I don't think we ever went. They had the best commercials! Rides & attractions! Nonstop action! At the Westchester County Fair! I can't believe I remember that jingle. We left Tweetsie worn out, dirty and smiling. Benny says he needs a rope and a horse to go along with his new cowboy hat. Nice try. What was your favorite amusement park or carnival as a kid?