The start of summer...

School is out. Time for my summer break. The end of the school year was pretty crazy. I had to say good bye to 14 students in sixth grade who will be moving on to junior high in the fall. A couple of the kids are boys that Dixie "grew up with." Those were the ones that had the hardest time saying good bye to her. (and I had the hardest time saying good bye to them :-(

But it's summer. Everything should be all good, right?

I've had a heck of a last couple weeks. I was working at a week long summer camp for kids with special needs. I came home on Thursday night. I was hot and tired. I had a cocktail and sat on the couch. Then I got a phone call.

The call was from my dad's wife. She was calling to tell me that my dad had been in an accident. He was burned and had smoke inhalation. He was in the process of being transferred from his local hospital to a major medical center's burn unit. It was late. He was intubated. I talked to my dad's cousin, who is his physician. He told me that my dad was unconscious, and not in danger of dying. He said that I should wait until morning to come to the hospital. I had a restless night of sleep, and Dixie and I took off for the hospital early on Friday morning. Seeing him with tubes and wraps was really difficult. The doctors determined that his lungs were functioning alright, and they would extubate him in the afternoon. It was amazing how quickly he "came around" after being unconscious. He spent three days in the burn unit, and then was released and able to go home. He has burns on both hands, his entire right leg, part of his left leg, and spotty burns on his back, nose, cheeks, and bottom lip.

He is very lucky to be alive.

He's healing.

My brother and sister both came to see him from out of town. It was an unfortunate event that brought us together.

My best friend's mom was diagnosed with breast cancer two weeks ago. I went with her to the hospital while her mom had surgery. It turned out the best that it could. The tumor was stage 1, and with radiation, there should be complete elimination of the cancer.

Another good friend's niece, just had a recurrence of cancer. She had surgery this week to remove a tumor on her spine.

My teaching partner's mother just had knee replacement surgery. She has been visiting her for two weeks, and helping to figure out a plan for her homecoming.

I keep thinking... am I getting old and that's why I know so many people who are dealing with horrible medical issues? Or is 2008 just not a great year for my friends and their families??

Diabetes was a pain during my dad's accident crisis. Friday, I went to spend the day at the hospital. After driving the 35 minutes to the hospital, I realized that my cartridge was almost empty. I would only have enough insulin to cover my basal rate for about 9 hours. I didn't have enough extra to bolus for meals. So I skipped breakfast and lunch. It's kinda hard to find low carb/no carb food in a hospital. I drank a couple diet dews, but that was it. I ended up leaving before I wanted to so that I could make it home through traffic to get insulin. Dam diabetes.

Also on the diabetes front... I ordered a free accu-check aviva and multiclix lancing device. I'm not really interested in the meter (because heaven knows I've already got a number of them), but wanted to try to multiclix. I like it. It's kind of refreshing to have a new lancet automatically provided each time I test. I just ordered more replacement cartridges for it.

I also got a mailing from Smith Medical, offering me a Freestyle Navigator at a discounted rate since I use their product. (my trusty Cozmo) Has anyone tried his out yet? I love freestyle products, but still can't really bring myself to having another device to insert in my flesh.

Here's hoping that the rest of the summer is easy sailing. (or canoeing :-)