Kids for a Cure

Kids for a Cure Lobby Day

On November 27, 40 children living with T1D between the ages of two and 16 from across Canada will travel to Ottawa to demonstrate to Members of Parliament (MPs) how research for T1D has changed lives and how future research can help lead to a cure for the disease. Their message is that a cure can only be reached if increased government support for T1D research is delivered.

Objectives for Kids Lobby Day include:

• Focus on seeking out additional federal funding for T1D research;
• Increase awareness of T1D amongst Parliamentarians;
• Educate Parliamentarians on the difference between T1D and type 2 diabetes;
• Put a personal face to the disease; and
• Initiate (and, in some cases, continue) the relationship building process between our volunteers and their MPs.

Stay tuned for updates and photos from this year’s Kids Lobby Day!

This event is proudly supported by 

World Diabetes Day

This past November 14th was the first time our family recognized and participated in WDD.  Although my maternal grandmother has been T1, for almost 60 years, I'd never really known about the impact this day can have.

I contacted all three schools in my town, and with the help of the community health promotion team at the hospital I work at, we asked that the students wear blue in support of diabetes awareness.  We also did up some information sheets and gave a few little tidbits of information to be read during the morning and afternoon announcements.

I'm happy to say that both Amy and her teacher have told me that it was a huge success and that all but 2 in her class were sporting blue that day.  Unfortunately for me I never thought to go snap a pic!

Bedroom fit for a princess!

Instead of enjoying the last long weekend before Christmas by relaxing at the cabin, we decided to do some much needed work around the house.  We had been putting most of our time and energy into fixing up our cabin over the summer months, that we hadn't spent a whole lot of time at home on the weekends.  Since we had enough snow that we couldn't drive up, yet not enough snow for snowmobile, we decided to spend the weekend at home.

Before Amy had been diagnosed with T1, she would have such fluctuations in her behaviour.  I know she was only 5, but man could that girl swing.  During one of her meltdowns with my mother (who provides daytime childcare for us), she was brought to her room to calm down.  She started kicking the wall next to her bed.  She kicked, and kicked, and kicked until her little heel went right through the wall.  When she came around she was so upset and embarrassed by it. We covered it with a poster until we had the time to patch the whole.  Almost a year later, we finally got around to it.

The end result :)

New 'Do

Friday, November 2, 2012, that's one of many days that Amy has made me a very happy momma!

We waited 2 weeks to convince her daddy, then we waited 2 weeks for the appointment!
After I got off work I brought Amy to my hairdresser and she had 10 inches cut off her hair.  10 inches that will be sent to a Canadian version of Locks of love, 10 inches that can be used to make a wig for someone who has lost their hair to cancer.

A friend of mine from way back.......junior high to be exact, is fighting her battle with breast cancer.  She is a very loving, optimistic, and has touched a number of lives, especially through her song she has written and recorded about her journey called "No Time for You".
Anyway, she is also my brother-in-laws sister, so my girls call her Aunt D.  Well, Amy said she was doing this for Aunt D.

She was so proud!.......and so were we!

Halloween

It's been awhile since I've posted....almost a full month!  But, I've had a good reason, every time I tried to draft a new post, I'd get some weird error.  I've finally managed to bypass it, so I'm going to post a few today to get caught up.

October 31st was our first Halloween since diagnosis, and I wasn't sure how Amy would handle it.  We had a little hurdle earlier on in the day, but we dealt and moved on.  At break time at work a received a phone call from the vice principal of the school (we don't have a school nurse).  She told me that Amy made a little mistake and was quite upset.  Since the school was having a number of halloween activities, their regular schedule wasn't being followed, at recess time, Amy ate her entire lunch as her recess.  They tested her and she was 14, what did I want to do.  I put Amy on the phone who cried for me to come to the school.  When I got their, she wanted to leave with me, since she was so upset, I agreed, but told her I would bring her back to school after lunch.

Turns out she wanted to leave because she was worried the other kids in her class would laugh at her.

She went from 14 to 17, to 17.5 to 17.8 by the time I brought her back to school.  She skipped lunch altogether, but had a good snack with her to have during the party at school that afternoon.  Disaster essentially avoided.

We had a quick subway supper then out trick-or-treating.

Rylie-Dalmatian & Amy -Abbey from Monster High

The girls received bags full of treats, and many of our friends and family had bags done up for the girls.  They always had special bags from certain people, but this year we received a lot of good treats for Amy like yogurt tubes, cheese strings and junior juices.  We also had an agreement that both girls could trade the rest of their treats for a special prize from mommy and daddy.  They loved their new dolls!

The girls and their loot

All in all we had a pretty good first halloween with diabetes.