Finally arrived, Pump Party part II

The day the big box with the pump and all necessary equipment arrived was a day of celebration, as if our normal lives were waiting in that box to be unfold. After 5 months of waiting and longing, I was holding this pink (my daughter's choice) beeper looking device in my hand, finally. But this was only a beginning of a new journey and I realized that the next step would be to make my daughter like it and feel confident and comfortable enough to wear it. And so I emailed her teacher and asked to reserve a slot in their busy kindergarten schedule for a party.

Somehow my daughter's Pump party was a lot about carbohydrates, coming to think of it, just like diabetes... I wrote down some words; to teach the class a little about diabetes, about how brave my daughter was, about her new cool pump which they had all decided was actually a Nintendo DS, and basically I stretched almost exclusively the positive aspects of having diabetes; like having to eat candies to increase blood sugar when needed and knowing your body signs better than any physician. Next we went on to some arts and crafts. I made pump models that I cut out from a colorful thick craft paper and let each child decorate their own crafted insulin pump with stickers and colorful glue markers. Now it was my daughter's turn to teach her friends a thing or two about how to use it. We made up a game in which each child was holding their pump creation and a bag of gummy candies (Fruit Snacks in individual small packs work best for us in bringing up low blood sugar pretty fast and it worked great for the party too). My daughter proudly explained that when her blood sugar was high she needed to press some buttons in her pump, but when her blood sugar was low she needed to eat some gummy candies. So in our game whenever she says "high" the kids would press the buttons on their crafted pump and whenever she says "low" the kids would eat a few gummy candies, and no confusions! And finally, there is no real party without a cake so then we all had cupcakes. It turned out to be a pretty cool (well, at least for K aged kids and the school staff) successful party and also we made up a great game. The kids LOVED it! especially the part where they 'had to' eat candies. In fact they have been asking me ever since, on every opportunity, when we would play this game again or have another Pump party.

Pump party part I

The idea of throwing my daughter a pump party came to me while going through online chat rooms of parents of type 1 diabetic kids. The parents discussed the first introduction of the insulin pump to their kids through a party, as a way of making it more attractive and appealing to them. For me, at that time, it seemed like a sweet dream, the day we would finally get my daughter an insulin pump. We were waiting over 5 months to get approved for a pump. A time period that took forever to me, having to give my daughter insulin injections at least four times per day for the first time our lives, realizing we will have to do it every single day until there's a cure, and knowing there is an alternative, in the shape of an insulin pump. A small beeper-looking device that delivers the insulin 24/7 for you, all you have to do is tell it how much and when. No, it doesn't check your blood sugar and make it's own decisions (that's what the artificial pancreas project is all about) but it replaces the four shots per day with one infusion site change or port change every 2-3 days. And it allows you to live your life the way you want it and adjust your insulin accordingly, while on the shots it seemed the other way around; no sleeping late on weekends since the long term insulin had to be taken at the exact same time every morning, no skipped meals or else blood sugar goes low etc. Doing all that as an adult could work if you like to follow a schedule and enjoy routines. For kids and especially young children this could be practically impossible. Especially if they fit into the food trouble makers profile. We desperately needed our life back, our spontaneous way of living, our sleep (late on weekends) and I especially hated having to tell my Ms. Not hungry that she couldn't eat anything that had carbohydrates in it until the next meal since she had already got her insulin shot. Of course she always had the option of getting another shot but somehow for someone that doesn't like to eat anyway, it didn't seem too attractive.
So we decided we had to get her an insulin pump. Only it didn't take too long to realize it was going to be a laborious and exhausting process. We had to take various training sessions, health assessments for my daughter and undergo psychological evaluations for ourselves, as her parents and main caregivers, just to make sure we are psychologically competent for that. No one had assessed whether we were psychologically competent to raise a child with diabetes before she was diagnosed, yet they made us go through those evaluations in order to be approved to give our child the best medical treatment possible. So after going through all that, how could we not celebrate getting the pump? There was no happier than us that day when the $6,000 pump arrived in the mail, we longed for it so much that somehow we got ourselves under the impression that this will be the end for all of our problems, quite a lot to ask from a machine, even from a $6,000 machine. But we were determined to give our daughter her normal life (with diabetes) back and this small device made a huge difference.

