DBlog Week “Bloopers” Well . . . sort of.

(This is post number three for DBlog Week. The prompt is: diabetes bloopers.)

 I know you really want to read about the time Lauren’s insulin pump started buzzing and took over the entire control of a computerized billboard on a major highway but . . . I think I cannot remember many of the bloopers she’s experienced in the past. So I’m massaging the idea a little bit to make it: funny (yet meaningful) things that have happened over these many years with diabetes. Hope you don’t mind.

 *One time Lauren was at the stables taking her riding lesson and I happened to be there watching (sometimes I stayed; sometimes I took off. Depended on the day). So she was riding along, happy as can be, when she got thrown. Only instead of hitting the ground, her pump tubing looped around the horn thing on the saddle (note: clearly my wording proves that my only part of the riding world was paying the bills. I have no idea what the horn thing on the saddle is called).

Lauren relaxing on a horse. No, this was not "the moment."

So anyway, the pump tubing loops around the thing and she ends up hanging there, kind of half way upside down. I ran over to ease her back up (and unloop the tubing) and she looks at me and says, “Pump tubing! Takes a licking and keeps on sticking!” I still think it should be a Minimed commercial.

Or wait . . . did the horse she was riding look like this?

*One time I was at the Open Bar Diabetes Prom – oops I mean the JDRF Gala. I was standing next to another D Mom. Our kids were little at the time, and going to gala didn’t just involve finding a great dress, trying to make my hair not frizzy in a yucky way (we’re never going to cure diabetes with bad hair) and spending some cash on behalf of the cure. No, we had to figure out how to have our kids be okay during those hours.

Clearly before midnight since our martinis are still intact.

So I look at my friend in her beautiful blue dress. We were both holding martinis in flashing glasses (my chapter does the Open Bar Diabetes Prom up right).  I said, “You look beautiful! Like Cinderella!” To which my friend retorted: “Yeah, but at midnight, this martini turns into a bottle of ketone strips!” Had to be more than 10 years ago. I am still laughing.

*Lauren pretty much grew up at our beach club – called the Eel River Beach Club. It’s the kind of place that everyone is family. Her friends there were like (and still are like) sisters to her. The club had an extremely active swim team. One year, when Lauren’s closest friends made up the entire eight and under relay team as well as the 10 and under relay team, we were in the middle of a meet. My mom job was the place judge. Another mom’s job was getting the kids lined up before their race. The relays were about to start and both the 8 and under and 10 and under girls teams were nowhere to be found. Then they marched out of the locker room, one after another. Across the pool from me where they line up I saw them make a circle, go hands in and yell something like “In it together!” Then the eight and unders took the blocks (the platforms swimmers dive off of at the start) and I noticed something.

Every single one of them had a pump site inserted into their left thigh. Before the starting gun went off they slapped their left thigh and did a fist pump, all looking toward Lauren’s block. They were showing her support. That race, she was not that girl with the weird round thing on her thigh. She was exactly the same as all the other girls, since they all had them.

Okay, so some parents freaked out. I had to explain that no, they did not share a needle and gosh, ask them if it hurt and no, they don’t have to go to the ER to have it taken out. They can just pull it like a band aid. And then there was the fact that I was now short eight sites. But when I called Minimed and told them the story, they sent out a bunch of samples without hesitation.

I thought it was hilarious. And beautiful. And to this day, that group of girls remains truly and completely supportive of Lauren. I cannot wait to tell that funny story some day at Lauren’s wedding. And no, I did not get a photo. But I can still picture it. And I still laugh out loud not just because it was funny, but because it was so very awesome.

Two of the members of the Eight and Unders as they look today -- Holly and Kelsey -- with Lauren. I suspect H and K were the masterminds 🙂

8 thoughts on “DBlog Week “Bloopers” Well . . . sort of.

  1. awww that was the best, I thought I looked so cool with my site! love being a fake diabetic with my best friend ♥

  2. Aw, that’s the best support story ever!!!!!! I love that her friends did that for her. I think I’ll pull out some gear at my next “Girl’s Night” and see who wants to show me some love…on second thought, it’s probably not so cute if you’re 34. LOVED it Moira! 🙂

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