Diabetic Recipes
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I watch as a girl with braces sets down a tower of pizza boxes at lanes 18 and 20. I shift my eyes to Charlie, who has just launched a bowling ball overhand onto the wood floor baseball style, scaring the children in the neighboring lanes. I watch him manipulate the air like a mime; steering the ball off the bumpers to the left then to the right before pumping his fist in victory.
"I got eight!" he yells excitedly from about 15 feet away.
I look over at the pizza again as the other kids start to filter in around the table. I look at Charlie. Charlie looks at the pizza. Charlie looks at me. I look at him. Like a dog at the dinner table, Charlie takes one more look at the kids munching on the pizza.
We communicate like a pitcher and his catcher. I give Charlie a slight shake of the head and he responds with a nod, honoring the agreement we made earlier about leaving for home when the pizza arrived. Prior to the birthday party, we had discussed this with Charlie. Susanne and I were going out that night and we really didn't want to leave my mom with the blood sugar mess that comes hours after eating pizza.
This is not a "woe is me" post. It's not a "poor Charlie couldn't have pizza" post either. I'm just proud of the way Charlie handled the situation.
He didn't flop his hands to his side and pout or complain about how unfair it was. He actually understood! Instead, Charlie hit the dance floor.
I watched Charlie with a grin from ear to ear, as he shook it like a Polaroid picture.
'Come on y'all, check it out
How low can you go?
Can you go down low?
All the way to da floor?
How low can you go?'
My daughter was diagnosed 9 years ago, just after turning 7 years old. There were many times that we made her pass on the pizza due to the crazy high numbers that hit her after eating just one slice. She outgrew it (if that is the right way to put it) Now she's 16 and can eat it without any problems. Your son should be proud of himself !
I think we parents put so much weight on making everything "normal" for our kids that we begrudge them having limits. There's nothing wrong with not letting kids have certain things for reasons that it makes management so much more complicated like with the messy highs that come after eating pizza. Even if Brendon didn't have diabetes, there are a lot of things we won't let him eat.
On another note, I love when our kids "get it". They can really be so respectful of diabetes and doing what's best for themselves even if it puts limitations on good stuff. They know there are a lot of other good stuff to enjoy like bowling like wild Vikings.
Carey,
I tried emailing you, but it bounced back. Did you close your hotspray account (the one you have listed on your other blog)? It was a lengthy explanation about how we dose Brendon for pizza which works wonders for him.
If you'd rather me explain it here I can, but email me with your address if I can send it that way instead. My address is on my blog.
Thanks :)
I remember these pitcher/catcher moments with my mom when I was a kid. You seem to have a solid relationship with your son and he respects your opinion.
Have you tried the dual-wave bolus with pizza? I've found that, for me, taking half of my dose about 15 minutes before I start eating and then chucking in the other half about 30 minutes into the meal helps stave off my highs. But it took plenty of trial, error, and pepperoni to come to that determination. ;)