"Save the Boobies"

AUGUST 7-9,2009


It's official!! My mom has registered to walk 60 miles in 3 days, for the Susan G Koman Race for a Cure for breast cancer. She will be walking in Chicago,
August 7-9, 2009. My aunt Brenda, lives near Chicago, in Fox Lake IL, and has done the walk several times before with her sister, Barb, and Barb's daughter, Shannon, and Barb's daughter-in law, Kim. They asked my mom and me to do the walk this next time and we both agreed that it would be an awesome experience, and fully expected to do it.

I've had second thoughts recently that I am not ready, both physically and mentally. You have to raise over $2000 to be able to walk. All money raised will be donated to breast cancer, wether you walk or not.... but just the thought of fundraising right now, doesn't sound appealing to me. I will support my mom's efforts though.

I am not in the best physical shape, and know I can do better. Walking 20 miles a day scares me a little, although with some effort and determination, I know I could do it. I decided to back away from this, for this time, and plan on doing it next year, granted that that "team" does it again and I'm ready. They talked about travelling for a change to either Minneapolis or Boston. Minneapolis would be convienient.

I wish my mom luck with her training and preparations, and hope that those that read this will consider giving to fight breast cancer.

To Donate: go to www.The3Day.org
Click on donate, and search for my mom's personal webpage.
Linda Radtke- Chicago, IL- Team name: "Save the Boobies"

You can also call- 1-800-996-3DAY

I can also give/send you a donation form to fill out to mail in or you can print one out off the web site.

Thanks for your support!!

Grand Rapids weekend

We had a good time in Grand Rapids over last weekend for Bailey's hockey tournament. We left Friday morning just before 11am arriving in Grand Rapids right around 3pm...so it was about a 4 hr trip with one stop for lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings in St Cloud. ( kids were happy to miss school).
The team stayed at the AmericInn , which was especally nice for us, as I get a 50% discount there and we got a jacuzzi suite. We went to the grocery store and got a few things for the weekend and had a light supper before his game that night.
Bailey's first game was then Friday night at 7pm. They played a Superior, WI team, and lost a good game 4-6. Bailey came through and scored all 4 goals. He was the star of the game. His first hat trick, plus one, at the squirt level. It was quite exciting thinking they might pull together as a team and possibly win. It wasn't meant to be though.
Saturday was a long slow day, which was kinda relaxing. Wasn't rush-rush. The boys game on Sat wasn't till 5:45pm, so we had all day to do whatever. We slept in, had a nice breakfast at the hotel, did some swimming, went to Subway for lunch, some went to a movie, some of the boys went with Steve and Doug to go outdoor skating for about an hour--(it was a beautiful warm day), some went bowling.....my parents and Hannah and I just took advantage of everyone being out and about and used the pool and hot tub. We had another light supper of microwave dinners or sandwiches for supper and then went to his next game againest Champlin Park. They were a pretty fast team and we only got one goal to their 6. Another tough loss. So then we knew our Sunday game was gonna be at 8AM!!
That didn't detur some of the parents though, while most of the kids and I were in bed by 9:30-10pm, some of the parents stayed up until 3am talking and drinking. Steve was one of those parents---he came up to bed after 3am, and then got up at
6am!!!! hummmm..... I felt anti social afterwards, but glad I got the extra sleep when we had to get up in morning. Steve enjoys being more social than I do, and I think he enjoyed himself, although the lack of sleep, driving 4 hrs home, and then having to get up and work today after the weekend, might be taking a toll on him soon.
At the arena at 8am on a Sunday morning for hockey seems a bit not right, but we made it, and the boys had more energy than I thought they would. I still was yawning, even after sleeping all night. The team had the toughest game yet vs Edina. They were a very physical team which got our boys all ryled up. The were steaming with frustration by the end of the 2nd period. Luckily the Zamboni came out to clean the ice and gave the coaches time to calm down our team. We weren't able to score at all, and lost 0-6. Lots of penalities not called. Just a fast team that had more control over the puck...they boys tried hard, but just couldn't handle the Hornets of Edina.

Steve and Bailey stayed at the rink to watch more games, and we went back to pack up the room and check out. Steve and Bailey ended up stayed to watch the championship game at 1:30 and Hannah and I went back to Dassel with my parents. We ate lunch first in Grand Rapids at A&W, and then headed home, making it back about 4:30pm just in time for the Super Bowl. Bailey and Steve didn't care much to watch it, but were home by 7pm to catch the end.

Took some pictures this weekend, and my camera did me well. I got some good shots I think. Here's just a sample of some hockey pictures.

Bailey #24-- he has the puck





Bailey as center in a face off


cool action shot


one of Bailey's goals!!!

ok......so here's our 11 year old boy.

Big Happy Birthday wishes to our Bailey boy !!

Bailey turns 11 years old today. Just a little remembering of my chunky, baby boy with some pictures....


Bailey at 8 months old.


Bailey on his first Halloween- 9 months-- one of my favorite pictures of him.


