Diabetes in the "Wild"

This past Sunday morning, hubby and I decided to take our girls for a special breakfast. Despite the stolen hour of sleep, we woke up "early" (for me anyway) and took the girls to Cafe du Monde for some delicious beignets (fried dough sprinkled with powdered sugar -- the yummy goodness in my blog title photo)...and a Mocha Au Lait for me! For those that might be wondering -- yes, Charlotte can and does eat beignets...powdered sugar and all! They're a "special treat" so it's not something we indulge in often, but we've learned to SWAG the insulin bolus pretty accurately...an awesome accomplishment if I do say so myself!

Pic from a Cafe du Monde breakfast with the cousins in May 2011

Occasional weekend breakfasts at Cafe du Monde are something our family has done since I was just a wee one...and a tradition Jay and I have continued with our girls! These trips are usually pretty uneventful...but this one was a little different. As we were paying for our breakfast another young family enter the cafe...I immediately noticed that one of their children was wearing a 2010 JDRF Walk to Cure shirt. Of course, I quietly pointed it out to my family...I'm pretty certain that at that point Charlotte began to internally groan at me, but she managed to tolerate my excitement from this "D in the Wild" experience without any outwards signs of annoyance. In true D-mama fashion, I also did a quick scan of each family member for obvious signs of D (a pump or visible meter case) but with no success...so I "let it go" figuring that their D-connection was maybe just a friend of this boy. 

We continued along on our way, taking our food and choosing a table. We sat down, Charlotte checked, we SWAG'd her bolus and started eating without another thought....until that family sat down at the table kitty-corner to us. When they sat down, I could see in my peripheral vision that the mom and daughter were involved in an exchange all to familiar to Charlotte and I. I saw the little black case pulled from the mom's purse and out came the glucose meter and lancet...the "shunk" and "beep" followed quickly! I tried hard not to be too obvious as I watched this interaction...although hubby would tell you I wasn't very successful. I noticed that there was bit of discussion and then a quiet scramble as mom went to take a peek at the boxes of beignet mix and then searched on her phone what I have to imagine was an app like Calorie King for the carb count for the beignets. At that point I wanted to leap from my chair, introduce myself and share our beignet SWAG information with them...it took a tremendous amount of restraint for me not to do it -- but I didn't. I wanted to start up a conversation with them....ask them if they lived near us, how old their daughter is, when she was diagnosed, what type of insulin she was using, what their biggest D challenges are, etc...but I knew I would just end up embarrassing Charlotte (and quite possibly this other little girl). So I just sat back with my family, enjoyed my breakfast, and thought how seemingly ironic (but incredibly wonderful) it was to have this "Diabetes in the Wild" experience in a place full of such sugar-coated goodness!

Airport Anxiety

Only 7 more days until Charlotte and I hop on our plane and head out to Washington DC for JDRF's 2011 Children's Congress!!! We're both extremely excited about going, but as each day passes I seem to be getting more and more anxious about travelling.

Before you ask...yes, we have traveled with Charlotte since her diagnosis. We've just been fortunate that we live in an area in close driving distance to our family vacation destinations. The last time we flew with Charlotte was in July 2005, just a few months before her diagnosis...so I have absolutely no experience with airline travel and T1.

Being the super-planner that I tend to be (with most things), I started our packing list weeks ago. It's insane to think that we have a whole separate list exclusively for her D-related stuff. And because I don't trust the airlines with our D-necessities, all of these supplies will be packed in one of our carry-ons. So far it looks like I'm planning to bring an extra infusion set for each day, 2 extra Dexie sensors, a back-up meter, and double all of our other usual supplies (strips, lancets, alcohols, etc). Also I found out just the other day that, unfortunately, TSA no longer allows liquids (juice boxes, water) through the security check points even if it's due to a medical need, so I've had to rethink our standard low treatment (juice boxes). It looks like we'll be using glucose tabs and fruit roll-ups instead. I'd love to hear some other ideas that would be easy to travel with if anyone has any!

I'm also a little concerned about the actual security check-point experience. I flew last year and was the "lucky" recipient of the "pat down" before my flight home....and I'd love to avoid this for Charlotte if it's at all possible. Fortunately, I thought about this back when Charlotte had her endo appointment a couple months back, so I did get a letter explaining that she has T1 and needs to travel with all of her stuff. Hopefully that will help us avoid too much hassle. I've heard a few different things about how to handle her Dexie and pump (Animas Ping)...some say that leaving them on will create the need for a "pat down" and others say that the x-ray scanner can cause it to malfunction. I'm not sure what the best approach is...I'm thinking we may just leave them on and take our chances??? I've already started preparing Charlotte for what to expect going through security...taking shoes off, putting belongings through the scanner, walking through the metal detector, etc. I'm just really hoping that all this preparation will help keep things low-key.

I'm sure I'm just over-reacting...as I've often been accused of doing. But I just want this trip to be a positive experience from start to finish for Charlotte. So, if anyone has any good airline travel tips I'd LOVE to hear them!