Humanitarian Missions-Honoring our Vetrans Day 11

Today's prompt in the Wego Health NHBPM is write about your favorite thing this is not health related, but likely improves your life.

Well, it is Veteran's Day today, so I will write a little about the Military, the men and women who serve now and the Veterans.  I guess the military couldn't quite be classified as one of my most favorite things, but it is  they are, something I respect. 

We live in a great country where our young men and women get to choose whether or not they want to serve our country.  There are so many places in our world where people are forced to serve their countries.  I am forever glad that we live in a place where we get to choose.  For those who do choose to serve our country by joining the military or the national guard, I am thankful for you too. 

My dad, 2 of my uncles, all 3 of my grandfathers, some of my cousins, my husband's grandfather and brother, and many, many friends of mine have served or currently are serving now.  I believe my life is improved by the military who protects my country and my freedoms.  I also believe the live of my kids are improved, as well as the lives of countless others all over the world.

I'm gonna turn it back to medical now, not only do our military members protect us, they perform countless humanitarian efforts in the name of the US, the deliver medical supplies, food, water, and assistance all over the world, the people who receive and benefit from these deliveries would likely tell you their life was improved by them.

My dad, is my most favorite Vetran, One of the stories I remember most from when I was growing up a military brat, is from a time when we were living in Guam, my dad served as a Chief on the USCG Basswood,
Basswood has taken part in many notable missions since her commissioning and while being stationed in Guam . In addition to her primary mission of aids to navigation, she also participates extensively in maritime law enforcement missions, search and rescue cases and marine environmental protection. During her tour on Guam, Basswood has been the driving force of PROJECT HANDCLASP, a U.S. Navy program that provided health care and humanitarian relief to the farthest outlying islands of the Pacific Ocean . Basswood's participation in this program has allowed her to travel to virtually every island or atoll in Micronesia .

There is no finer example of devotion to duty than through Basswood's display of dedication to the aids to navigation mission. She was responsible for maintaining all federal aids to navigation in Micronesia . This area of responsibility was roughly the size of the continental United States . It included over 100 fixed and floating aids in Guam , the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands (CNMI) and Kwajalein Atoll. Basswood was also responsible for the aids in Subic Bay, Republic of the Philippines , prior to the closing of the U.S. Naval facility there in 1992. Basswood also worked the aids in Palau , Hawaii , and along the West Coast

 

I remember him going on missions to the atolls in Micronesia, to Kwajalein, and to the Philippines.  I remember him coming back and talking about delivering supplies to the Peace Corp workers on the atolls.  Places where there was no electricity, refrigeration, or telephones.  People lived in grass huts and often only wore grass skirts and nothing else.  Sometimes, the USCG guys would bring clothing that their own kids had grown out of and trade it with the islanders for some of the things they made like coconut soap and carvings.  He brought back pictures and told of how the people lived a simple life.  They would moor their ship a ways away from the atoll (small island) and take little speed boats up to the shore to deliver the supplies.  He told us of how the kids would get so excited and one time they got the grand idea to bring coolers of ice onto the island to let the children play, they had never seen ice or felt cold before, could you imagine?   I am proud to know that my father served such important missions, they may not be the MOST important missions in protecting us and our freedoms, but to me, humanitarian missions are just as noble and wonderful as protection missions.  Yes, humanitarian military missions is one of my favorite things. 

My favorite Vetran

 

3rd Platoon Bravo delivering medical supplies in Baghadad

Delivering supplies in Kirkuk, donated by the World Health Organization (WHO)

Medical Supplies going to Haiti after the Earthquake

Military Police teamed up with Iraqi Police to deliver medical supplies to Basra, this little girls smile says it all, her life was improved this day.

National Guard delivering medical supplies in Cambodia

Getting ready to air drop medical supplies in the South Pole

There are so many more pictures of our military men and women delivering medical supplies all over the world if you look around the Internet. 

 

 Check out the Who Diabetes Program and definitely go do the Big Blue Test, help these organizations get the funding to get medical supplies gathered so that our military can deliver them. The Big Blue Test is the easiest way to help.  You don't need to be diabetic to do it, just log some activity and bam you help them get one step closer to meeting their goal of raising $100,000 by November 14, 2012, which is World Diabetes Day. 

 

 

 

 

Learn more about World Diabetes Day here

 

 

 

Diabetes Fact of the Day

 

347 million people worldwide have diabetes¹.

In 2004, an estimated 3.4 million people died from consequences of high blood sugar.

More than 80% of diabetes deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries.

WHO projects that diabetes deaths will increase by two thirds between 2008 and 2030.

Wanderings of my Thoughts

On the way down to The Valley (Phoenix area) last week for Kortnie's Endo visit I had time to think and let my mind wander. It's a 230 mile drive, my husband was driving, the kids were busy with their Ipods and DSi's. We were in an area where there was no radio service so I put in a few CD's, held hubby's hand and took in the scenery.

