Check Out This Awesomeness!

Take a look at this deal! I love free! This is so cool because it's even worth signing up, even if we only use it once. Somebody was thinking!

If you don't want to take the time to go check it out, it's a program that offers 2 free games of bowling per child PER DAY this summer at participating bowling alleys!

Are Women Born This Way?

My Aunt sent this to me. How darling is this?! So cute!

Injections

(Syringes and pen needles Ross has used during the month of May)

This is proof of what a stud Ross is. By my calculations, he has had over 140 injections since his Type 1 Diabetes diagnosis five weeks ago. He gets at least four a day. Not once has he cried or complained about having to get the injections. He mostly gives them to himself (in his abdomen and thighs), but when it's time to rotate to his arms, he needs help with those (he can't quite reach them himself).

As he was giving himself a shot the other day, I asked, "Ross, how do you feel about having diabetes, now that you're a month into it?" He replied, "I don't like it. But there isn't anything I can do about it, so I might as well make the best of it." I would say that is quite a mature outlook for a ten-year old.

Summer

Summer officially began for us a week ago with the kids' last day of school. I wanted to think of something fun to do to kick off summer break. I decided to let the kids go play in a creek. I realize I need to let go a little more, and let them have fun and get dirty. Sometimes cleaning up a mess is totally worth them getting along and not fighting.

They took along their "crawdad catching gear."

Drew was a little alarmed when he looked in the water and saw a crawdad. He yelled, "LOBSTER!"

He brought along his goggles...

...to get a closer look.

Mallory had a blast playing in the dirt/pebbles/sand.

The ruined shorts were worth it.

Pay to the Order of ... Poop

I'm pretty sure Drew will get into the banking industry when he grows up.
Either that or the plumbing industry.

This is what I found when I opened the checkbook today. Drew has this little problem of pulling pranks to try to get a laugh. I'm a little worried about Kindergarten.

House Guest

This is Teddy. He's a one year-old Yorkie. He belongs to our friends. They found a fantastic last-minute deal on a cruise and were in need of a dog sitter. We volunteered. So far it's been fun. There has only been one accident in the last four days (Lizzy didn't so much enjoy having to clean it up!). The kids have been begging for a dog, so we thought this might be a good situation for them to see how much work a dog is. They are all willing to take him out at 6:30 a.m., in the rain, and in the heat. They are actually fighting over getting to take him out.

Drew is very skittish around animals, so this has been great for him. He's been very brave. Mallory just cackles when she plays with him, although she's been kind of rough with him at times. She cracks me up because she usually calls him "Tedward."

Why You Don't Turn Your Back On Toddlers:

Usually on preschool days, we get the older two kids ready and off to school before coming home to get the younger two ready. We'd come home, and I gave the little two some yogurt with their breakfasts. I told them to eat while I went upstairs to dry my hair. When I finished I heard cackling coming from the kitchen. As I made my way down the stairs I called out, "Should I be scared?" To which Drew replied, "Yes. Be very scared." I found this yogurt madness in the kitchen. It was one of those times that I had a hard time being mad because they were laughing with sheer happiness and fun. The kids know if they are genuinely laughing, I will often laugh too. It's like seeing someone yawn to me - it's contagious. No matter how much I don't want to, I can't help but laugh, too, sometimes (Edward doesn't particularly enjoy this at certain times of discipline!). Anyway, after a quick clean-up and quick bath, no harm was done and we were off to preschool - only 45 minutes late.

Oh my goodness, the Felker household has been NUTS over the last few weeks! We've had

Cub Scout Olympics
Preschool Circus
842 School Field Trips
Doctor's Appointments
Ben's College Graduation
Aaron's College Graduation

Drew's Preschool Graduation

Helped the Waddell's move & worked on their new house

Visited my Grandpa in the hospital (he's had a stroke)

Met a teeny, tiny new cousin

Attended awards ceremonies

Planted a garden

Stuck it out through three tornado watches

Made it to the last day of school (today!)

I'm hoping things slow down a bit for us soon!

Mother's Day

These cuties are why I celebrate Mother's Day:

Sunday we got to see both of our mothers. Edward's mom and step-dad were travelling through the area after visiting her mom in Memphis. We were excited to see them for a few minutes!

Grammy and Grandad with their crew

Saturday my family treated me to a fun day. After I attended my brother Ben's jr. college graduation, we headed to St. Louis. We went to the temple. We enjoyed walking around the beautiful temple grounds.

They then took me to my favorite restaurant, Chevy's. They know taking Mom there makes her a happy woman!

We then stopped by our favorite park. It's a place with a big pond for fishing or feeding the ducks. It has two barns and a huge stable full of horses, cows, pigs, sheep, goats, ducks, and geese.

The men in the Wright family have a tradition of preparing a meal for us moms on Mother's Day, as well as cleaning up and tending to the children! Ahh, what a nice thing.

