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Category: Family Diabetes

Going to Crayola with our Type 1 Four Year Old

Going to Crayola with our Type 1 Four Year Old

Chris Stocker

The area in Pennsylvania we live in is filled with amazing things to do. There is a ton of history in this area and there are a lot of manufacturing plants and businesses that you would never know that are from our small town unless you lived here.

One of those places is Crayola.

Crayola has a few different warehouses in the area and their Crayola Experience which is in downtown Easton, PA. This Crayola Experience is an interactive 4-story adventure. If you are ever in the area, I highly recommend it.

Not our First Time There

We have been to the Crayola a few times before, but going after our daughter’s diagnosis was going to be a bit different. At the time of writing this blog post, we have been to Crayola with her twice.

Once as a family and then once with just my wife and her while I drove around town with a sleeping baby in the car. Crayola was our daughter’s choice for her reward for getting her bloodwork labs done (in which she passed out and scared the hell out of us, but that’s another blog post!).

The first time that we took her to Crayola after her diagnosis was for her 4th birthday and we did not have a Dexcom or Omnipod yet, so we were checking quite frequently. Looking back on these things we did before having a Dexcom, I don’t know how we did it. I mean, I know how we did it, because we could do it again if needed, but the constant thought of not knowing what her BG is without easily being able to just look at our phones makes me nauseas.

The second time we went to Crayola Experience, it was just my wife and our daughter and that time she was wearing a Dexcom and Omnipod, so it was a lot easier to manage. Except for the fact that she passed out earlier in the day from getting her blood work done and over-correcting her and her BG shooting up into the high 400s.

Keeping Dexcom Phone within Range

There are a ton of things to do within Crayola Experience which means there is a ton of excitement which means blood sugar drops!

One of those fun, amazing activities is the 2-story high indoor playground. Can I just say now that this thing gives me ajida (I have no clue how to spell this word because I never heard of it until I was about 25 or so anyway).

There’s a few reasons why, but one, my kid is pretty clumsy and I know she’s going to fall or trip on something inside the playground, which is just part of growing up, but I hate watching it happen.

Also, I have been freaked out by germs before Coronavirus. I understand that there are germs everywhere in the Crayola Experience, but when she’s inside the playhouse thing, I can’t control her using hand sanitizer or not touching her face and mouth.

The next reason is Dexcom sharing. We didn’t want to put the Dexcom in her pocket or even in the little fannypack thing we have from SPIBelt.

I didn’t want to take the chance of it falling it while she was playing and not knowing and another kid picking up an iPhone and walking away with it. So, for that reason, my wife was standing as close to the playground as possible to make sure that we would not lose connection.

Some people may be reading this thinking that we are a bit obsessive over the Dexcom, and you are 100% correct. If I have the technology and she’s wearing it and going through the process of it getting inserted, then why the heck would I not utilize it at all times?

Some people may be reading this thinking that we are a bit obsessive over the Dexcom, and you are 100% correct. If I have the technology and she’s wearing it and going through the process of it getting inserted, then why the heck… Click To Tweet

Packing Juices and Snacks

Crayola Experience does not allow any food, drinks or snacks inside. We always carry a doctor’s note with us for situations like this. They searched the bag and allowed us to bring in juices and some candy. One thing they will not let in is peanut butter. Luckily, none of our snacks are peanut butter related.

The first time that we went to Crayola after her diagnosis, which was without a Dexcom as I mentioned previously, when we checked her she was right around the low 100s, so we knew she was going to need something soon. This was getting very close to lunch time so we were hoping we could finish the current activity we were doing and just have her eat lunch and potentially not even need a bolus.

That didn’t work out. She went even lower and we had to check her BG again and had to give her a juice. Luckily, we were able to bring in our own juices. I didn’t see any vending machines anywhere around, other than at the cafeteria which was nowhere near where we were.

Our entire goal is to make sure that our daughter can do everything she would have done before she had diabetes. Since she has been to Crayola before she was diagnosed, we didn’t want this trip to be any different. This time was actually better for her, she got to have a juice in the middle of the trip when the last time she wasn’t allowed to have any juice or snacks brought in!

Our entire goal is to make sure that our daughter can do everything she would have done before she had diabetes Click To Tweet

How do you prep for doing fun activities like this?