More from Little Chef

I was asked by several readers to tell the end of the quiche story from my previous 'Family chefs' post. Once again my kids have shown a complete non adherence to any book about kids' eating behavior. Every reasonable book about kids and food issues, especially those meant for parents to picky eaters suggest to cook with your kids. 'Once they made it they will be open to try it' (taste it I would assume). And so after my 5 year old little chef walked me through his recipe and we got an olive, tomatoes and sour cream quiche, he was patiently sitting next to the oven (yes, he even brought a chair for the event) I was convinced he was going to try and at least taste it. After all, his imagination made recipe consisted solely from ingredients he likes to eat and in a surprisingly well organized combination (I was really surprised he hadn't include chocolate). So when we finally got our nice smelling quiche from the oven, he looked at it with a bit of disappointment and said:"I made it all just for you mom, I knew you'd like it" he smiled. "I like it a lot" I said, munching on my slice. "Don't you want to try it?״ I asked. "No, thank you, I already know in my brain how it tastes like" he said in a nonchalant tone and went back to play. I don't know what these books are based on but I guess my kids just hadn't read them.

Family chefs

The other day my son had decided to help me make dinner. He dragged one of our heavy dining room chairs into the kitchen, climbed up and said we were going to cook his favorite dish. 'What that might be?' I wondered, especially since both of my kids are not exactly food fans, they eat in order to survive, not even one crumb more than that, and even this minimal time they spend eating is a waste of their precious time that could much better be used for play if you'd ask them. "Something really good" answered my 5 year old "you'll see" he smiled and made me his sous chef. "I need green olives, cherry tomatoes and sour cream" he ordered and since he asked for a nice combination of ingredients I decided to go with it. I pulled out a small chopping board, a plastic knife that if you are consistent enough can be used to cut soft vegetables but not little fingers and a large enough bowl, since I had no idea what else we were to use. "What are we making?" I tried again but got the "it's a secret food" answer and "soon you'll see". My son cut the cherry tomatoes and my job was to cut the green olives. He add them to the bowl and asked me to add "4 scoops of sour cream", no more no less. Next he asked for 3 eggs. "Oh, are we making an omelette?" it seemed like a great omelette recipe "maybe we can add some more eggs, this way everyone will get to eat it" I suggested and put a pan on the stove top. "No, it's not an omelette" my son was amused by my lack of basic understanding in secret recipes. "This should go into the oven" he explained. "Oh, is it a quiche?" I tried again. "Yes!!!" he cheered. "So maybe we should add some flour to it? What do you say?", my 5 year old gave me his cute OK and I suggested some salt but he disagreed on that part so flour yes, but we didn't add any salt, that was his dish and I was not allowed to make changes in the recipe. Then we transferred the batter into a baking pan and baked it. It was very much eatable, could use some salt, but otherwise a nice quiche, and my son's first kitchen creation. I wonder where he got that recipe from.

My Afternoon miscommunications

Afternoon is a vague time concept for me since in my home country it is usually used to describe any given time between 4pm to say 7pm. Which also means that for me as a mom this is a time frame I would refrain from scheduling work related meetings since it may risk my ability to pick up my kids from school on time. Basically afternoon starts exactly when noon ends, and noon here is 12 sharp, while back home noon is a lengthy period of time that lasts from 12 to around 4pm. That is also why scheduling a meeting at noon will require additional followup and correspondence to schedule the exact time. Here, I would be expected to show up on 12 for a meeting at noon, only being raised on another side of the globe I was aware of the fact that I would have to switch centimeters to inches, celsius to fahrenheit and move my clock 7 hours back, but I wasn't quite prepared for changing my time perception (not to mention switching from 24hr to am and pm which I still find somewhat confusing). One couldn't know that without a thorough orientation... This could create a wide degree of miss communication, but even now, that I am aware of the discrepancy, I still get somewhat distress when am asked to meet in the afternoon or when attending a lecture that is supposed to end no later than 2pm and get the phrase: "We will cover this in the afternoon" from the instructor, with the thought of an unexpected extension of the talk crossing my mind. I don't think I could ever grow out of my already well imprinted time concepts, but I already know I'd better show up at 12 to my weekly noon lab meetings as long as I am in the U.S.

Just Dance!