Unfortunately, the day ended with my poor nephew, Harrison, acquiring 6 stitches after a fall into the wood trim on the couch. Poor guy! We were joking about the timing of it. Ben graduated the day before. Two years ago, we were at Ben's high school graduation party when Elizabeth had to get 14 stitches in the middle of her forehead. We're going to make all the kids wear helmets when he graduates from his four-year university!

Family Picture Time... Ugh!

I think we are getting past the point where we can use the camera's timer to take a family picture. Watching the blinking light doesn't cut it for at least 2/3 of the Felker Family. I can get some cooperation (sometimes) when I'm behind the camera, working hard for a smile. See? These turned out pretty cute on Easter:

Mallory gave me a nice, toothy grin.

And Drew gave me a blue, toothy grin. Thank you Easter Bunny!

Elizabeth always offers a diva pose.

Ross is pretty easy going. He's usually game for my camera craziness.

Aside from the blue teeth and Ring Pop, I think this one turned out pretty well.

A bit goofy, but fun.

Here's what I'm talking about with the camera's timer:

Mr. Uncooperative, Drew, started off not wanting to humor me with a nice family portrait.

I had the audacity to fix Mallory's bow. What was I thinking?

I told everyone to get ready, but I wasn't ready myself! Mallory is trying to squirm out of my arms. And Drew is apparently trying to sneak in a "purple nurple" on Ross.

Oops! That flash caught us off gaurd.

Sadly, this was our best one. I'm trying to tell myself that Mallory was just trying to smile, not shriek. Um, yeah. That's it.

When Pigs Fly

My brother, Aaron, called to tell me a joke today. It went like this:

Many people said pigs would fly before a black man was elected president. Sure enough, on President Obama's 100th day in office, swine flu.

Hee hee hee.

Big Birthday Girl

My baby girl isn't such a baby anymore! She turned two Saturday.

~ The two birthday girls blowing out their candles~

Mallory shares a birthday with her Aunt Annie

Mal was so cute. She tried over and over to blow out her candles.

After a bunch of tries, she finally asked, "Mommy help me?"

Goodbye hugs for Uncle Aaron

Ross Update

I've been asked by lots of people how things have been for us just a week out of the diagnosis. Things are going really well. Ross continues to have such a positive attitude. He adds up the number of carbs he eats per meal quicker than Edward and me! He is giving himself his own injections in his stomach and legs before each meal. I think he's kind of proud of that. He can't quite reach his arms, so we help him when it's time for a shot there. We have to rotate the injection sites each time so scar tissue doesn't build up. That would affect how he absorbs the insulin.

It was really hard for me to send him to school on Monday! I was quite anxious the entire day. I take comfort in knowing we are less than a mile from school. Also, the school nurse is wonderful. She has had diabetic students in the past, and her foster son had type 1 at the age of 3. I feel comfortable knowing he is in her hands, although I wish he was with me 24/7 right now.

His blood sugar continues to fluctuate a lot. The nurse called me once yesterday, and twice today to let me know he was hypoglycemic, or low. He had to take his glucose pills to raise it quickly. He reached 58 this afternoon. He did have an incident last Saturday that was a bit scary. He came to me and told me he was feeling low. I took a blood sugar reading and it was 88 - at the low end of his normal. He ate a snack, and about twenty minutes later he he started slurring his speech. He seemed very dazed and then began sweating profusely! I'm talking he looked like he was playing baseball in full catcher's gear in July! And he was just sitting there! We gave him his glucose pills, and within 5 minutes he was fine again. Crazy! I wish we would have tested him again at that time, but we were just trying to get him back to normal.

We have been so touched by the prayers, thoughts, and support of our friends and family as well as strangers! Edward had a client that came into the office specifically to give him a Jeremy Maclin rookie card (Mizzou player just drafted to the NFL) that we later learned is worth $70 right now. He's never met Ross, but he wanted to give him something to cheer him up. I've also been contacted by our local chapter of a diabetes support group. They have bent over backwards to make sure we're doing okay.

Thanks again for the prayers! We can feel them.

Our New Life

We're home! Whew! What a whirlwind! We got to leave the hospital one day early because Ross is so awesome, and Edward and I seem to be quick learners. I just want to thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers as well as phone calls. Let me start from the beginning.

Last week (only 9 days ago), Ross started telling me how tired he was and was complaining that he had no energy. I honestly just kind of pushed it off as getting over Easter weekend. We had just made a two day trip to Memphis and back, filled with lots of stops. We had a weekend of late nights and irregular meals. And of course Easter is filled with candy. I told him we would just keep an eye on it. Ross is my kid that is always outside shooting baskets, jumping on the trampoline, hitting baseballs, etc. So, when he just felt like staying inside all week, I knew he really was tired.

Then Friday night he kept telling me how thirsty he was. He kept asking for drinks. Ping! That was when diabetes first entered my mind. Again, I knew I would just keep an eye on him. And as I thought about it more, I remembered him getting up several times during the night to use the restroom that week - not normal for Ross.

