Sew and so

Just to let you know that sewandso.co.uk is having a competition where you can win your order if it's over £20.  In other words it would be free.  Here's the link Sew and So facebook page.

Thank you for the positive comments on yesterdays post and for sharing your experiences.  It is a hard time of year for us as Rachael was diagnosed on the 22nd November so it is coming up to her 7th anniversary.  Jo was quite right yesterday. Asking if there is a family history is not necessarily a silly/stupid question.  There is a genetic link.  If you have a parent with type 1 there is between 1 in 100 to 1 in 10 chance of getting it.  This depends on who has it and apparently how old they were when it developed.  There is a higher risk if it is the father who has it than the mother.  Siblings are about 1 in 10 too.  There is also thought to be an environmental factor at work to though and 26 research studies currently point to the possibility of  it being an enterovirus as it has been found that children with diabetes are up to 10 times more likely to have had this than children without diabetes.

My comment about assuming there is a family history in our family is due to the fact that I am overweight, a lot overweight and prejudice seems to be that people assume that Rachael has diabetes because of this and that Colin and I therefore must also have diabetes.

Please accept my apologies for any offence caused by that comment.  None was intended but it is an amazingly common perception.

Stitching has been good this week.  Part 5 of ATW has been done.  I have chosen something for Nicola's giveaway win which I really hope she will love.  I'm NOT going to share it here yet though!!!!  I am working on a RR too and a Christmas ornie for an exchange.

I am having horrible problems with the camera and can't get any photos to upload to the computer.  I think it may be a dodgy connection with the USB lead.  I know there is another one in Rachael's room but I don't want to disturb her by going looking for it.

Luke had his parents evening tonight and it was wonderful.  Almost every teacher used the word fantastic about him and the 'negative' comments if you could call them that were that he needs to speak up a bit more in class and needs to believe in himself more.  We have always told him that he is bright and brainy but he doesn't believe us.  Hopefully he will believe it now lots of other people have told him.

Right...got to go...it's time for Question Time!!!

World Diabetes Day

Today is World Diabetes Day.  It is also the birthday of Banting who discovered insulin could keep people with diabetes alive.  Insulin is not a cure, it is as necessary to Rachael as breathing.  One day, hopefully, there will be a cure - a real cure that means people with diabetes don't have to put up with finger pricks, injections, feeling rubbish because blood sugars are too high or too low, discrimination and the stupid questions.

• Type 1 diabetes is NOT caused by too much sugar.
• Type 1 diabetes is NOT caused by being overweight.
• Type 1 diabetes is NOT caused by lack of exercise.
• Type 1 diabetes IS an auto immune condition.  The pancreas stops working - or at least the bit that regulates insulin.

Over the years we have had some right daft comments/questions.  Answers (or thoughts!) have included:

• No, she will not grow out of it.
• No, it's not the bad/serious kind - all diabetes is serious/bad.
• Yes, she will need injections every day for the rest of her life - unless we find a cure.
• Of course you could could give injections if you had to, the alternative is to let your child die.
• No there is no family history. Why? Does yours have a history of stupidity?

So I would ask in these days of recession/double dip/austerity or whatever we are in today that if you can spend £$5.00 on a sandwich and a coffee on your way to work, can you please spare £$5.00 for JDRF to find a cure.  One day they will and it may be your child, grandchild or great grandchild that benefits from it.

OK rant over...normal service will be resumed tomorrow!!

Lost my mojo!

Well...I have officially lost my stitching mojo. I haven't picked up a needle in months and nothing is working. I treated myself to a couple of new charts from Down Sunshine Lane in the hope that would help...but no...nothing.

There has been so much happening lately that I have no desire or energy to stitch I suppose. If anyone has any suffestions on how to find the stitchy bug again please let me know!

The big news is that as of yesterday I am officially jobless. There was no funding for my post, or 4 others, this year and so we were all out of jobs. Although we were told about 2 months ago, there haven't been a huge amount of school jobs around. 2 of the ladies were lucky enough to find a job this week but the rest of us are still looking. With Rachael having diabetes, I don't want to be too far away in case of any problems which limits where I can go for work really.

Unfortunately with having no job comes the fact that I cannot take up my place at uni in September. Part of this is due to the fact that I need a placement in a school that will also provide someone to act as a mentor and partly because I can't afford the fees (nearly £1000) without a job. Colin apparently earns too much for me to receive any financial help with course fees.

On a happier note, I passed my Volcanoes, Earthquakes and Tsunamis course with Open University which I must confess I was really surprised to do. I have completed 2 of the assignments for my Personal Finance course. The first one I got 73% on and was quite pleased with this, the other I am still waiting for the result.

My stepdad is having a bad time of it. He has recently been diagnosed with asbestosis (if that's how you spell it!) and near heart failure. He is waiting to see a cardiologist to see whether it is worth him having an operation with all his other health problems as well. My mum is considering the possiblity of moving up here a bit now. There is a house 10 doors up the walk from us that is up for sale and I think this has concentrated her mind a little now. That and the fact that she is getting no help whatsoever from her son in law and his wife.