Do you carry a doctor’s note places that don’t allow food or snacks in? Or do you just say my child (or myself) have Type 1 Diabetes and I need to bring this in?

Please comment on this post or head on over to Facebook or Instagram to continue the conversation.

Hershey World Day Trip

Hershey World Day Trip

Chris Stocker

Last April, I had to drive to Harrisburg, PA to go to the PA Real Estate Commission office in order to pick up my real estate license. If you want to start practicing real estate immediately after passing your exam, then I recommend driving to Harrisburg to get your license information in person rather than waiting for them to mail it to you.

Hershey, PA is very close to Harrisburg and how could I just drive out to Harrisburg and not bring the family along to stop at the sweetest place on earth.

So, that’s what we decided.

Stopped for Gas and BG Check 

Harrisburg is about 2 hours away, depending on traffic, but we were planning on about 2 hours. As I mentioned in my post about going to the aquarium, anytime we go on a drive, our daughter’s blood glucose levels just start an upward trend.

We had breakfast at home before heading on the road. We were making good time and we were only about 30 minutes outside of Harrisburg when our daughter….and myself… had to go potty. We stopped off at a Sheetz.

We utilized this time to check her blood sugar. And of course, she was high. Well into the 300s. Once again, a long ride = elevated blood sugars.

Pre Dexcom and Omnipod

We could have suspected this was going to happen, which we did, but this was pre-Dexcom and also pre-Omnipod, so everything was being done manually.

We had to give a correction shot while she sat in her car seat, which is never fun having to give an additional shot. This is exactly why we wanted to go on an Omnipod as soon as possible. We did what we had to do, gave a shot, got back in the car and headed off to Harrisburg.

One Last Pit Stop before Hershey

We arrived at where I needed to go in order to get my real estate license, but we had no clue how long it was going to take and I knew she was going to have to use the potty again soon due to the elevated blood sugar levels.

My wife stayed in the car with her to check her BG again. Luckily, it was coming down.

I ran into where I needed to go and found out I would be in and out in about 5-10 minutes so they just stayed in the car waiting for me. About 15 minutes later, I was back in the car and we were going to make it to Hershey, PA in about 30 minutes, so we buckled up and got back on the road.

Hershey World

We were not going to Hershey Park, in fact, I don’t even think it was open. It was freezing cold and it didn’t seem like the park itself was open. Just outside of the actual park is Hershey World, which is an indoor attraction that includes a ride to tour how the Hershey Kiss is made and a few other rides and activities.

Test Before Getting on Ride

I had gone through Hershey World a few times before in my life, but I couldn’t remember how long the factory tour ride took, but we wanted to check her blood sugar before we went on the road, because if she was going low, there was nowhere for us to simply get off and give juice or snack.

Her blood sugar level was in a decent range, so we got in line for the ride. If you have never experienced Hershey World and you are anyway near PA, I highly recommend it. The ride is pretty cool too.

Injection for Chocolate Sample of Course

At the end when you exit the ride, you are given a Hershey Kiss sample. This is one of the best parts of the ride to me! Kidding aside, you can never go wrong with a free Hershey Kiss.

At the end when you exit the ride, you are given a Hershey Kiss sample. This is one of the best parts of the ride to me! Kidding aside, you can never go wrong with a free Hershey Kiss. Click To Tweet

We knew that our daughter was going to want her Hershey Kiss right away and not wait, but we weren’t going to give a bolus injection for just that, so we decided to give a snack / lunch as well so that we were getting our money’s worth with the injection.

Injections were always easier when you can bribe with a Hershey Kiss (which we did for a while after that as well, because we obviously bought a ton of Hershey Kisses!)

We spent the rest of the time at Hershey World shopping through the store. They have more flavors of Twizzlers than I even thought was possible. I loaded up on Twizzlers and flavor mixes of Hershey Kiss that you can’t buy in a regular store.

Primanti Bros. = Bolus-worthy!

After we left Hershey World, it was time to go to Primanti Bros. I have never been there before, but I have heard amazing things about it from people that I know who live in Pittsburgh. We wanted to eat somewhere that is unique to the Hershey area, and when I saw they had a Primanti Bros. it was a no-brainer from there.

Image courtesy: https://www.goldbelly.com/primanti-bros

I’m talking about a pastrami on rye with french fries on it, gravy, cheese, and kraut. It was everything that I thought it would be. It was bolus-worthy as they call it.

