A Day at the Water Park

There is never a shortage of entertainment when you go to a water park, and I'm not just talking about the rides. It is people watching at its best! These are a few of the things we witnessed:

- A lot of butt crack. Crack kills, people. Cover that mess up!
- A lady with a hole in the butt crack of her suit. I told her about it only after much convincing from DJ that I "had to" tell her because it was the right thing to do. We saw her later and she had shoved her suit up her butt to cover the hole. Awesome.
- A dude in Speedo shorts to his knees. I thought DJ was going to vomit because you could totally see his package... what there was of it. Poor fella.
- Teenage girls making out alternately with their boyfriends and each other. Really kids? Really?
- A lot of ladies wearing bikinis that maybe shouldn't have been wearing bikinis. They made me feel good about myself though, so I really liked them.
- This kid (about 17-ish) standing behind me in line and playing with his moob and squeezing his nipple repeatedly. Oh, and he touched me!!!

Also, you cannot go to any kind of amusement park, packed into those lines like a bunch of sardines, and expect to not get touched on your naughty parts once or twice. My butt was grazed by more than a couple of hands (mostly on accident, I'm sure) and my boobs and my face were the victim of intertube assault over and over again. Not that my face is a naughty part, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

The best part of the whole day though, was this:

This kid is never happier than when she is in water. I don't get it, but I don't have to. It was a great day.

Give Diabetes the Finger

Who remembers Super Bowl Sunday 2011??? I do! Not because of the commercials and certainly not because of the game; only because that's the morning I had to call 911 at 5:00 a.m. because DJ had gone into a severe hypo-glycemic episode while she was sleeping and I couldn't wake her or get her to respond. For those who wish to read about that episode, the link is here:

http://rosebrowning.blogspot.com/2011/02/my-worst-nightmare.html

DJ deals with hypo-glycemia usually on a weekly basis. It makes her uncomfortable but the fix is easy and it's usually not too big of a deal if we catch it before she gets too low. The episode in February was the worste I have ever seen and it was the second time in three years this has happened to her. (The first time she was at her dads house and it also resulted in an ambulance ride to the hospital). The reality of our situation is that something like this will happen again, unless a cure is found.

Hypo-glycemia is when your blood sugar gets too low (this is below 80 for DJ). Symptoms of hypoglycemia include drowsiness, feeling week, hungry, cold sweats, double vision, fast pounding heart beat, shaking, unclear thinking, the list goes on. DJ has been living like this since she was six years old and I for one think it's about time she's able to stop living like this and start living the life of a "normal" 12-year-old girl!

My dream is for DJ to be able to live a life free of diabetes and the complications that can arise from it. I look forward to the day when DJ can give diabetes the finger!



Common Sense

Common Sense ~ Every day I am reminded... is not so common!

com.mon; adjective

1. belonging equally to, or shared alike by, two or more or all in question: common property; common interests.
2. pertaining or belonging equally to an entire community, nation, or culture; public: a common language or history; a common water supply system.
3. joint; united: a common defense.
4. widespread; general; ordinary: common knowledge.
5. of frequent occurance; usual; familiar: a common event; a common mistake.

sense; noun

1. any of the faculties, as sight, hearing, smell, taste, or touch, by which humans and animals perceive stimuli originating from outside or inside the body.
2. these faculties collectively.
3. their operation or function; sensation.
4. a feeling or perception produced through the organs of touch, taste, ets., or resulting from a particular condition of some part of the body: to have a sense of cold.
5. a faculty or function of the mind analogous to sensation: the moral sense.

Walk to Cure Diabetes

Every year Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) hosts "The Walk to Cure Diabetes". This is an annual fundraiser to support research for a cure for type 1 diabetes. Below is a link to the story of how JDRF was born. Please, I am literally begging you to watch this.

With enough money we can find a cure! These women are amazing and I am forever in their debt. You cannot imagine what something like diabetes will do to your family until you experience it first hand. The reality of the situation is that until a cure is found my daughter will live every day of her life making herself bleed to test her blood and injecting herself with medication. How morbid is that? How would you feel if it were your child or grandchild?

I am asking each of you to donate $5, $10, $20. Anything helps. If you can sign up to walk with us and raise money that would be even better! If we had a 10 person team and each of us ased 10 people for $10 we would have $1000.

Please help me find a cure for diabetes. Again, I am begging you.

How I embarrassed my daughter at camp...

Every year DJ goes to diabetes camp and every year they have a little awards ceremony at the end for the parents and campers. Each kid gets a certificate with some cute title; this year DJ got "Social Butterfly".

After hitting Starbucks at about 9:30 a.m. yesterday I headed out to Gales Creek Camp to pick up my monster and see her get her award. When I got there all the parents, campers and counselors were crowded around and the awards had already begun. It was 10:20 a.m. and I SWORE awards were supposed to start at 10:30 a.m. so I found the schedule and sure enough, I was right. I absolutely detest being late, but at least I could see DJ get her award. I found DJ and asked if she got hers yet, she nodded yes and gave me a look somewhere between disappointment and pisstivity. I swear I almost cried. I. WAS. PISSED. I hunted down the person in charge and was thisclose to snapping on her. I pulled her aside and said, "I'm really disappointed the awards started early". She asked if I missed DJ's award and when I told her yes, with a tear in my eye, she said, "Okay, we'll do it again". I let her know DJ probably would not appreciate that but she figured DJ would get over it and that I deserved a photo opp. She walks over to DJ and takes her award and DJ was so confused. The look on her face was hillarious. Anyway, they called DJ up and gave her the award along with the explanation for it, for the second time and I know she wanted to crawl under those bleachers. As she walked back to her seat I saw her mouth the words "MY MOTHER" to her friends and I was happy I had my pictures.

After I picked her up from camp we took a last minute trip to Tillamook and Neskowin. On the way to the beach DJ's pump ran out of insulin so she ate and played like a kid that doesn't have diabetes. By the time she got home to test she was over 500 and drinking water & peeing like she was newly diagnosed. Not to mention that hellacious attitude she gets when she's high. It was worth it to have the day we had and after a few hours of testing and administering insulin she was back to normal. We had so much fun, but I must confess, the fact that she wasn't getting insulin nagged me the whole trip.

I look forward to the day when diabetes is a memory and doesn't occupy my every other thought.

Walk to Cure Diabetes

On September 21, 2005 I was told my daughter has type 1 diabetes. I was also told she will have to take multiple injections of insulin for the rest of her life. I cannot tell you how that feels; the fear, the frustration and the guilt!

Diabetes is so common that many people don't realize how devastating it can be. Here are some numbers for you, they are all approximates:

5110 - the number of injections she had to take the first four years of her diagnosis
243 - the number of site changes she's done since getting her insulin pump two years ago
10,950 - the number of fiinger pokes she has taken over the past six years

These numbers do not account for additional highs and lows. The numbers are much greater but I have no way of tracking the actual numbers. These are best case scenario numbers, if there were no sick days and no dangerously high and low numbers.

Wouldn't it be great if there were a cure for DJ and the thousands of children like her, living with type 1 diabetes? We are so close to a cure and I truly believe it will happen in DJ's lifetime.

If you would like to help find a cure for diabetes you can begin by joining us for the JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes. You can help by walking with us and raising funds yourself or by donating. Anything helps, even $5, $10, $20. Anything.

You can go to http://www2.jdrf.org/site/PageServer?pagename=walk_homepage to register or to donate. Our team name is "The Move"; I am the team captain. If you would like to donate you can donate to DJ Thompson or Rose Browning. I will be posting more information as time goes by. The date is October 2, 2011 at 9:00 a.m.

Thank you all for your love and support.