Then the song "My Sharona" came on. This song always makes me think of a work friend I had a while ago, maybe 15 years ago. I was young, unmarried and not a mom then. She was probably closer to the age I am now. She had a few kids, one of them had Cystic Fibrosis, CF. I can't remember how old he was maybe around 10. Anyways, he was sick and dying. I didn't know much about CF, and I guess I still don't. I did remember having a friend with CF back in maybe 7th grade. I remember my friend coming to work and always having a smile on her face, she'd occasionally tell us what was going on with her son and I remember her taking days off to do things with him. Anything from Dr visits to special outings, a Make A Wish trip and Hospital stays. We all would make sure to pick up her shifts so she could have this time off with her son and family. She made sure to work enough to keep her medical insurance. After a few months of her son being really ill, he passed away. It was sad, and all of us felt really bad for her. Like I mentioned before, I was young, unmarried and childless. I felt sorry for my friend, but I don't think I ever really felt too sympathetic towards her. Not to make myself sound harsh and I knew it must have been an awful thing for her to lose her child and to actually watch him die and know it was coming, but how could I have known the extent of her feelings. Now when I hear that song on the radio I think of her and my heart breaks for her. Now that I have my own kids and I realize how awful it must have been for her and her family.

So, here we were headed to Kortnie's Endo appointment and I'm thinking of my old friend who had a son with a chronic and deadly disease, I remember how upbeat and postive she always seemed and how she seemed to really live life. Could it be that facing the mortality of her son made her more inclined to LIVE? So that got me to thinking about how we live. Now I am not about to compare Kortnie's T1 to CF and I know that Kortnie isn't dieing right now, but I do think that if no cure is found, T1 or Complications becasue of T1 will eventually probably be the thing that Kortnie dies from. I know (hope) that she'll live a long life as long as we continue to take care of her T1 and teach her how to take care of herself. But, here's my question. Has your kids T1 diagnosis made you live life any more adventurous or fuller than you had been? It seems like my family is just plugging along. We don't do anything more adventurous or extreme, and well, I'd like to. Not because I (we) are faced with Kortnie's T1, but because we are all faced with mortality, anything could happen at any time, right?

Brian and I have always talked about possibly moving, we'd love to live close to the water, Washington, Oregon, Northern California, Maine, South Carolina, even Alaska. As we were driving thru the Salt River Canyon I thought to myself that even though it's a dream of mine to live close to the water, I still think it's beautiful here in Arizona and I enjoy living here. I'd like to appreciate it more, explore, take pictures, go hiking, spend time with my family. Live our lives to the fullest each day. And maybe someday, we'll get out dream and be able to live somewhere else, or maybe someday we'll take our kids to visit these places and enjoy the time we have visiting these places.

Korky's 1st D-Aversary what I learned, Gratitude

The time has come, a day I myself dreaded. The first anniversary of Korky's Diabetes diagnosis. She was diagnosed on a Sunday afternoon, November 8th 2009. We recognized her one year mark this year on Sunday November 7th, I suppose we can have the D-aversary on either the 1st Sunday of November or the actual date November 8th. Personally I just thought that it was kind of depressing and I felt like taking it to the Lord and telling him, "Okay, it's been a year, that's enough, you can take it back now". My Korky though, thought it was pretty cool, I guess to a 6 year old it sounds like another day to celebrate, she told people all day "today is my Diabetes 1st Birthday!" My husband and I talked and I told him "Guess what today is?" Of course he didn't know, but when I told him it had been a year since I'd taken Korky to the ER that fateful Sunday afternoon, his face kind of fell, and he said to me, "It's only been a year?....Oh, yeah, I guess so, it feels like longer". Yes it's been a long year!

We figured to "celebrate" we'd have a Junk food Carb fest all day. One donut each with a 3/4 cup of Lucky Charms cereal and a 1/2 cup of Orange Juice for breakfast, for lunch it was a cheese crisp, then we went to church, came home and had a "make your own pizza" night, I make the dough up and then we use up leftovers and just stuff we have on hand. For dessert it was one piece of Halloween candy. Yes, it was lots of carbs and a lot of junk, but I try to rationalize it that some of it was pretty good for the kids, the OJ, the milk on the cereal, the cheese and the veggies on the pizzas (even though they really didn't put on too many veggies, mostly black olives). And awesomely enough her BG's stayed in range all day, they hung out in the 130-150 range with only one high of 238 which she had insulin on board for and it came down pretty quick.