Luckily, Primanti Bros. has carb counts on their website, so we were able to get an estimated carb count for our daughter’s meal. This required taking her to the restroom to take her insulin shot. We sometimes gave a shot at the table, but at other times we would do it in the bathroom.

This was a fun and exciting day trip. It started out as just me needing to do something for work and turned into a memory-filled family day.

How do you handle amusement parks? I’d love to hear. Please comment on this post or head on over to Facebook or Instagram to continue the conversation.

The Movies with our Type 1 Child

The Movies with our Type 1 Child

Chris Stocker

We have taken our daughter to the movie theater a few times before her diagnosis, but we didn’t go often. We are a stream movies at home kind of family. So, we weren’t movie-going experts to begin with. Add in diabetes, and we had a whole new game plan that we had to create.

Frozen 2 was coming out, so that is one movie that we could not wait until it started streaming. **We watched Frozen 2 again like all of America the day it came out on DisneyPlus.**

Here is how we handled our trip to the movie theater with our daughter with diabetes.

Popcorn’s 500 Different Carb Counts

I don’t know about you, but popcorn has never been easy for me to bolus for. Have you ever looked at the nutritional label for popcorn? Unpopped is a ton of carbs, whereas popped is very low in carb.

This is a side-note, but what do you do with unpopped popcorn kernels? How do you eat them? Wouldn’t they just crack your teeth? Please explain this to me.

Back to the popcorn carb counts. I’ve seen a bunch of different carb counts for popcorn. Movie theater popcorn had more carbs in it then the popcorn that we buy for home…according to Google. Also, how much popcorn is in a small, or the kids size that we bought? I tried to search it before we went to the theater, but of course, I couldn’t find an exact amount on the website.

Also, the kids snack pack came with a pack of fruit snacks, which are not individually marked with nutritional information, but we saved those for another time because we snuck in our own snacks….keep reading.

This is not diabetes related, this is just human being related. If you haven’t snuck snacks and/or drinks into a movie, then I don’t think we can be friends. Click To Tweet

Please Turn Your Phones Off!

Let’s face it. If you wear a CGM, you have been in a quiet, public place and then BEEP-BEEP-BEEP. Your CGM alerts go off.

Unless you want a bunch of angry parents shhhhh-ing you in the middle of a movie, then you better turn your alerts off. We just put them on vibrate and not completely turned off.

Vibrate is movie theater safe. Loud beeps are not.

Choosing seats near exit for Potty breaks and missing good parts

I don’t know about you, but I have always been an end seat movie theatre guy. Couple reasons why.

  1. I don’t like feeling stuck in the middle of the row.
  2. If I have to get up to go to the bathroom or any other reason, it’s a quick exit and you don’t get in anyone’s way.
  3. If I have to make a fast escape, I can.

We went straight to an end row seat because I just knew she was going to have to use the potty during the movie.

It just so happened to be the part she wanted to see the most, when Elsa went running into the ocean.

**Flashback to when she was first diagnosed. She had to watch videos during every shot she took. She started watching movie trailers and it happened to be right around the time that the Frozen 2 trailer came out and she was obsessed with it. She would keep asking us, “Why is Elsa running into the ocean?” And…we missed the part where Elsa ran into the ocean!**

Sneaking in own juices/snacks Incase of lows

This is not diabetes related, this is just human being related. If you haven’t snuck snacks and/or drinks into a movie, then I don’t think we can be friends.

via GIPHY

There is an absolute art to it.

I’m a stuff the pockets, but make it look natural kind of guy. You can not sneak in soda cans though, you will get caught!

Our experience was a pleasure. The kid had fun, we enjoyed the movie and everything was great….except for missing one of the parts of the movie that she was excited to see.

How do you handle going to the movies or theatre? I’d love to hear. Please comment on this post or head on over to Facebook or Instagram to continue the conversation.

Going to the Aquarium - Diabetes Style

Going to the Aquarium – Diabetes Style

Chris Stocker

Our daughter loves the aquarium. We have gone to the Camden Aquarium multiple times. We wanted to take her on a special trip of her choice after her diagnosis and she chose the aquarium….which didn’t shock me at all.

This was going to be the first time going there with her having diabetes, but also with an infant as well.