We are having a few problems with school at the moment with Rachael's diabetes. Obviously with me not working there any more they are going to have to take a little more responsibility for her. Unfortunately no-one seems to want to do this and we are going to have a bit of a fight on our hands I think. She has a residential trip to Robinwood this September and the school are describing her as "high risk". We had a meeting with the Head Teacher and the School Nurse last week which was dreadful. The school nurse didn't know the first thing about diabetes and even less about insulin pumps which considering she was supposed to be advising the school was a bit of a joke really. Honestly if they just took a bit of interest and used common sense there is no reason to be so worried about her. Thankfully when we phoned Robinwood they were much more helpful and have sent us meal plans and activity itineries etc.

Rachael swam in the Tameside schools swimming gala a couple of weeks ago. Her team won the Denton Schools Gala and so went forward to the Tameside competition. There were supposed to be 5 teams but 2 didn't show. St Mary's got 3rd so it is lucky that the others weren't there. The girls team is quite strong but the boys are not as good. She enjoyed herself though and that is the main thing.

Luke has been playing in some friendly tournaments for Denton Youth the last couple of weeks and he too is really enjoying himself. His football is really coming on and he is turning into a cracking defender. He isn't afraid to get in and tackle anyone and isn't bothered in the least as to how big they are. He has been promised a pair of Ronaldo boots when he gets into the team proper!!

Well anyway that is some of what's been happening lately. Let me know what to do about my stitchy slump. I'm off to read some of the blogs I have been neglecting to see if that can give me some inspiration!

The most miserable post in the entire history of blogging I should think!

This is going to be a miserable post so if you are already feeling down, come back for the next post!

So far in the last week or so we have had.........

Sheba, our 11 year old cat diagnosed with diabetes. She is having twice daily injections and needs to have a glucose curve which is a blood test every 2 hours to check her blood sugars. The needles and insulin are going to cost about £100 per month which is money we can ill afford. However, we can't have her put down for what is in effect a very treatable condition and if we did what sort of message would we be sending to our daughter who has diabetes. We also have to collect a urine sample which is proving very good fun.........not!

Biskey, Rachael's 1 year old kitten/cat has vanished. He went missing last Saturday night and we can find no trace of him. Colin spent most of Sunday out looking and thankfully found no evidence of RTA's etc. We have put up posters and rang all the vets, rescue centres etc that we can find but nothing at all has turned up. I thought we might at least get a couple of crank callers but nothing.

At work I have been "promoted" to assistant resource manager. This means that I am allowed to tidy out the cupboards under supervision!! Not quite what I had in mind. I also work in the mornings with a teacher who doesn't actually know what to do with a teaching assistant and has me mostly glueing and sticking.............ok for year 1 but not so good for year 5's who should be capable of doing it themselves!! I am feeling very under utilised at the moment and quite bored which I have never been before in school!

And finally on a cross stitching note, TOT is turning into a nightmare. So far, the bottom half of the moon has been stitched 3 times as I made a real hash of it. The swirls have been stitched twice as have various other bits. It is a mark of how much I like this design because anything else would have been consigned to the bin by now! If this was my first ever Nora Corbett design, it would put me off for life!!

That is all my current woes. If you now feel miserable, I apologise. It is quite unusual for me to be feeling this fed up!

Rachael's pump

So far Rachael's pump has been going well. We have managed to do the set changes each time with no problems. We have discovered that it is easier to remove the old set when she is in the bath and soak off the adhesive. Unfortunately we have ran out of saline so Rachael is disconnected from her pump until Tuesday when we go live with insulin. It's hard to imagine not having to give Rachael injections much anymore. I worked out the other day that she has approximately 1500 injections a year and even more finger pricks to test her blood sugars. It's really scary when you think about things like that! We have received all the other pump pouches and luckily Rachael was pleased with them all. She now has one with dogs on, a Winnie the Pooh one, a purple camoflage one and a wispy purple one. At least she can have a bit of choice now with which one she wears. They all seem to be well made so I would recommend all 3 companies that we bought them from. If you want details, just ask.

I made a start with "How does your Garden Grow" tonight. This is a mystery stitch by Papillon Creations. Currently 4 out of 13 parts have been released so I am a little behind. Some of the parts are quite small so I should hopefully be able to catch up more or less by the time part 5 is released.

10 projects complete - so a new start!

I have said since the start of the year that when I finally finished 10 projects/WIP's, I could have a new start. Well I got my new start today which is Bothy Threads Cut Thru Garden Shed. I love these designs as you can probably tell from my stash acquisition yesterday. It should hopefully be a reasonably quick stitch considering it's size as there are quite a few large blocks of colour that will make it easier going.

Rachael and I have been playing with her pump and learning how to set some of the features she will need. So far she/we have learnt to change the battery, set the clock/date and programme in the basals. She seems to be picking it up well and it will be good for her to have some control over her diabetes rather than doing things just because we tell her it needs doing. She is certainly starting to understand more over the last couple of weeks and is thinking about it more.