Bailey's 1st Birthday !!

Bailey's conference.

Bailey had a teacher's conference last night, and it was student led. Bailey had to take me through all he has been learning and how he thinks he is doing, etc.
He practiced beforehand in class, but nonetheless he was still nervous, although he will tell you he wasn't. He did fine. His teacher only injected a few things, otherwise, Bailey spent the entire 15 min leading the conference. The MCA tests are coming up this spring again, and he went through what his scores were the past 2 years.
His communications class which involves; vocabulary,grammar and spelling, he is doing very well in, the communications grade is a B+, and spelling tests is an A+,@ 101%, he gets the challenge words right too. Woo Hoo!!

Math is another story....he has been learning mutiplication, division, fractions, scientific notation, base ten, shorthand, average, order of operations....don't even ask me what some of that is. It just must be a hard class, as he is getting a D+
(77%), but she based that on using only 4 assignments/tests she has graded. She doesn't grade homework, as it is practice for them, and hasn't added into consideration yet a few other tests or attendance and participation. So she fully expects his grade to get to a C fairly easily, but still....The class average is a C for the class, how tough is that for a 5th grader. Bailey says he understands most of it, but struggles with some concepts. I told him he needs to ask more questions then. I asked her about how we never really see any math homework come home to maybe help him with it, and his teacher explained that they do most of it during class or homework free-time, because alot of the concepts that they teach now days the parents can't help much.....I agreed with her, and put Bailey into her hands to help him understand math. I know what it's like to struggle in math, so I hope he asks questions now and gets a grap on these concepts, to make future math classes better....it doesn't get any easier. I think by the end of the year he'll come out of it a little better.

Science is going well and he is at the class average with 83% which is a B. They have learned alot about the solar system recently and Bailey enjoys that.

Finally, there is Social Studies, which he is getting a 90% (A-). He says the class is boring, but likes the teacher, Mr Schmidt, so I guess that can help some.

He is passing Phy-ed, Music, and Keyboarding.( he finished Art and went into Keyboarding now). Gosh I wasn't in keyboarding--well we called it typing back then--until 9th or 10th grade. He also says he doesn't like that class, but as long as he tries his best. He just finished up swimming in Phy-ed which was the last 3 weeks, which he hated--he is so nervous about not being as good of a swimmer as his classmates, but he got through it fine. Next on the agenda is floor hockey, I believe- he's happy about that!!

Band he is getting what looks to be a B. I'm not sure how the grading works, as we didn't get a chance to talk to Mr Roser, but he is doing well.
Bailey has decided he doesn't want to do band anymore and has been restating this several times in the last month or so. He has to continue on this year, because it's required, and he made the decision and commitment to play. I'm not really sure what changed his mind, he just says he doesn't like it anymore and it's getting too hard. I'm kinda bummed that he might just quit after only 1 year and I'm hoping he'll change his mind....he knows we can't afford the trumpet if he quits, so we'll have to return it....I guess for now, he will continue on, and we'll see what next school year brings. His next concert is February 24 @ 7pm, so for now we are looking forward to that.

A workin' man, a cousin's night, and a birthday boy.

Yea!! Steve has worked 2 days in a row!! Well Friday and now today (Monday). He had the weekend off like a normal person, to get Bailey to hockey. So that was nice.... I had to work all weekend, so I didn't have much time to do anything but do a little laundry and such. I wasted most of Sat and Sunday just waiting to go to work. It's gettin a little tight with money around here( ok alot!)-- so I'm glad he has something to do. Although I am a little bummed that he will be missing Bailey's teacher conference tonight. Bailey gets to lead the conference, and tell us about everything with the guidence of the teacher. Bailey is nervous.

We had the cousins sleepover one night too. The kids really enjoy having someone over to play with. Steve played "Mr. Mom" with all the kids while I worked. The girls need to learn that every toy and item Hannah owns doesn't need to be brought out. Some of the things I haven't seen Hannah play with in ages, but it's all over her floor now. She had to make a path to get to her bed last night. Hannah doesn't play well by herself, in fact she rarely plays anything she has, unless someone plays with her, so rarely will I ever see a mess like that in her room. She will be spending the next days or however long it takes her, to clean it all up. She will not be happy with me, when I am insistant. I'm afraid to go upstairs as if I look at it too much or think about it, I will end up cleaning it up--just the thought of it makes me wanna run up and get it clean. I hate messes.

This week on Thursday, is Bailey's birthday, and he turns 11, and by the weekend we will be headed up to Grand Rapids on Friday to Bailey's hockey tournament. Bailey is excited for both. My parents will head directly to Grand Rapids from WI and are spending the weekend with us in the hotel for Bailey's birthday and hockey.

Have a good week !! God Bless.

Vigilance is imparative, perfection impossible

We had Hannah's 6 week check up on Wednesday this week, at the McNeeley Pediatric Diabetes Clinic in St Paul. It's actually been 7 weeks already since diagnosis. It seems like it was just yesterday, although I realize we have come a long way since then, but it's all still so new to us.
Hannah and diabetes is a reality, a reality of our current lives and forever. We pray nightly for a cure and hope in the years to come to be more involved in the JDRF.