I have never liked dancing too much nor would I volunteer to do so in public; like at dance bars or weddings (although you are sometimes expected to take part in it) but I do like sports of any other shape and kind and do appreciate the physical activity involved with dancing. I am also proud to say that both of my kids were blessed with their dad's talent and besides from the fact they enjoy dancing, they are pretty good in it. So when my daughter decided to use her savings to buy the latest Just dance 3
game for the Xbox (thanks to her grandparents it didn't take her too long to save for the proper amount) we supported the decision with 'whatever, it's your money' since it did seem fun for kids but I didn't think it could keep her busy any longer than the other dancing base games for the TV (a few days, maybe a week if the weather is bad outside).
To our pleasant surprise it became her favorite leisure activity, more than just watching TV! And even better than that, it became OUR favorite activity, the whole family was captured; We are not only Just dance 3 addicts, we are heavy users. It started with 'join me for one song mommy' and since 4 people can play at the same time, soon enough we found ourselves dancing in our living room to the sound of the latest songs, following the colorful dancing characters on the screen and burning quite a lot of calories (well, depends on how many song one can do in a raw, by song 2 you start feeling the sweat, by song 4 I usually ask for a break but the kids keep on going). And my daughter always takes first place. So my insights are:

1. We have finally found a game that is both active and keeps the kids engaged for a long time (it's been over a month now and my daughter plays with it EVERY day, in any combination; friends, family, babysitter, doesn't really matter as long as we are willing to move furniture around to make enough space for dancing.

2. Even a non dancing type like me can enjoy dancing (apparently, I am also surprised) and will join the Just dance 3party whenever called.

3. Playing the Xbox with your kids is a great way to have some family quality time, especially with those games that involve multiple (meaning more than 2) players.

4. The fact that you are a bad dancer (well, I am good in other stuff) doesn't mean your kids will necessarily inherit this unwanted quality, it has to be a recessive trait.

Sleepovers

Maybe it's the over-protective mom in me that feel this way but sleepovers at friends' house is a stressful issue. Currently I cannot think of any one person that can host a sleepover and have my daughter included without having to get a long list of instructions from us, her parents. Grandparents are out of the question since they live thousands of miles away from us and have no experience with diabetes treatment, and friends, well, I don't feel comfortable enough to generate such a long list and give it to a friends' parent and even if I did, it wouldn't take away the feeling that we are doing something that might risk our daughter's health. So the question is; does it worth it? Well, depends on who answers. My daughter would definitely say 'sure' while I would say not really, for now, until she is old enough to be completely independent, because, as funny as it may sound, when it comes to her diabetes, I trust my 8 year old daughter much more than I trust anyone else, my girl that by the age of 5 and a half already knew how to check her blood sugar, operate her insulin pump and tell the huge difference between 0.5 and 5.0 units of insulin or any other number with a decimal point, she does a better job than us. That's why I feel pretty confident sending her for play dates on her own. However, this is not really the case for night times, when the story gets a little twist. Once she falls asleep everything becomes solely our responsibility. We need to make sure her blood sugar doesn't turn up to a nighttime nightmare. Late night lows are one of my worst fears and in order to avoid it I make sure we don't over estimate her dinner's carb count and that she has a snack at bedtime, just before she brushes her teeth. I never give her insulin for this snack, Something that creates disagreements with her endocrinologist but raising your sleeping child's blood sugar level is much harder than just adding a little more insulin to correct a high blood sugar, especially when they are using an insulin pump and even more when this pump has a remote control, thank god for that! So I check her blood sugar before I go to sleep, correct it (too high means more insulin but too low means I would need to wake her up, get her to drink or eat something with fast acting sugars and wait 15-30 minutes, recheck and make sure her blood sugar raises to safe enough levels). Then I can go to sleep calm, knowing we are in control. Now, it's not always so predictable, many factors can have an effect on blood sugar at night; physical activity during the day, stress, hormones, site change, hot bath, new foods...you name it. So in addition to preparing a long list of instruction I would need to make a full investigation to that poor friend's parent to make sure the blood sugar at bedtime reflects the actual blood sugar for the rest of the night. Isn't it just easier to host the sleepovers in our house for now?