We have an insulin pump

Yesterday we went for our weekly pump training at St Mary's and were handed a brand new PURPLE Paradigm 722 pump. What a shock. We knew nothing about getting it so quickly. This week we are just playing with it and learning how to programme a basal, a bolus and that sort of thing. Today we have ordered some pump pouches for Rachael. She chose a dog one and a purple one. It's hard to tell who is more excited us or Rachael. If Rachael can demonstrate that she can work the basic features next week, she will come home pumping saline for a week or two before going live with insulin.

I also had a good day yesterday as I got loads of cross stitching goodies in the post. I got 3 Bothy Threads designs - the cut thru pirate ship, haberdashers and florists. I also got TW's mini winter sampler and Nora Corbett/Mirabilia Violet. One design (Garden Shed is on back order and on it's way.

This was the first time I have ever got caught for customs charges. £6.42 for customs and £8.00 for Royal Mail!! Still it was well worth while buying the stuff in US as even with the customs charges I still saved a fortune.

Pump Training

Today was our 4th clinic visit for pump training. The DSN asked Rachael what colour pump she wanted!! Needless to say the answer was purple. Tonight we have been looking at pump pouches and skins for the pump. The diabetes team are great the way they are aiming the training at Rachael and not at us. We always said at the old hospital, there was no point in taking Rachael really as no one hardly spoke to her. It will be great for her to have more say in her diabetes and to understand more of why we make the decisions we do to keep her healthy.

Both the children are dead tired this week with going back to school. I start my new hours in school this week. It is hard getting back in the routine of mornings after having 2 weeks of doing what we want to when we want to.

Obviously being back at work means that my cross stitch time is more limited now so progress on Sunday Cricket will be limited to evenings and weekends. I have been picking out my next WIP/UFO to work on when Sunday Cricket is finished. I am thinking of doing a rotation of Cotswold scene from a back issue of Cross Stitch Collection, Cat's Alphabet from Janlynn and Petal Fairy by Mirabilia. Cat's Alphabet was the one that got me back into stitching about 7 years ago and I would love to finish it as it is a really gorgeous design. Petal Fairy will be for Rachael when it is finished and the Cotswold scene will look fantastic in our hallway.

Sunday Sunday

Rachael had a sleepover at her friend's house last night which turned into a bit of a disaster. Her blood sugars were 6.8 at 8pm - brilliant! They were still in the 6's at 10.30 which is not so good. At the moment Rachael needs to be going to bed at least 10.0mmols to get through the night and even then we would test at 3am to make sure she hadn't dropped too low. Another phone call at midnight to say that she has had 2 slices of toast and 2 custard creams and was now finally creeping up towards the low 9's. Hurray!! A phone call this morning to discuss breakfast carb ratios found Rachael with a reading of 2.3. Yikes!

Rachael has been very subdued since she came back from the sleepover. I hope it is purely due to lack of sleep and not her blood sugar readings upsetting her.

Luke had a good evening last night. We decided as a treat we would have a buffet type tea meal with lots of sweet things that are normally rationed a bit as it isn't fair that Luke can have them when Rachael is restricted by what she can have, or rather how much she can have. He also stayed up until 9.30 pm.............really late for him.

Luke's behaviour today has been awful, is it due to the late night or sugar overload?

Cross stitch wise I am a little cheesed off. I am stitching a design for Rachael's teacher when she leaves his class in July and have just realised that I am one row off for about half of what I have done...........grrrrrrr.

I have decided to leave that for a few days whilst I cool down about it before starting the frogging. Instead I am concentrating on Sunday Cricket for a few days. I am about half way through this now. There is only about 200 stitches in the top half left now.

Blogging - I'm a blogger!!

Well where do I start? I suppose the first thing to do is to let everyone know who I am!

I am Sharon, 39, and married. I have 2 wonderful children - Rachael, 8, ( who also has Type 1 diabetes) and Luke, 6. We have 3 dopey cats - Sheba, Biskey and Smudge. We also have 4 goldfish but I don't have a clue what they are called these days as their names changed from day to day when we first got them 2 years ago.

I work as a teaching assistant in a primary school which I absolutely love. I get the best of both worlds - job satisfaction and loads of holidays. Contrary to public opinion we do not get paid these holidays, teachers do, we don't!! Currently I am in a Year 1 class (age 5 -6 years) but I have worked across just about all ages in the past.

My main hobby is cross stitching. If I live to 100 there is a vague chance that I could stitch all my stash but I doubt it. My favourite designs are Mirabilia, Amanda Loverseed's Cut Thru's and Lizzie Kate's for a quick stitch. I recently compiled a list of my WIP's and UFO's.........that was a scary job!!

I also enjoy stamp collecting, not philately - there is a difference! I collect stamps from Great Britain and butterflies from all over the world. I only started collecting again after Christmas 2007 but I am rapidly building my collection again!!

My daughter has Type 1 diabetes and has done since November 2005. This was a total bolt from the blue as there is no history of it in either family. She manages this fantastically, currently with 4 injections a day but we are currently having pump training. Soon she will be the proud owner of a pump - and she can't wait!! Rachael is under Dr Doughty at St Mary's in Manchester. Both him and Marie the diabetes nurse are fabulous and I can't recommend them enough. We only moved there in August 2007 after becoming disillusioned with our previous hospital.