We are still in the process of learning. We had our last scheduled diabetes education class on Wed, which was on the topic of Pattern Management. Which in other words is teaching us the steps to follow to adjust Hannah's doses on our own. Up until now we've had to call the clinic with adjustments each time. It will take some practice and some more learning how to do this, but I believe we now have the steps to make the decisions on our own, but always have the support of the doctors and nurses.
Hannah is really doing well as far as her blood sugar levels, we finally seem to have a good dose for the time being. Although it can change in an instant as she changes and adjusts to different situations in life. Diabetes is never the same every day, our goal is to keep her blood sugar in her target range as often as possible. Vigilance is imparative, but perfection is impossible.
She has gained another pound, and is up to 49 lbs and has grown almost an inch in a few months. She was down to 42 lbs at the time of diagnosis, so she has come a long way in a short time.
Everything seems to be going along, and each day we deal with it, we do what needs to be done. Some days are better, some are hard, some are just plain overwhelming.
How do you deal with the emotions of a 7 yr old, plus your own emotions? We try to put in all in perspective and move on.

Hannah is still struggling to take it all in, but then as I think of us doing this routine, which seems like we've been doing it all forever now, I realize it's only been less than 2 months, and I may be expecting too much from her. She is very interested in seeing other kids with diabetes, and watching and learning about diabetes from the websites online. There is a site with videos of other kids and she loved watching them and how they deal with diabetes....she can really relate to them. All those kids have had diabetes for a few years or have the pump, etc, and she is facianated by them and how far they've come with dealing with it, but then she realizes she is not at that point yet. There was a video of a 4 yr old girl who was bascily doing it all, testing her blood sugar, and getting her pump site ready, and such. Hannah has been off and on with helping me with everything. One day she'll be all excited to be the grown up and set it all up and other days not so much.
She has taken another step though in her care and has been loading the test strip with her blood. Soon I bet she will be able to poke her finger.

The insulin shots are always a stalling tactic yet. It takes her like 10 min to get ready for the shot(s). The alcohol wipe we apply to her leg has to dry first, so she makes that take as long as possible, then she has to "get ready", by usually having her blanket snuggled up close, and will most likely whine until it's all over, even if it doesn't hurt. Soemtimes it will hurt a little more, but other times she will say that didnt' even hurt, but whines beforehand nonetheless.

We have to get her a little out of her routine at some point, because as of now will only take her insulin in her right thigh, it's how it always has been done and I almost wish they would have tried different spots in the hospital, because now she is so comfortable with the leg, she will not think of trying the back of her arm, butt, or tummy. We watched videos of kids getting the insulin in the arm, and tummy, and it looks so much easier, esp., when she gets to the point of doing it herself or possibly getting the pump in the future, which most likely will go on her tummy. The pump, which she is not interested in yet, probably because she doesn't know much about it yet, will elminate all the injections, as she can bolus herself or we can with the push of a button. The pump site would need to be changed weekly, but one poke would be better than 30-40 injections in a week. I'm kinda looking forward to that for her. But for now we just have to watch her leg/thigh, so she doesn't get red lumps or fat build up from overuse of the same spot, we try not to hit the exact same spot each time and move it around, but her leg is only so big.

Hannah is still in a strong "honeymoon phase", as they call it. Her pancreas is still producing insulin to some degree, in the reamining beta cells in her body, it helps her body out some, and right now is on very low doses of insulin because of that. As the months pass those cells will die out leaving her pancreas and the cells non-insulin producing at all. The honeymoon phase can last a few weeks up to a year. There is no test to determine how long this will last. We know Hannah is in this phase by her relatively low insulin amounts needed right now.

Hannah is doing well physically, emotionally we still have some things to work out with her....she can be so happy and loving at one point, but then some days, and this may just be Hannah, but she can be so crabby about something so simple, like having to dress herself can throw her into a angry fit, or listening to instructions from me, will bring her to a mad frustration instantly. There have been a few handfuls of situations we've had to deal with her, that have seemed to escalate from her typical whiney self and now adding diabetes to her life hasn't helped. I pray that this is just still so new to her and it will get better soon.

We are all done at the St Paul location for now, as they also have a clinic in Minnetonka off 494 which is a little closer for us to go, so on April 2, we will have her 1st 3 month doctor visit with the endocrinologist at Children's West. They will also test her A1C level for the first time since diagnosis, which back then it was over 10%. It will be tested every 3 months for accurate blood suagar levels over the previous 3 months. It is recommended that the % be 6.5-7%, so that will be our goal over her life now.

Things will get a little hectic again as we will be planning and enjoying a week in Mexcio soon !! I hope we can find some time to relax and have fun, but I suspect that this vacation will have it's share of stress and frustration as well.
Still looking forward to the memories, however they play out.