Promise To Remember

Last Thursday, January 12th, we had the honor to meet with congressman Chris Van Hollen and Joan D. Kleinman, the District Director, as part of the JDRF's (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation) 'Promise to Remember me' campaign. We, the proud parents, accompanied our daughter who was invited, along with other type 1 diabetics and family members to thank the congressman for his continued support in the diabetes research and make sure he remembers all of us affected by diabetes and continue his effort and support in moving the Artificial Pancreas project forward and in the Special Diabetes Program (SDP) that funds research for a cure. Congressman Van Hollen has long been a great supporter of the diabetes community, he was honored with the JDRF's Hero award in 2010 and the JDRF’s Congressional Champion Award this last November. The meeting went very well with a warm, laid back and pleasant atmosphere. The congressman took the time to kindly listen to what every single one of us had to say. He was very supportive and understanding and wanted to know how it is to live with type 1 diabetes and how we feel about the latest research developments. Our daughter was very proud and excited to meet a real U.S congressman and we were all very fortunate to have a chance to be heard and learn that there are good people out there helping to promote finding a cure.

So just quit mommy

I think I was meant to be a stay at home mom or at least have a home based office and career. In an ideal world I would be there for my kids when they come back from school, have their lunch cooked and waiting, full of energy and ready to spend the whole late afternoon and evening together. In an ideal world they will of course appreciate it every single day, and I will have my days filled with activities and fulfillment and would not regret making the sacrifice. But even stay at home moms cannot devote their whole time solely to playing with their kids, in fact, some may be so busy at times that their actual quality time with their kids might not be longer than my quality time with my kids.
Ever since my daughter was born I dreamt of being able to work from home. I realized that not working at all is not a financially realistic option and also my time off will never be as fun as it is now since I have to go to work at any other given time that is not off. I also noticed that when I come back home from work, the change in environment and atmosphere makes it easier for me to create a clear distinction between my work and my private life. I also found out that I get my energy load while I am at work, busy with my own things and then going home for my family, while staying at home didn't have the same effect on my energy levels. I might be really tired after a whole day at work but would still have a better mood (it helps if you like your job of course).

So maybe being a working mom that works full time is not such a bad deal for me. My daughter also thinks I should work, she wouldn't be pleased with the thought that I have the whole day for myself while she is busy at school, she'd rather make sure she is not missing anything, but she have different ideas as for the work I should be doing. "Wouldn't It be nice if you could be my teacher In class instead of Ms. Jones?" she asks these kind of questions rather frequently. And I always say: "yes it would honey, but then I would have to give attention to so many kids and won't be able to focus just on you" this part would always end the fantasy, as most kids wouldn't like to share their mom with non siblings, understandably. But one day she came back with a brighter idea. "Wouldn't it be nice if you could be an assistant in the after school activities?!" totally ignoring my already ongoing career for the past 10 years as a scientist. I was planning to just come up with my usual response but she had that part covered. "You will not have to give your attention to all the kids because there are several assistants and you can focus on only a handful of kids; me, Jennifer, Kira, Emily and Jacob". (best friends). "That sounds really cool but I already have a job honey" I answered. But she had that part planned thoroughly as well: "So just quit mommy" she said simply.

It is all in our genes(?)

Maybe it's because I was trained in human genetics and spent over 10 years studying various genetic diseases, or maybe this is exactly why I was drawn into this field in the first place, but for me the inherited genetic excuse has always seemed the easy way out. No one can blame you for having or giving your children a faulty gene sequence, it is not contagious and there is nothing on earth you could do (other than not existing or not having children) to change it. Now, it is a totally different story with the non-genetic; Avoiding the exposure to different kinds of environmental factors, in ideal world of course when we know the exact effect of every single factor on human health and can avoid any unwanted effects. Some might not agree with me on that, stating they'd rather deal with something they have some control over (assuming again that they know what this something is) over the total helplessness in the light of our genes and ways of inheritance, once you have it you are married to it, in the old fashion traditional meaning of marriage, you cannot just click Delete. But the truth is that our genetics and also our environment are both contributors in shaping our life, our health and our future. Bad genetic start point can be corrected to some extent with some effort while good genetics can be totally messed up by the environment.

As a mom, though, I tend to prefer the genetic approach most of the time. Knowing that not everything that happens is my fault. Especially when it comes to the health of my children. Blaming yourself for every possible issue is always the easiest thing to do and for me it has already been set as a default from the day I became a mom, needless to say it doesn't really help. Taking the environmental approach for me it's like putting all this heavy weight on my shoulders, and then everything that goes wrong has to be related to one of the following 3 options:
1. Something that I did
2. Something that I didn't do
3. Both

And for an over protective mom like me that would just be impossible to live this way.
So we are doing the best we can in terms of the environment, hoping for the best in terms of our genetics and are mainly trying to raise happy and healthy kids and live at peace with ourselves.

