The Last Lemonade Stand
It all started when Bisi drank all our profits at a Sunday afternoon lemonade stand on Block Island. Well, it had really started a while before that (weeks, months, or even years—we’re not sure), but...
View ArticleHospital Food
Bisi had to be admitted to Children’s Hospital in Boston to get her blood sugar down—but also so we could learn about type 1 diabetes and the glucose testing/carbohydrate counting/injection regimen...
View ArticleThe Disney Diabetes Cookbook
Once Bisi got over the fear of the first night at the hospital, she actually had a great time. She felt pretty good. Now that she’d been diagnosed and was on insulin, her blood sugar was down closer to...
View ArticleConnecting the Dots between Diabetes and Vitamin D
When we were in the hospital, Bisi received a box of diabetes information from the Lilly pharmaceutical company (the same company that produced the Disney diabetes cookbook and that makes the insulin...
View ArticleAddendum on Vitamin D
I think in my post on vitamin D I may have made it sound as if Mark and I are sitting around flagellating ourselves about Bisi’s diagnosis. We’re not. I do think it’s natural when a child gets sick to...
View ArticleBack to a New Reality
After Bisi’s diagnosis, she and I left Block Island on a Monday and returned on Friday, five days later. But it felt more like five years. So much had changed for Bisi and for us—it was hard not to...
View ArticleThe Elephants in the Room
Do you remember when you first brought your baby home, and you would find yourself checking on her, just to make sure she was still breathing? Do you remember that fear you felt for someone who seemed...
View ArticleGluten Free?!? You’ve got to be kidding.
I think we were still in the hospital when Mark suggested that we try having Bisi go gluten free. Upon Bisi’s diagnosis, he had gone into full research mode, and had found a study of a five year old...
View ArticleThe Sibling’s Side of the Story
I haven’t talked all that much about Jamie, our 8-year-old son, in these posts, but not because Bisi’s diagnosis doesn’t affect him. He has had to deal with the fear of Bisi and me suddenly...
View ArticleThe Trouble with Sugar
A few mornings ago, at Jamie’s third grade breakfast share, about half of the items had chocolate, or some other ingredient that in another context could be classified as dessert. Chocolate chip...
View ArticleMore on Sugar
For those not yet convinced about the dangers of sugar, look no further than today’s New York Times op-ed page with Mark Bittman’s column ”It’s the Sugar, Folks.” Bittman cites a study from the journal...
View ArticleThe Loneliness of Type 1 Diabetes
Yesterday, Mark, Jamie, and I each got separate letters from the Joslin Diabetes Center saying that the results of our screening tests for type 1 diabetes were negative. This does not mean that we are...
View ArticleThe Microbiome and Type 1 Diabetes
I have one word for you: microbiome. There has been a lot written about it lately, including a good article in the October 22, 2012, New Yorker by Michael Specter in which he lays it out better than I...
View ArticleMore on the “Teeming, Quasi-Wilderness” Within Us
Apparently I’m not the only one thinking about the microbiome these days. Many of you have probably already seen Michael Pollan’s article in The New York Times Magazine a couple of weeks ago. A couple...
View ArticleCommon Ground
Last week, Mark and I took Jamie and Bisi to our college reunion. We all had a great time, though it was HOT, and the combination of un-airconditioned dorms, poorly made beds (come on, Amherst College...
View ArticleThe Up-side of Cotton Candy
The other night, the four of us went to Fenway Park to enjoy a Red Sox game. For anyone who is trying to limit their children’s consumption of junk food and/or sugar, a game at Fenway is kind of a...
View Article365 Days of Type 1 Diabetes
It’s now been a year since Bisi was diagnosed. In the weeks leading up to the anniversary, I found myself thinking over and over again about that time: the growing fear that something was wrong mixed...
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It’s Halloween: Hold the Treats
A lot of people who follow my blog suggested that I write about Halloween, and the difficulty of facing a night of obsessive candy-collecting when your child has type 1 diabetes. I wasn’t going to,...
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Pump Time: Transitioning A Child To An Insulin Pump
We are about to embark on the biggest transition since Bisi was diagnosed: she’s about to start on an insulin pump. When she was in the hospital, they told us that most people are ready for this...
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Goodbye Shots, Hello Insulin Pump
After the big build up — at least in our own minds — of starting on the pump…. we love it (as much as you can love anything foisted on you by type 1 diabetes). We love how easy it is to give Bisi...
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