Like I said above Korky has taken her disease in stride, at first she would ask "why me" or "why don't Stasia and Graham (her sister and brother) have to take shots", she get upset when she couldn't just have a piece of candy or an apple without a shot or finger poke. She'd get mad if I told her to come check her BG while she was busy playing with her friends, she wouldn't want to poke her finger or take shots in front of anyone. In the hospital, she only wanted daddy to do her shots, when we came home and he went back to work, she got used to me doing them and then only wanted me to do them and not her dad. When we went on the pump it was the same way, she only wanted her dad to do the site changes, but I forced my way in there and now she and I have become so good at it that most of the time we don't even ask Daddy-O to help us with it. Over the past year she has adjusted and grown, she doesn't really care if other people see her poking her finger, taking a shot or a bolus, or doing a site change. She doesn't love when complete strangers stare at her or ask questions, but when it comes to friends and family she doesn't care one way or the other about doing her stuff in front of them. She's learned that if she just gets it done she can go back to whatever she was doing in the first place, there's not much procrastination anymore. She has learned what she can eat anytime, what she can't ever have, and what she can have with a small bolus. I am constantly amazed by her adaptivness, I guess that's why this Disease is given to young children mostly, they can learn to change and adapt much faster and easier than adults. I'm not saying it's easy for her, some days she makes it seem that way, and then we have some days that are absolute HELL! But really, this has been a tough, long year for my 5 now 6 year old baby. I am proud of her, in awe of her, amazed by her. In fact I am amazed by all of my kids on a daily basis, how well they all have adapted to Korky's disease.

Now on to me, I said this one year D-aversary was depressing right, well the day started out that way, I was feeling sorry for myself, sorry for Korky and sorry for the whole family. I am so glad that we recognized her D-aversary on Sunday though. We went to church that afternoon and I was still having my pity party, I didn't even really want to go to church, but the kids wanted to go and Brian must have felt that I needed to go too, so we all got showered and dressed and went to church. I am so glad we went! Now we are LDS (or Mormon) and the first Sunday of the month we have a Testimony meeting, we take our Sacrament and then for the rest of the meeting time, our Ward (or congregation) members are encouraged to come up to the stand and give their testimonies. The first person to get up started off the theme that everyone seemed to follow, Gratitude and Thanksgiving, very appropriate for the first Sunday of November. Various member of our church got up and testified the things they were thankful for and recognized that God has his hand in all things. We went on to our Sunday School class and were taught a lesson on keeping our Cisterns full, by trusting, studying and communicating with the Lord. (I could go on and on but I'm trying to paraphrase), after Sunday School the women and men separate and go to our individual classes, the women's class is called Relief Society, where the theme of Gratitude and Thankfulness was continued. As I sat through those 3 hours (yes 3 hours) of church last Sunday afternoon, I realized there is much to be thankful for and that instead of having my pity party I should show some gratitude and my heart was lifted. So I have to say, I am thankful we recognized Korky's D-aversary on Sunday so that I could have my inevitable pity party, then go to church and have my heart lightened.

Yes my daughter has Type 1 Diabetes and it sucks, big time. But, there are diseases and afflictions out there that can be worse, there isn't a cure, but there is insulin and insulin pumps, and various other devices, that we can use to help control it. She has to work hard to maintain her health, but if she works hard she can do most anything that a "normal" kid can do. Yes, I live in fear that she MIGHT die in her sleep, but some mother's live with the KNOWLEDGE that their kids won't make it past X number of years. It is hard work, not only for Korky, but for the whole family, but that hard work builds character, teaches us resilience, and compassion. So, yes, I have a lot to be Thankful for, I won't go so far as to say I am thankful for Diabetes, but I am Thankful for my daughter Diabetes or not, for my other 2 kids and their sweet souls, for my husband who helps me more than I recognize on a daily basis, for my home, for our insurance, for our family and our friends who love us unconditionally and support us and would do anything to help us, for our crazy dog, for modern medicine, for the country we live in which isn't always perfect but could be a lot worse, for the fact that my husband has a good job and I am able to stay at home with our kids, for electricity, for running water, for an abundance of food available to us, for the Internet and the DOC, for the teachers who love my kids at school and at church, and for so much more, again I could go on and on, but this is getting long.

Bottom line is we as a society take so much for granted, when we are having our pity parties, we just need to sit back and think of the things we are taking for granted and remember to be thankful for them.

Here are 3 people I am most Thankful for, Graham (3 years old), Stasia (7 almost 8) and Korky (6). They are decorating their pizzas as my GrammyBoy would say. We used, leftover spaghetti sauce, pizza sauce, ham, pepperoni, green onions, mushrooms, black olives, jalapenos, leftover taco meat, and bacon bits, and of course cheese.

Here is Korky, clearly enjoying her pizza and her Junk Food Carbfest D-aversary.

Taking a bite of that delicious pizza, I think she put pepperoni and ham slices and tons of cheese on her pizza. Oh and an extra special treat of Diet Mug Rootbeer.