What some pediatricians will never know about D

"He is experienced with almost any kind of childhood medical condition and has invaluable advice. But, when it comes to diabetes, as miserable as it may sound, he is absolutely totally helpless".

There are many excellent pediatricians that have pretty much seen it all,

from the flu, viral and bacterial infections, childhood diseases to even rare complications, been there, done that, they will easily diagnose and most of the time successfully treat any symptom. Our pediatrician is one of them, the kind that doesn't prescribe unnecessary antibiotics or rush your child to take unnecessary further tests. He is also familiar and experienced with almost any kind of childhood medical condition and has invaluable advice. But, when it comes to diabetes, as miserable as it may sound, he is absolutely totally helpless. Throughout the many years of his clinical experience I guess he hasn't seen many diabetic patients so far. I hope he doesn't represent a big share of his fellow colleagues population in terms of diabetes knowledge and ironically our pediatrician back home was also an endocrinologist, yet my daughter was diagnosed by the less knowledgable one... Though we were the ones that asked to perform a urine test in the first place, only we suspected a urine tract infection (from the excessive urination) and not diabetes (well, I did have a sneaky suspicion but I was really hoping it was just my hypochondriac tendency cueing). So I think we at least deserved getting these news from the pediatrician himself and not his 20 year old trainee who in a by the way kind of speaking asked if we ever heard of a disease called diabetes. After that we were sent to the ER which was the right thing to do but looking back, it could have been handled in a more sensitive way. He also diagnosed her with a severe ketoacidosis, (although urine test showed only moderate ketones and in real ketoacidosis the levels of ketones in urine would he VERY high, but we didn't know much then) which added some more unnecessary panic and turned out that at least this part of his

diagnosis was incorrect (thank god!).

That didn't prevent us from coming back to him since we now have an excellent diabetes team to take care of my daughter's diabetes stuff so we can still use his great pediatrician skills for the more common issues and again we showed up suspecting a urine infection but this time with totally different symptoms and some fever. It happened about 5 months ago but I still get my blood pressure up just from thinking about it. We took a urine test and were asked to wait in his office. Again one of his trainees shows up, she looks very concerned and asks many questions that would usually point they are suspecting a central nervous system damage, and as a former neurobiologist I know too much of it. I am starting to lose my patience (and that doesn't usually happen) and ask to see the doc right away because I am also starting to get really worried. His assistant shows up in the room with a blood sugar meter, a prehistoric one if I may add... This doc hasn't been updating his diabetes equipment in his clinic lately. "Hi sweetie" she turns to my daughter. "this is a device that checks the amount of sugar in your blood" she explains as if we hadn't been using THIS device (well, a newer version of it) at least 4 times a day for the last 3 years... "I know" my daughter smiles politely at her. "We need to check your blood sugar, we just need a small drop, it will only take a second and you almost won't feel a thing" she explained slowly. Luckily my daughter has a good sense of humor so by that time she was really holding herself not to laugh out loud, giving me the 'is this woman crazy or what?' look. "Why is it necessary?" I interrupted the fascinating talk. "Doctor's orders" she said. "We checked her blood sugar just an hour ago and it was fine (compared to a diabetic child with a fever, as viral and bacterial infections are very known blood sugar raisers) and she just finished eating a pack of gummy candies in the waiting room so I am guessing it's going to be a little high and the test won't be too informative" I explained. So she went to ask the doctor and he insisted on doing the check anyway. The health tech or whatever her position was insisted on performing it by herself although my daughter is SO much more experienced in checking her blood sugar by herself, that's how diabetic kids get, but the tech was determined and my daughter couldn't really care less after having go through this at least 3659 times already so I just gave up (unlike me but I was exhausted and just wanted to know what it was all about). The tech of course failed to draw the blood and load it on the test strip and finally let my daughter do it, which she impressively did in less than seconds. The meter showed 250 mg/dL (normal would be about 70-100, diabetic normal would be around 150 for a child her age and a diabetic child on a sick day after a pack of gummy candies I was kind of expecting over 350 mg/dL so for me it was a pleasant surprise). Than the doc had finally decided to show up and I demanded to know what was going on. So he sat down and with a very dramatic look on his face he said: "We found sugar in her urine". I sighed with relief. "Well, of course you would, she has DIABETES" for crying out loud!!! You'd think an experienced pediatrician would know that... "I understand, but we were afraid she was getting into ketoacidosis which could be a cause for her frequent urination" (that explains the central nervous system questions earlier). "Did the you find high level of ketones in her urine?" I was getting concerned again. "Oh, not at all, she didn't have any ketones" he answered. "So why would you suspect she was getting into ketoacidosis?!" I was starting to lose my patience yet again. Our diabetic team communicated with this pediatrician on a regular basis, at least 3-4 time per year. He has every single copy of all the tests and follow ups, beyond ignorance in my opinion it shows lack of responsibility. A primary care physician that has diabetic patients, even just one diabetic patient should really be responsible enough to educate himself in order to avoid situation like that. Turned out it wasn't even a urinary tract infection, just a strange flu. My daughter thought the whole incidence was just hilarious, so I am lucky to have such a witty girl and I hope to find a better pediatrician that knows a little more about the physiology of a rare disease called type 1 diabetes.

