Can I Just Share My Heart for a Minute?

If you know me in real life, you've probably noticed my reflect-o-legs.  Some might refer to it as being fair-skinned, but I think "reflect-o-legs" more accurately describes what I've got going on here.  Try as I may for that summer glow (and truthfully I don't even try anymore), burn and peel is all I know.

I've always been one to sunburn easily, but one particular sunburn stands out to me as being one of the worst.  I was pregnant.  Chuck and I decided to take his boat to the lake for a few minutes so he and my brother could work out some kinks in the motor.  A few minutes turned into a few hours and I left there with a terribly painful sunburn across my back and down my legs.

What is it about having a sunburn, even when it's hidden by your shirt, that makes people suddenly want to hug you tightly or pat you on the back?  And it's that one spot that's the worst - that sore spot that somehow got just a bit more sun - that they seem to somehow zero in on.  Maybe you don't really get more hugs or pats, you just notice it more because it hurts so badly, but it sure seems like the sunburn is a beacon calling out for attention.  Ouch.

This week I feel like I'm one big sunburn.

As most of you know, Faith and Ruby were featured on the news in Dallas this week.  That story got picked up by many other news station, and we're finding out, was seen all over the world.  I've gotten messages from people in several different states, France, and even Australia this week.  

It seems God is using this amazing dog and my precious little girl in a big way.  

It's awesome that we've had so many opportunities to share this amazing story of God's provision, and raise awareness about type 1 diabetes and service dogs.  We really do feel honored.

But, every time I share our story on here or facebook, and every time we make the news, we open ourselves - me specifically - up to criticism.  

When you agree to a news interview you are at the mercy of the reporter.  You can pour your heart out and share for hours, but ultimately that has to be whittled down to a few minutes long piece to run on the air.  You just have to hope and pray that the reporter really listened and conveys that message accurately.  We've experienced both sides of the coin; reporters that seemed to not have heard a word we said, and those that really retold our story well.  The thing is, you never really know which way it will go until you watch it on TV along with everyone else.  That can be a little lot incredibly unnerving.

It's easy for people to pick apart our stories, pass judgment and come up with (and voice) all the many ways they'd do things better differently.  Not much is more important to me than how I do as a wife and mom - and a big part of that is how well I take care of Faith and manage her diabetes.  I'll be the first to tell you that I come up short in all areas a lot more often than I'd like.  But, I try my absolute best to manage Faith's health well; yet, there are still many days that I feel like type 1 diabetes totally kicked my butt.  I second guess myself constantly. 

That's my sore spot.  And every time someone questions my care of Faith, whether knowingly or not, they are slapping my sunburn.  

And, OUCH, it hurts.  Every time it happens I feel like deleting my blog and my facebook accounts and sticking my head in the sand, but I truly believe that God has called me to share this journey.  Still, that doesn't change the fact that sometimes it's hard to be this transparent.

There's talk about some pretty big opportunities that may open up for us to share our story.  It's unbelievable and exciting to watch this as it unfolds, but there's part of me that hesitates.  Do I want to open myself up to that - be that vulnerable?  I know that ultimately I will, and I'll brace for whatever bad comes with the good.  I know that I shouldn't really pay attention to the negative comments, but that's a lot easier said than done.

I tell you all that because one, Chuck's probably sick of hearing it and the kids are asleep, but two, to ask you to pray for us.  Pray that God will give us strength for what lies ahead and comfort us when it hurts. That He'll continue to make himself known to us; and that we'll be sensitive to His leading and walk through whatever doors he opens.

Love y'all.

Faith and Ruby Make The News! (Again)

This post is part of a series called Where's Wuby? Wednesdays where I'll post a new story about Ruby, or diabetic alert dogs in general.  Ruby is a service dog trained to detect high and low blood sugars in Faith and notify me.  She has changed our lives and dramatically improved Faith's blood sugar control.  

If there was ever anything you wanted to know about these dogs, or how they work, ask away and I'll try to answer the best I can; or if you are just as amazed as me at how God created these animals, I hope you'll enjoy reading about the incredible experiences we've had so far with our Ruby.

In the meantime, you can follow Faith and Wuby on Facebook by clicking Here.

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This past week, Faith, Ruby and I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Shelly Slater of WFAA Channel 8 News.  The interviewed us as part of an effort to raise awareness about Diabetes Friendly's K9s for Kids event.  We were honored to be a part of this, as DFF was one of the groups that helped pay for Ruby.

Here's the news story:

There are a few little details that they didn't get quite right, (such as Faith is two and not three, and Faith does not get her bg checked 30 times a day, but Ruby does often alert 30 times a day - as she will alert every 15 mins or so until Faith's bg comes back into range), but for the most part I thought they did a pretty good job with the story.  What do you think?

Exhale...

A good God does everything He does for good reason. - Gregg Harris


I've been holding on to this truth this week.  


I have gone back and forth about whether or not to share all this on here, but so many of you have emailed or texted with concern.  I've been too sad to respond, but writing is therapeutic for me, so I decided I'll write it all out and share it with those of you that have been checking on us this week.  It's going to be ridiculously long and probably whiney, you've been warned.


About 7 weeks ago, Chuck and I found out we were pregnant.  We were absolutely NOT trying, and we were in shock - and I was completely overwhelmed at the thought of getting even less sleep.  But, we love our big family, so we quickly became very excited about having another precious, funny Wilson kiddo running around this house.  And, if we believe what God says about children - and if we believe God when he says that he won't give us more than we can handle with His strength - then we could see this as nothing but an incredible blessing.