Long Drive = High BG

One thing we know happens 100% of the time is that as soon as we get in the car and start to go on a drive anywhere, her blood glucose levels will begin to creep up.

Driving to the Camden Adventure Aquarium is about an hour to an hour and a half drive, so we knew the sugar levels were going to go up and we had to be prepared for it.

And just like we thought it would, they did. It’s just something about sitting still in the car that her levels just creep up, no matter what she had to eat before hand.

Pack Your Own Lunch

Going somewhere that allows you to bring your own food is the greatest. Being able to pack your own lunch, count carbs at home and be prepared for bolusing a correct amount is crucial to anyone living with type 1 diabetes.

Being able to pack your own lunch, count carbs at home and be prepared for to bolus the correct amount is crucial to anyone living with type 1 diabetes. Click To Tweet

This aquarium does have a few different food court options like pizza, hot dogs, burgers, chicken tenders, pretzels, etc. I have eaten from the food court previously, but we typically bring some Wawa or Sheetz hoagies and then pack PB&J or something similar for our daughter.

Along with packing our own lunches, we bring in snacks. We have a few juices, candy, peanut butter crackers and that’s usually about it.

If we see downward trends, then we will just give a little snack here and there instead of waiting until she’s low and needing to correct. We sometimes don’t see the trends though because we are paying more attention to the animals then we are her blood sugar levels.

Excitement and a lot of Walking

There is obviously a lot of walking around at an aquarium, especially at this one as it is a pretty decent size.

There is also a lot of excitement. How can you not get excited seeing a ton of fish and other water animals. Petting the stingrays is one of our favorites, and also where I think she went low.

Walking over the sharks!

This is the worst time because then you have to rush to wash hands really well in order to do a manual finger check, but the excitement definitely drives her down.

We always have fun at the aquarium. I mean, who doesn’t?

Every time we make a trip to any place similar to this, we always learn something new about managing the trip and we make it better the next time around.

How do you manage adventures and trips to the aquarium, zoo, or other fun and exciting places? I would love to hear your strategies.

Comment on the post or join in on the conversation on Facebook / Instagram and let me know!

As if a Diabetes Diagnosis Wasn’t Enough, We Bought a House!

As if a Diabetes Diagnosis Wasn’t Enough, We Bought a House!

Chris Stocker

Before our daughter’s diagnosis, my wife and I were discussing our living situation and were thinking about buying a new house. We knew that we had another child on the way, so we decided to start looking at homes.

I’m a Realtor, so I know that once people start looking, even if it’s just online, it’s tough to stop that feeling of wanting to move into a new home. So, once we started a looking, I knew it would just be a matter of time.

We were renting at the time because we had moved from Florida back to PA and were in a brand new rental unit. We were the first people to live in the apartment and we quickly loved the idea of being the only people to ever live in a place, so we knew a new build was what we wanted.

We started to look at some new build communities online, but nothing serious. That search was put on hold once she was diagnosed. We decided that we needed to put all of our efforts and thoughts into this new way of life, rather than dealing with the building of a new home.

That didn’t last too long.

Before our daughter's diagnosis, my wife and I were discussing our living situation and were thinking about buying a new house. We knew that we had another child on the way, so we decided to start looking at homes. Click To Tweet

After about a month we finally found the community we wanted to build in and what style of house that we were going to build.

We started the process in March and initially expected the house to be done in September. We also knew that our new daughter was going to arrive in June or July, so nothing to stress about right?

It was definitely a lot of added stress.

In July, it became very stressful.

We had a newborn, a 4-year old with Type 1 Diabetes, in the end stages of building a new home with building timing issues, final mortgage issues, and being in a new profession for only 3-4 months.

The stress was becoming unbearable. I was having almost daily panic attacks from one thing or another.

This is when I really started to work on meditation and breathing exercises and making sure that I was getting a good amount of sleep.

After it was all said and done, we ended up closing on our house in mid-September and it was even more stressful moving in and trying to get things unpacked and situated with a newborn.

When our first daughter was born, we moved a month before she was born, so we seem to have some sort of fun moving near child birth.

If you’re enjoying the blog being back, please leave a comment or share on Facebook. Feedback is what keeps this thing moving along.

We Had a Baby! Managing Labor with a Type 1 Child at Home

We Had a Baby! Managing Labor with a Type 1 Child at Home

Chris Stocker 1 Comment

If you follow me on my social media channels, then you already know this. In fact, our daughter is now 9 months old! She is starting to stand up by herself and babble and getting closer to walking.

