My Favorite Blogs- NHBPM Day 6

Today's post prompts were to write a News Style Post or write about a time you had to take the high road.  Neither of those appealed to me today, so I decided to use one of the alternate prompts, which is to share my favorite blogs. 

I have lots of favorites, but here I'll share my favorite Diabetes blogs.  They are in no particular order.  I also have a list of blogs on the sidebar of my blog, some of those are my favorites, I try to keep that list updated, feel free to click on some of them and read.

Kerri over at Six Until Me or SUM was the first Diabetes blogger I found, shortly after Kortnie was diagnosed.  I was overwhelmed and scared, and ironically had watched the movie Steel Magnolias the day before Kortnie's diagnosis.  Steel Magnolias is about a young woman with Type 1 Diabetes, set in the 80's, she ends up dieing from complications to pregnancy and diabetes.  It is a heartbreaking story, and I was really freaked out, I asked about pregnancy and how normal of a life Kortnie would have while we were still in the hospital, the nurses said she could expect to have a healthy pregnancy and life if she took care of herself, they even mentioned that real life was not like the movie Steel Magnolias.  I laughed and told them I had just watched that movie on Saturday, Kortnie was diagnosed on Sunday and I probably asked that question on Monday or Tuesday.  Anyways, back to Kerri's blog, when I found it, we were probably a month of so into Kortnie's diagnosis and Kerri was blogging about her pregnancy.  I found her to be amusing, but serious, and I loved the peek into a grown woman's life, a woman who had been living with Type 1 Diabetes since she was 6, and was now experiencing her first pregnancy.   I still continue to read her blog often. 

Wendy over at Candy Hearts is another of my favorites.  She is a mom of 3 girls, her oldest daughter has Type 1 and Celiacs, Wendy also has Celiacs.  She even lives in the same state as me.  We have met each other in real life a few times, and our daughters were at Diabetes Camp together over the summer, in the same cabin.  I can't exactly remember how I found her blog, maybe I clicked over from Kerri's blog.  Wendy is passionate, she's a great writer, and she writes about situations that are similar to mine.  I also like that she writes about Celiacs, that is something I am also interested in.  Celiacs is an Auto-Immune disorder that shows up as a Gluten Allergy.  My husbands Grandma has Celiacs, and I sort of assume that Kortnie or one of my other kids will end up with it eventually.  It seems that once you have one Auto-Immune Disorder, more will follow eventually.  She also is a big supporter of the Life For a Child Campaign which is an organization that delivers insulin to children in countries where it is not available.  In some countries a diagnosis with Type 1 Diabetes is a death sentence because those children do not have access to insulin.  One of my favorite posts on her blog was from her husband Mr. Rose, he took questions from the readers and answered them.  He even answered one of my questions.  I asked about how he handled taking care of the kids by himself and if he ever would be annoyed when/if Wendy called asking for a report.  This was at a time when I think we were still fairly newly diagnosed and I was having a hard time leaving Kortnie with her dad-or anyone else for that matter.  Now I am totally fine leaving her, for the record, Brian is an awesome father and very attentive to all of our kids and Diabetes, I do not have a problem leaving him in charge of the big D, he does things differently from me, but I have learned that that is OK! 

Rayna over at Beta Buddies is another of my favorites, she doesn't write super often but when she does it is funny and real.  I laugh and cry and sit here grinning at my computer.  She has colorful language and mascara fringed eye balls.  She is a hockey mom and a D-Mom and a mom who worries about how Diabetes affects the other Non-D kid.  She is an on-the-go mom like me and she gets irritated with her husbands pancreating skills-just like me!  Now in the paragraph above I mentioned that I have learned it's okay that Brian does thing differently from me, that is true, it's okay, but that doesn't mean that I don't roll my eyes at him behind his back or go stomping off when he does something that I don't like.  Somehow, reading about Rayna's Day-In-The-Life puts my day in perspective.  It's just nice to know that other women out there go through the same crap as me, and make the same mistakes and triumphs as me.  It's nice to laugh at the craziness of our world.

Meri at Our Diabetic Life is a fantastic writer.  She is the mother of 4 boys.  FOUR!  Not only is she mom of four boys, but 3 of them have Type 1 Diabetes.  THREE.OF.THEM!  Yikes.  Not only does she parent and love these 4 boys, but she has had a pretty crappy year, maybe the most craptastic year that anyone could imagine.  But, she continues to write, there is love in her writing, she somehow gives her reader comfort and peace, I am amazed at how she just keeps going and always has something good to say, she's also good for a good cry, and we all need that now and then.  I always kind of feel refreshed after a good cry.  I love being able to cry with these women in my computer, most of who I've never met in real life.  Check out her posts Anatomy of a Low and Alice in Diabetesland, two of my most recent favorites of hers. 

A few more of my favorites are
Dword Ramblings another AZ mom whose daughter was at camp with Kortnie.
My Diabetic Child, a mom who is funny and random and makes me laugh.
Death of a Pancreas  Jo, who is witty and made that You Tube video I posted yesterday
Diabetes Sweeties  A mom on the East Coast one of the first blogs I started reading
The Princess and The Pump  A cute girl and a cute mom
Houston...We have a PROBLEM  A fun mom who has 3 great kids, a little guy with T1, and a daughter with Chron's and another sweet girl, they lead a busy and interesting life, the little guy with Type 1 sure seems to keep her on her toes and keeps her laughing with the crazy antics he's in to.
Dimples and Diabetes  a real life friend of mine, her husband has Type 1, her Brother in law has Type 1, her daughter has Type 1, and her nephew too.  She has 5 daughters, they used to live in the same town as us and my Kortnie was friends with one of her daughters before little Libby got diagnosed.  She hasn't blogged in a long time, but she's still one of my favorites.  Love them!

All of these bloggers and many more have become my friends and I love reading about them and sharing some Same-Same with them.  I am also friends with all of them on Facebook and I love that social media gives me a place to connect with these other moms, so we can cry on each others shoulders, vent, share ideas, and lift each other up. 

Type 1 Diabetes Fact of the Day-
Approximately 80 people per day in the US are diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes.  I consider ourselves lucky to have Diabetes in this country where we have access to the medications and supplies we need to keep our daughter alive.  A Type 1 Diagnosis in other countries can be a death sentence.   Diabetes hits the poorest hardest. In Zambia, a child with type 1 diabetes can expect to live an average of 11 years. In Mali, the same child can expect to live only 30 months. And in Mozambique, the child is likely to die within a year.