Diabetes alert dogs

Lately I have learned that there is such thing as a dog trained to alert for low (and sometimes even high) blood sugar levels. They might not be as accurate and/or consistent as a CGM (Continues Glucose Meter) but are for sure more user friendly and non invasive. As opposed to what many people think; insulin pumps, unless they have an integrated CGM, do not check blood sugar. Diabetic patients nowadays still have to prick their fingers to draw blood for a manual blood sugar meter test, multiple times per day, so it wouldn't hurt to have another set of ears or in this case nostrils, in our house. So I started reading and inquiring about it and found that these dogs are now being recognized as guidance or alert dogs for every aspect it might have. They are scent trained and can tell when their owner's blood sugar is not in range. The web is filled with amazing stories of diabetes alert dogs that have saved their owner's life by detecting dangerous low blood sugars (also known as hypoglycemia). But, and there's a BIG but, a fully trained dog would cost around $10,000 and up (some even over $25,000). There are some states and funds that recognize the need and fully sponsor the pleasure (with several years on a waiting list) but living in an isolated place like Washington DC, we are not eligible for such benefits (waiting list or not). So I decided to train our own family dog to be a diabetic alert dog. Although she is a Pug and dogs from this breed are not considered to be of the working dogs kind, she has a lot of the qualities suitable for guidance dogs; like food motivation which makes them easy to train, a strong prey drive - she hunts down our shoes and my kids' toys persistently and she is a champ in tag of war games. There are several canine training schools that are willing to help with these kind of missions, some give mainly phone advice and some sell tapes with instructions. But before we can even consider scent training we need to make sure she excels in basic obedience first. Well, she doesn't even have to excel, maybe at least learn some obedience... Like come when called instead of making us chase her all over the house, NOT peeing on carpets, no wrecking the house, no nipping on bare feet toes, no grabbing the kids' toys... But she is also just a puppy so I guess we need to give her some time to grow up. Maybe we should go for a CGM after all.

Hello mornings



6am. our quality coffee time together



Hectic mornings are not something unusual for us (as probably for most families with young kids), I may as well call it a weekday typical morning since every morning of preparing breakfast, snacks and lunch for four, sending two kids in time for school, getting your dog walked and fed and still show up well rested and on time for work is our default daily routine. My husband and I wake up around 6 am, this is our quality time together, drinking coffee, chatting and discussing our plans for the day, for me it is also an opportunity to get myself fully awake, for me it usually takes at least 30 minutes, I am not a morning person, but I get by, or get gradually alert while preparing food, packing lunch boxes and making sure our energetic puppy doesn't wreck up the house. Then it's time to wake up the kids, make sure they eat something and let them watch some TV. Some might say it's a bad habit but for my perfect genetic clones, my two totally not morning type kids, seems like there is a maternal way of inheritance for this specific trait, one funny show every morning does wonders to their morning mood and gets them motivated enough to eat, drink, brush their teeth and get dressed with minimal effort and in a timely manner. We never prepare their clothes in advance, this tip has never worked for us since they either change their mind by morning or the anticipated weather doesn't perfectly match how it feels outside and we end up picking new clothes anyway. So I decided to spare us the extra time and effort in the evenings. Then my husband takes child number 1 to preschool and comes back to take child number 2 to school, since they are located on totally different sides of town. That takes off the pressure and clears up the bathroom (and the TV). Our dog gets to have a quick walk outside and then we're off for work. So my average time from waking up in the morning to showing up at work has scored the record of 2-3 hours, but my kids always look happy by the time they leave home for school, so for me it is absolutely worth it!