I know some of you are thinking WHAT?!?  Doesn't she have a full plate already? 


Yes, and our hearts are full too.  


I know that to some of you four kids seems like a lot.  To be honest, I'm no more overwhelmed with 4 than I was with 1 or 2.  I know this sounds crazy, but in many ways it gets easier with more children.


I'm so ashamed to say that the one thing that tempered my excitement was the thought of telling others of this blessing and listening to all the negative OMGosh, another baby??  Don't you know what causes that?? comments.  Never again.


Ok, fast forward a bit to two weeks ago.


Chuck is walking through the kitchen one evening and he mentions nonchalantly that he'd been having to run to the bathroom alot the past few days.  Immediately, I thought of diabetes.  


I had him check his blood sugar.


An ugly 354 looked back at us.


No way.


We re-checked.


We grabbed a different meter.  


The ugly number wouldn't go away.


I checked his ketones and thankfully they were negative, so I waited until the next morning and got him in with the first dr that would see him.


Later that day, while I was educating 300+ high school students about diabetes and service dogs, Chuck was at the dr being diagnosed with diabetes.


And, they suspected it could be type 1.


I emailed Dr Casas for a recommendation for an Endo that was knowledgeable about adult onset Type 1.  In true Dr C fashion, and keeping with the Godsend that he's been for us, he called me on my cell.  He scolded me for not calling him first (he's Faith's pedi Endo...I didn't want to waste his time.  I felt like it would be like calling your mechanic and telling him you had a flat on your bike or something - not his problem.)  I was wrong.  He's been SO helpful - ordering tests that should have been run by the first dr, following up on Chuck's condition and numbers, even starting him on insulin to get him some relief while we wait to find out the results of the antibody tests (to determine which type he has).  Once again, we are so very thankful to have Dr Casas in our lives.  For the record, the other dr hasn't checked on Chuck's numbers even once.  Ugh.


While type 2 seems like it would be the lesser of the evils at this point, Chuck is almost hoping it's type 1 because Faith is so excited that her "daddy hab da betes wike me!"  How will we explain to her that daddy gets "cured" (through diet and exercise if it's type 2) while she still has to live with diabetes...and insulin...and needles?  


This was on Wednesday.  On Friday, Chuck started insulin, I had two tests to take at school, a Spanish class to attend...AND had a kidney stone starting to move.  Can I tell you?  I've had four babies and I've never experienced worse pain than kidney stones.  It's excruciating when it's at it's worst.  I needed to go to school...and I needed to go to the ER to get some relief from the kidney stone pain.  


But, I couldn't leave not knowing how the insulin would affect Chuck.  Did we have his dosage right?  I was terrified and decided to stay home.


Saturday Chuck and I had the rare (and MUCH anticipated - literally for weeks) privilege of having a sitter for Faith.  We were both so miserable, but determined to enjoy a little time alone.  We dropped the big kids off with my mom, dropped Faith off with an amazing couple we met at Tyler Type One and have grown to love, and headed to have dinner.  


But we were both so miserable.  We went out to eat, picked up Faith, and then headed home.


By the time we got there I was only peeing blood.  (TMI?  Sorry...)


I couldn't stand it any more and headed to the ER.  The horribly arrogant ER dr kept me overnight on morphine and sent me home with 3 Rx's and instructions to return if I got worse.  


I was back within hours unable to pass anything but drops of blood.  I ended up in there all day with them pumping me full of fluids, antibiotics, and painkillers (Thank you!).  Because I was pregnant they couldn't do a CT Scan, so the (much better than the day before) ER dr did an ultrasound to check my kidneys and decided to check the baby while we were at it.


He came back in the room and asked me how far along in my pregnancy I was.  When I told him he responded by telling me that I needed to follow up the following day with my OB/Gyn.  I told him he couldn't say something like that without elaborating, so he told me that he just didn't see what he expected to see on my ultrasound.  



Of course, the next morning I was on the phone with my dr.  She had me come in right away, reassuring me the whole time that everything was probably fine.


It wasn't.  


Chuck and I were heartbroken to learn that there was no heartbeat.  Our baby had stopped developing.


The dr offered to do a D&C, but Chuck and I couldn't go for it yet.  If God wanted to work a miracle we weren't going to limit him by doing what seemed "easier" and if I was going to miscarry then taking a week to pray about it wasn't going to change anything.  We agreed to pray about it for a week and reassess.


All the while I'm still miserable with pain from the kidney stones -  and my poor husband is miserable with crazy high blood sugars and adjusting to the insulin and meds - and he's having to take care of me and the kids.  God love him.


The next morning I called the urologist about my symptoms and was told to go back to the ER.  I ended up spending the entire day in the hospital again.  Because we had learned that there was no heartbeat, the (best of all three) ER dr did a CT Scan to check the stones and found a mass on my left ovary.


Oh my goodness.  I know these things happen all the time, but everything happening at once just had us so beat down.


But, God is good and blessed us with some of the best friends.  When they learned of what we were going through they called, emailed, brought food.  We are so grateful.


We went back to the OB dr today and were told that I was hemorrhaging around the baby, and I spiked a fever yesterday, and it just makes more sense to go through with the D&C.  I go into the hospital tomorrow and should get to come home right after.


This has been a rough 10 days.  We know things could be worse, and we know things will get better, but right now we are overwhelmed and so, so very sad.  


Thank you so much for your love and prayers.  We appreciate it more than you know.








Faith does not eliminate questions. But faith knows where to take them. ~Elisabeth Elliot