Saturday morning he woke up, and I was STARTLED by his appearance. As strange as it sounds, my normally thin little guy looked absolutely skeletal to me. And this was just basically overnight. I really started getting concerned at that point, and I voiced my concerns to Edward for the first time. We got online that night, and I was pretty sure Type 1 Diabetes was what we were looking at, although I didn't want to get myself too worked up at that point. I'm not much of a worrier, so I thought I would make a doctor's appointment first thing Monday morning. Until then, we would just keep on living.

At my parents' house on Sunday I weighed Ross. He had lost 5 pounds. That was 14% of his weight! Now, in all honesty we hadn't weighed him since the end of November. However, being his Mommy, I know that the weight loss was just that week.

Thankfully, our family physician's office got him in at 9:30 Monday morning. I gave the nurse all the symptoms, and she said that our doctor would most likely want a urine sample. Ross gave it, then the nurse came in and said the doctor was in the all, but before she came in she wanted to get a blood sugar reading. At that moment, I knew exactly what our doctor would say when she walked in the room. And that is what happened about three minutes later. She came in and very sweetly but matter-of-factly told Ross, "I'm sorry you had to get a finger stick. And I'm sorry, you have a disease called Type 1 Diabetes. Blah blah blah, and you're going to have to give yourself about three shots a day in your stomach...." At that point I wanted to scream, "WAIT! Let's let this sink in a little before you tell him about that!" Oh well. We really love our doctor, but I didn't want her to tell him that part just yet. I was watching his face as she was talking, and I could tell he was stunned. The doctor told us her receptionist would set up an appointment to see the specialists at a pediatric hospital in the city. She was on hold for a while, so she sent us home and told us she would call us with the appointment time.

As we were walking out to the car I put my arm around Ross and asked him how he felt. At that time he broke down. I asked him if he was more upset that it was a disease or that he had to give himself shots? He said because it was a disease. I told him if he was to get a disease, this is the one we want because we can control it. It's not cancer. It's not leukemia. We can control this.

I got home and called Edward. After we hung up, I got a call from the receptionist telling me that we needed to pack a bag for 3-4 days, and it was urgent that we come up right away and report to the ER. At that point I felt a little more anxious, but I knew it would be okay.

Fast forward when we got there. He was still feeling so, so weak and tired. The I.V. was the hardest part of the whole stay with him. We were told his blood sugar range should be 80 - 150. When we arrived his was at 447! He quickly got some insulin, and we were absolutely astonished at how quickly he became more like the normal Ross! He felt so much better within 30 minutes!

I won't go into every detail of our stay, but overall it was wonderful. The staff there is amazing, and so helpful. We basically had to stay for the three days, of course to help get his blood sugars where they need to be, but also for us to learn how we need to live now. We called it diabetes college. We learned so much. It's still overwhelming, but I am so confident that we will do well with this new way of life. We've learned how to count the carbs to determine the amount of insulin he will need before each meal. We've learned how to check his blood sugar with the finger pricks and administer the injections. It's still really hard for me to give my own child a shot. Ross has even been giving himself injections. And can I just say what a cool kid he is! He is amazing!! He has not fussed or whined or cried once about the blood checks or the injections! He doesn't even flinch when he gets them! He's a stud!

He will be getting at least a total of four injections per day. He gets three, quick-acting insulin doses before each meal, and he gets one long-lasting dose before bed. Shortly he will be getting them with small snacks between meals if the snacks have a certain number of carbs. We are to keep in contact with the endocrinologist daily for the next two weeks, then we will return to clinic. After that we will be in contact daily with the diabetes nurses, and two weeks we'll have another clinic. After that, we'll return every three months.

Talking to a cousin

Ross played Wii, XBox 360, PlayStation 2, air hockey, pinball, basketball, watched movies, played his DS, took walks, read magazines, etc. He cracked us up because he kept saying, "Everybody back home is thinking, 'Poor Ross!', but I'm here having so much fun!!" He also kept saying, "I don't feel like I'm in a hospital. I feel like I'm in a hotel!"

He got lots of flak from the staff for wearing his Yankees gear!

He wore his own clothes the entire time. He had the option of wearing these p.j.'s, but he didn't care to wear something that said, "tired little tiger." :)

And I had to include this charmer. Of course Edward and I wanted to stay with Ross the entire time. We sat on this nice, big couch during the first evening. When Edward unfolded it that night for bed, it was pretty much the size of a twin bed! So we shared a measly little blanket and slept on opposite ends of the "bed." Oh, it was funny. Have you ever seen Willy Wonka (the original)? Do you remember the scene where all four of Charlie's grandparents shared a bed? That's how I felt!! I kept calling Edward "Grandpa Joe." :)

Anyway, this has been a supper long post. Sorry! We all have great attitudes about this. We can do it! Do you know what has been the most surprising information to us? We don't have to change a thing about Ross' diet! He can eat anything we can eat, we just have to give him more insulin if he will be eating more carbs. Now, we feel like this is a good starting place for our whole family to eat healthier. This condition (we'd rather call it that than a disease) just requires more planning and balancing, and who couldn't benefit from that.