Time flies.

The purpose of this post is not really to announce having a baby, but how we managed having another child while having our Type 1 daughter at home.

Not How we Planned the Gender Reveal

This all starts out when we were planning on how we were going to do a gender reveal. Spoiler alert – I don’t like gender reveal parties, but that’s a different conversation.

We decided to just do cupcakes with pink or blue filling on the inside. We were supposed to find out the gender on Valentine’s Day 2019.

Well, something happened on February 12, 2019.

That was the morning of not only a major snow storm in northeast Pennsylvania, but it was the day our oldest daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes.

We spent 2.5 days in the hospital, but on the second day, our appointment to find out the gender of our baby was actually in the same exact hospital that we were in for our daughter.

My wife and my mother (who was visiting at the time) went to the appointment while I stayed back with our daughter.

This was not really the way that we had planned on finding out the gender and doing the reveal to ourselves and friends and family. We decided to postpone the reveal until we got home from the hospital, so that’s what we did.

When we left the hospital the first day, it was past dinner time, so we didn’t want to rush it. So, we waited until the next day for my sister-in-law to bake cupcakes.

It’s a…

This was also the first time our daughter was going to have cupcakes as a person with type 1 diabetes (and it definitely wasn’t her last).

Surprise – it was pink inside!

Stress Started to Kick In

The next few months we were just adjusting to life with Type 1 Diabetes and learning strategies to deal with stress. My wife was pregnant and I was constantly concerned how her new stress levels were going to be affecting her pregnancy…this led to my higher levels of stress.

The stress really started to increase the closer we came to the due date.

What are we going to do with our daughter?

Who is going to give her the nightly basal?

Who is going to count her carbs?

Who is going to give her the bolus?

Who is going to check her blood sugar?

What are we going to do?

These questions went through our mind about 100 different times a day.

Time to Make a Plan

That’s when we sat down and made a plan. Obviously, this is a pregnancy and birth of a child, it’s unpredictable, but we were going to do our best to try and plan.

We had a few different plans in place. One for each time of the day that we had to go to the hospital when my wife was going into labor.

Our preference was her to give birth in the middle of the night. This would mean that I could possibly give our daughter her basal insulin shot and then get her to bed and then my parents could just sleep at our house and keep an eye on her Dexcom.

Then, I could go home in the morning and give her breakfast and a bolus shot and then get back to the hospital.

Our best plan almost came to fruition, it was very close.

How did it all happen?

My mother-in-law was flying in for my wife’s birthday and to also try and time the birth of our new daughter. My MIL flew in the afternoon of my wife’s birthday. My wife decided to stay home and not go to the airport because she was feeling some contractions and feeling a little “off”.

We ordered some pizza for dinner and started our daughter on her dinner.

And then that’s when my wife said, “it’s time to go to the hospital”

Wait, it’s my wife’s birthday, her mother just flew in hours ago, it’s getting towards night time (our perfect plan)…. is this really happening?

Oh yeah, it was!

Once my parents came to our house, my wife, MIL and myself left for the hospital.

I’m going to fast forward through the rest of the labor and delivery, but while my wife was in active labor, I was checking my phone to see my daughter’s Dexcom numbers.

My sister-in-law came over to give her the nighttime basal shot. We chose this because my niece also lives with type 1 diabetes, so we trusted her decision making on diabetes. She’s seen needles, pen needles, meters, blood, etc.

Everything was going smooth. Her blood sugars were great while she was sleeping.

After Birth

After our second daughter was born, I was able to hold her and spend some time with her and also my wife who was recovering from delivery. My MIL was also there to be by her side which helped tremendously.

With my MIL being there, it allowed me to drive home at about 3 am to be home for my daughter. My parents stayed the rest of the night and morning, but it allowed me to get her breakfast ready and give her the breakfast shot and get her day started.

She was super excited to go and meet her new sister, so I brought her to the hospital with me.

From there, it became a little easier. She was with us at the hospital for most of the time. I hated leaving my wife and new daughter at the hospital, but she was never alone. Her mother was there when I would go home with our oldest daughter.

I’m not going to lie, this was very stressful trying to figure out how we were going to leave our 4-year old with Type 1 Diabetes with someone else for the first time, but also at the same time, enjoy the birth of our newest addition to our family.