Juggling your schedule

A well accomplished and extremely busy professor had once told me that she always makes sure to be there on her kids' important events like school performances, assemblies, important sports games, occasional school field trips etc. I asked her how she managed her time right; coordinating all those committees she takes part in, scientific meetings she speaks at, business meetings, teaching courses, mentoring her postdocs and most importantly being there for her family, and she answered simply with one word: "appointments" she said. And to the sight of my confused look she said: "of course I make sure to be efficient and make the most out of my time, but there is no reason why a scientific conference should be more important than my son's soccer game or my daughter's spelling contest, as long as I know my schedule in advance. A person inviting me to give a talk at a conference or asking to make a business appointment doesn't have to know why a certain time or date does not work for me, I say I have a schedule conflict, and that's the true. I have been doing it for over 20 years now and haven't heard a single complaint. Also, I don't make work related appointments on weekends, only family 'appointments'. These are my rules and by following them I live at peace with myself; no regrets, no guilt feelings" she explained, and with that inspiration I realized that being successful, career wise, can indeed go hand in hand with making enough time for your family as long as you are efficient, plan your time right and enough time in advance, and make sure to make and keep those family 'appointments'.

The last day of the year

Sounds dramatic and indeed, when I was a teenager I used to take it very seriously and spend the last evening of the year observing, reflecting, summarizing the last years' happenings and experiences and writing down my plans and wishes for the new year to come; goals I would like to accomplish, places I would like to visit, changes I would like to employ, knowing that on the next day I was going to start fresh. As I grew up I realized that one doesn't have to wait for the new year in order to start fresh, any day can be a great day to make your life better, happier and more fulfilling. And besides, the Jewish new year is an easier time to start fresh since it usually takes place on September, when you start a new grade in school or when you come back from a long summer vacation, so changing some habits will come more naturally.
This last day of the year we planned to spend with friends, a long lunch that will carry on well into dinner. I left enough food and water supply for our dog, knowing that we might be back late at night, we packed the kids and drove to our friends' house. The kids were very happy knowing they were going to meet their friends and we were happy with the adults' company. There was one thing we didn't consider. Allergies. That's because we haven't experienced severe allergic reactions before, until today. Well, I have seasonal allergies, usually around spring time, but it's pretty hard to tell the difference between my allergy and a common cold. Our friends have a cat, a very cute fur ball kind of cat. My kids used to stay away from cats and especially from this specific cat since he is pretty big. But ever-since we got our family dog, my kids became two little Dr. Dollitles and they have to pet and hug almost every animal around. This is a real positive milestone considering the fact they used to run to the other side of the road whenever a dog would walk by. So even though that wasn't our first time visiting them, that was the first time my kids actually played with their cat. They played with some cats before but never with this specific cat. So before we knew it my daughter came to the living room saying her eyes were burning. One look at her eyes and we immediately suspected an allergic reaction. I thought that some water and eye drops would do but within minutes, before we got a chance to actually do anything, her eyes became so swollen she could barely open them, I guess it could only be due to their cat. The allergic reaction was starting to spread to her skin and we decided to rush ourselves to the nearest emergency room. The only place we knew that was open at this time of evening, on the last day of the year. Our experience with this ER was pretty memorable, the day our daughter was diagnosed with diabetes, I didn't really want to see that place again but we didn't have too many choices. So we drove over there, checked in, received our own room and waited for the pediatrician on duty. We waited, and waited, watched some movies, the kids munched on some snacks from the vending machine. My husband used the examination gloves for balloons, the kids were laughing and gradually, to our relief, the allergy started to fade away, my daughter's eyes weren't swollen anymore, just red. It was getting ridiculous to keep on waiting for the doctor and eventually we got some Benadryl and were released home. On our way out we payed for the parking. "Thank you" said the parking payment machine. "Please come back again soon". Not really the kind of blessing one would like to hear checking out from an hospital, I guess these machines were designed for shopping malls or airports, they should really do some reprogramming there. So that summarizes our last day of 2011, at least this hospital will no longer be linked in our memories to that emotional tough day when our daughter was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, it will just be another hospital.