November 14th is World Diabetes Day. Slade and I will be at the JDRF Gala, helping to raise money here in Charlotte. I'm also going to try to get Benny to take part in the Big Blue Test tomorrow. I love this idea. They're asking people to check their blood sugar at 2pm, post the results on line, do some exercise and post again. I think Benny will get a kick out of seeing other numbers. I'll post it on Twitter tomorrow.
Of course, no guarantee Benny will cooperate. He knocks me out with his amazing cooperation and great attitude, but he is four. Good example: We change Benny's inset every three days. This is how the pump actually connects to his body. The inset looks sort of like a nickel-sized nicotine patch with a nub on it. A long tube connects to that little nub and is attached on the other end to a cartidge inside the pump. Add insulin and you're off and pumping.
For the first year, changing the inset – he calls it a button – was a nightmare. It has a needle that goes in and comes out, leaving a tiny canula behind. The needle doesn't stay in but it does hurt. Benny refused any numbing cream – he thought the cream would hurt too. Now, thank goodness, we use the cream and it's so much better. But Benny still works us.
We let him decide how we do the button. Lately, it's been while Slade holds him upside down and I pop it on. That's funny but Benny's getting big! He weighs 57 pounds now and it's getting harder for Slade to throw him around. He'll also change his mind halfway through the acrobatics and ask for more time. Remember, he's got to be naked from the waist down for all this. It got crazy the other night, after a lot of other 4 year old nonsense, and we just walked away to let everyone cool off.
I whispered to Benny we should trick Daddy. Let's do your button really quiet, I said. Then you can go tell Daddy you're ready for him to do it. When he says okay, I told Benny, you can yell 'Psych!' He loved it and I popped the button on, no drama.
Benny leaves his room, walks up to his dad and tells him he's ready to go. When Slade says, "Great!" Benny turns to me and says, "What am I supposed to say now?" Oh well.
One last thing on diabetes. Check out this video. Takes less than two minutes and does a great job of showing you why for us, there really is no such thing as a free lunch. (Happy World Diabetes Day!)