It all worked out.

So, now, we are (well have been for 9 months now) a family of four. I am officially a 2X #girldad.

quarantine blogging return

Quarantine Blogging Return

Chris Stocker

I know that I said I was going to start blogging again however that obviously didn’t happen. I had all the intentions to start writing about my life, and now also my daughter’s life with diabetes, but I just couldn’t find the time or the passion to want to continue to do it.

But as I’m sitting here in quarantine like the rest of the country I really started thinking about it and I wanted to start writing again. I would love to write about sports however there are not many sports related items going on. So I thought about why not just share the last year of my life as someone living with type one diabetes and also being the caregiver of my daughter who also has type one diabetes.

So much has been happening, and I’ve also been learning a ton over the last year. After living with type one diabetes for 15 years before my daughter was diagnosed I started to get set in my own ways and just continue on with bad habits. Since her diagnosis it really took me back to square one and the basics of diabetes, carb counting, correction amounts, basal testing, etc.

My daughter catching up on her diabetes information

I really was on cruise control for so long with my own management that a lot of times I just would not count carbs, I could just look at a slice of pizza no it was either 20 g or 25 or maybe 30 g.

Or because I eat so unhealthy majority of the time, I will just take a max bolus from my pump and correct afterwards. After her diagnosis that was much more of a lazy way to do things, I finally realized.

My wife has become a master carb counter and diabetes manager, so much to the point that now I just ask her how many carbs I’m eating and she can easily and quickly calculate it for me.

Obviously life has been a huge challenge and a much different pace, since my daughter’s diagnosis, but we have managed and we have found the silver linings in all of it. She recently just made it to her one year diaversary, which we celebrated with a cupcake.

I know I just said this recently but I really am going to start sharing our story and our experiences from the last 12 months of her living with diabetes.

So I hope you come back I promise you that I will continue to write.

Until next time …..

Diabetes in a Cave

Chris Stocker 1 Comment

Even though the title may sound like I was trapped in a cave with type 1 diabetes, that’s not the case. Although, that would be one hell of a movie, if Hollywood could get it right of course.

Anyway, we decided to take a family trip to Crystal Cave out near Kutztown, PA with myself, wife, daughter and my brother’s family, including my niece who also lives with Type 1 Diabetes.

I have never gone into a cave before, so I was not 100% sure what to expect.

I was told that the tour would take about 45 minutes in total, so I assumed a lot of walking. Because of that, I wanted to keep my BG at about 200 before entering the cave that way I would hopefully not have to correct while I was on the tour.

Start of the Tour

We were starting the tour around 12:45 and I did not eat lunch yet, jut breakfast and decided to have a few of my daughters chips before heading into the cave for the tour.

The tour started with a 10-15 minute video explaining the history of the cave and how the cave was formed and what some of the things we will be looking at inside the cave are. Once the video was over, it was time to head into the cave.

I knew going into this that the cave was going to be cold, and it was. It was a constant 54 degrees, which that’s actually not cold to me, that’s perfect temperature.

For me, the heat drives my BG straight down, so I knew the cool, damp climate inside the cave would not be effecting my blood sugar.

The tour was slow, meaning that we walked about 20-30 feet and would then stop at the next station for them to explain what we were seeing. During this time my blood sugar was staying around 200-220 and pretty flat and steady.

The walking part of the tour lasted about 20-25 minutes and when I walked out of the cave my BG actually went from 200 to about 245, so there was no drop at all from the activity of walking through the cave. Grant it, there really wasn’t any steps or much walking uphill. There was only one section that we could opt-in to walk up to the highest point of the cave, which was maybe 30-35 feet high.

As soon as we got out of the cave, I asked my sister-in-law what my niece’s blood sugar did while in the cave. Her answer, “stayed flat”. Exactly the same that my blood sugar did.

Lunchtime

It was then time for lunch and I was hungry and started eating before I took my insulin. Actually, I finished my entire meal before I took any insulin.

What happened next… I’m sure you can guess that.

A straight shot up like the mountain we were standing on. And that BG of over 350 lasted for several hours and made me feel like crap.

Luckily, after the cave, we went to pick strawberries and it was getting hot, so that helped bring the BG down a bit too.

I’ve been doing much better at pre-bolusing and this was an example of exactly why the pre-bolus is so important.

