The T1D community started buzzing about the movie Turning Red as soon as the first trailers and sneak peeks came out. The new Pixar film had a character with T1D! You could see the device on her arm. It was widely known that this wasn’t the main character in the movie, but the fact that they added a character with T1D was EVERYTHING!

Then someone pointed out that there were actually 2 characters with T1D! Wow! This doesn’t happen in movies or TV. Ever. Yet, there they were, plain as day. 2 T1D characters were going to be in Turning Red.

People in the diabetes community were getting excited. Would a movie finally get T1D right? What would they say? How would they incorporate it?

Then, Turning Red, arguably one of Pixar’s most controversial movies is finally released. And there is less than 15 seconds of T1D in the entire movie. The T1D community was torn… as usual.

We were getting ready for dinner. As we were setting the table and starting to dish out everyone’s food, Jordan realized he didn’t have his checker (that’s what we call his PDM). He went to his room to look for it. He looked everywhere. When he came down, his hands were empty and he had a concerned look on his face. He couldn’t find it. I wasn’t worried. We’ve gone through this dance before. It’s a small black case. It’s easy to miss. Especially for a pre-teen boy. He can be staring right at something and somehow not see it. “Where did you see it last?” I asked. “It was in my diabetes bag when I went for a walk,” he replied. Weird. His diabetes bag is much larger and harder to lose track of. Now, I was starting to worry. [Read more…]

The Baby-Sitters Club is on Netflix, and, just like the beloved books many of us read as kids, Stacey has a secret. The character Stacey McGill has type 1 diabetes. Diabetes often comes up on television in the form of cheap jokes about unhealthy food. Sometimes there’s a supporting character who has T1D (usually misrepresenting how T1D actually works). But it’s extremely rare for a main character to have the condition. Everyone in the T1D community was excited for the release of the new The Baby-Sitters Club, wondering how they’d depict Stacey’s character. What would they include? Would a TV show finally get T1D right? [Read more…]

We were at our local playground. As we are almost every day, multiple times a day. My 3 kids were playing tag with some neighbor kids. As they do almost every day, multiple times a day. And my son had his d-bag hanging off his shoulder. As he does all the time, everywhere. He started going low from all of the running around. As he sometimes does, when he is more active than usual. So, out came the bag of Skittles to treat his low. I saw her. I knew a comment was coming before she even opened her mouth. “Hey girls, look at that giant bag of Skittles that boy has. You should go make friends with him!” [Read more…]

Last weekend was our youngest son’s 5th birthday party. We went to an indoor play place, had pizza and ice cream cake, and lots of fun with friends. All of this and more could send our older son’s blood sugar levels into a roller coaster of massive spikes and dips. We can throw our hands up and go along with the ride. Or, we can learn more and try our best to tame the roller coaster. [Read more…]

As I sit here, drinking my tea, typing on my computer, my T1D son is playing down the street at a friend’s house. We live in a newly developed neighbourhood, so we’re new to the area, and his friend is too. I haven’t met the parents. He rode his bike down to their house and they like to play on a trampoline in the backyard. He just ate a pancake brunch, with regular syrup and whipped cream, so he has quite a bit of insulin on board. Most T1 parents are probably feeling their anxiety creep up just reading this. But I’m not anxious. I’m not worried. I’m sitting here, sipping my tea, perfectly calm about the whole thing.  [Read more…]

Every year since I was a teenager, I have donated a gift to Santa’s Anonymous. Sometimes I do it through work, sometimes on my own. Last year, I introduced my kids to the concept. [Read more…]

Valentine’s Day is coming up fast. Usually, I’m the type of parent who stops at the store on the way to school and picks up some pre-packaged cards. I don’t even leave enough time to have my kids write or draw on them at all. We just hand out 20-30 generic cards. No personalized messages (just names), no thought goes into it at all. The only part the kids play in the whole ordeal is that they get to pick which tv show characters they will be handing out. This year, I wanted to do something different. [Read more…]

“You have to take him to the emergency room immediately“. That’s what the doctor said when he came back into the room. I didn’t understand. Minutes ago, I had walked in with a healthy toddler, now we were being sent to the hospital. Nothing made sense to me. All I knew was I felt like I was going to be sick. [Read more…]