Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Welcome to the TEDDY mom blog!

Why did I start a blog? I’m not a blogger, I’ve never done this before and I’ll admit I’m a little scared. I’m a bit of a perfectionist, I can’t live without spell check and now people will be reading what I write and finding my mistakes. Even though I have all these feelings about writing a blog I’m also excited. If you’ve read the About Me section you know I like the TEDDY Study. I love my job working for TEDDY and while I wish my son had the low risk genes that wasn’t in the cards for us so I’m happy we are able to monitor him for type 1 diabetes and help out the study in the process. I want the best for TEDDY and I feel a great thing I could do would be to share my experiences and encourage others to share theirs too.

I have another advantage many TEDDY parents don’t have besides working for the study. I have a friend with a son the same age as mine who is also participating in TEDDY. She is even agreed to post a few of her TEDDY experiences, look for posts by C’sTEDDYMommy. She and I are able to discuss our sons’ very different experiences with blood draws, those diet records, poop of course and our fears. Being surrounded by type 1 diabetes in my work life it’s difficult not to think “what if that was my son” even though he only has a 3 in 100 risk, a 97% chance he’ll never develop diabetes.

My husband and I don’t have a single relative with type 1 diabetes (lots of type 2 in the family). The fact that my son has the higher risk genes is still surprising to us. Before I started working for diabetes research studies I honestly didn’t know much about type 1 other than a childhood friend had gotten really sick and been diagnosed with the disease after she moved out of state. Now I’ve explained to family members with type 2 diabetes how it differs from type 1 and how each disease affects the body.

I have a lot fun and interesting posts coming up for this blog including easy and difficult blood draws, an interview with an adult with type 1 and a short interview with another adult that has celiac disease. I plan on uploading new posts every 2 to 3 weeks so check back often!

Monday, October 11, 2010

I'm Ready for TEDDY

TEDDY came by to do a screen
They called to say I have the gene
Enrolled to help find the cause
Antibodies and blood draws

Mom likes to collect my poop
Got too aggressive with the scoop
Oops it flew on the floor
Oh gross! She still needs more!

Can’t remember when I’m ill
Thanks mom, I know you will
Write my meals in the log
You don’t know, I fed the dog

Thanks for the numbing cream
So I won't have to scream
Bubbles, bubbles everywhere
Popping in my mommy’s hair

The butterfly took my blood
I didn’t cry, I’m such a stud
Prizes, stickers when I’m done
TEDDY visits are such fun!