All in all, the cave adventure was fun. Check out some of the photos below.

How My Wife and I Managed Pregnancy and the First Two Years

Chris Stocker

One of the most frequently asked questions that I receive is about how my wife and I managed her pregnancy and the first two years of our daughter’s life. Meaning, what kind of research did we do, what kind of precautions did we take, what can you do to help prevent your child from developing diabetes since the father has type 1. Trust me, I did a lot of research. And I asked a lot of people when we found out that she was pregnant.

Unfortunately, my answer is…. we’ve done a lot of research and we did what we feel is best for us, but ultimately, there is nothing you can do.

Here is what we did though in case you need a starting point.

The Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in the Young

The first thing that my endo told me to do is read up on the TEDDY study. And boy did I do that. I read as much from this study and follow up studies as possible. So, I recommend this being a great starting point – https://teddy.epi.usf.edu/

There is a lot of information there, but to sum it up, the TEDDY study believes that children who are diagnosed with type 1 diabetes have some sort of genes that are triggered by something, but what that something is, they are not sure of at this point. If we can find out what the trigger or triggers are, than that can go a long way to try and prevent diabetes. Is it something that is triggered before birth based on mom’s diet or could it be the air we breathe…. I don’t know.

We Chose to Breastfeed

This is a choice that we made very early on. We decided on breastfeeding because we felt it was the most natural thing to do.

WE DO NOT HAVE ANYTHING AGAINST THOSE WHO DO NOT BREASTFEED SO SAVE YOUR COMMENTS!

This was just our own personal decision. My thought process is… we’re humans, why don’t we drink human milk. So, that was an easy decision for us. No matter what, this final decision was going to come down to my wife’s decision because she was the one breastfeeding, not me.

I do believe that there was a press release within the last few months stating that there was no direct correlation between breastfeeding and the diagnosis of type 1 diabetes. My endo, who I ask her advice on everything, gave me the advice that breastfeeding for the first 12 months is the best option, for anybody.

Little to No Cow’s Milk

So my wife was able to breastfeed until our daughter was a year old. She was eating food at that time, but there was still some breastfeeding going on as well. We decided to not give our daughter cow’s milk. The reason was based on research we did and studies that had shown that the casein molecule is too large for the baby’s gut which then became a trigger to start the autoimmune process. Like I said, this decision was made based off of our research and discussions between my wife and I.

We also didn’t completely cut out cow’s milk, we just didn’t allow her to drink it. So, we gave her cheese sticks and yogurt that was made with cow’s milk. So, we didn’t fully cut it out, but as much as we could.

That is pretty much it. We obviously monitor what she eats and don’t fill her up with fast food all the time.

I hope that helps answer any questions that you have. Like I mentioned above, unfortunately, there is not much research out there that provides you a guideline on what to do during pregnancy and after birth.

If you have any other questions, please comment below, it’s a great way for the community to see your questions as well.

Diabetes in the Wild

Chris Stocker

I’m sure at one point or another we have felt like we are the only one that is going through a specific problem or issue with diabetes. But then we log on to social media and we see 10 others with the exact same problem and the solution to the problem becomes a lot easier to see. However, in our daily lives, we may not come across diabetes in the wild as often as we may like (not that we want others to have diabetes, but to know more locally who do.)

When I am at home in PA, I unfortunately, do see diabetes in the wild, in the form of my 6 year old niece.

The other day we went to the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia. Which, by the way, is an awesome place. But while there, my brother had tested my niece because the Dex was showing about 115 double arrow down. The results on the meter were much lower…. 36.

Seeing my brother and sister-in-law spring into action so quickly and give two juices and a quick snack right before lunch to fix the low was weird to watch. It was weird because I’m so used to just seeing myself do that and make quick decisions like that to correct my lows.

Then at lunch, another discussions ensued about how much she treated with, how many carbs in the meal, take into consideration that there is still more playing to be done at the museum and also the ride home. Discussions like this are exactly what I have in my head every day, but I’m not used to hearing them from other people, except for when I’m at a conference or meetup.

As exciting as it is to see diabetes in the wild, I wish that I didn’t have to see it in this fashion, but when you see a 6 year old fight through a 36 blood sugar in order to get back to playing, it makes you realize that I as well can get through a low to get back to adult activities like working.