Stacey Simms Blog

Banana Split For My Baby...

How many carbs are in a banana split? Not something I ever imagined looking up, frankly. But I now know more about the split than I thought possible. Did you know an early version was served with the peel on? You'll be amazed to learn that didn't last long.

I'm learning all this because one of my son's favorite books is Curious George and the Ice Cream Shop.  George does all sorts of crazy things, of course, including piling up a ton of ice cream in one bowl and making a big banana split. My kids have never seen a banana split and this has absolutely captured their imagination. Every time we read the book, Benny asks me when he can have one.

Oh, never, I want to say. We do a pretty good job of managing Benny's diabetes, but I don't need the tsuris of dealing with the fat, carbs and plain old sugar in a big gloppy sundae. But he's been asking me for almost two years now, and I think this this weekend we are finally going to do it.  I don't want to turn this into forbidden fruit (hah, hah).

So I don't want to brag, but I know a little bit more about ice cream than your average bear.  My very first job was scooping ice cream at Baskin Robbins. Oh yeah, that was me in the pink and brown uniform at the Jefferson Valley Mall in 1986.  I hated when people ordered banana splits.  It held up the line, it was messy and I can't stand bananas.

But to most people, banana splits are fun.  Louis Prima sang about them (if you didn't recognize the name of this post, please take a second to click on that or just scroll down and listen to that great song.) A whole bunch of kids got freaked out by them in the late 60s.  (and yes, I will call out that I caught Keith Larson singing the Banana Splits theme song recently. I think your childhood TV choices say a lot about you. H.R. Pufnstuff fans, I'm looking at you).

I can't imagine that Benny will really eat a banana split. We've ordered ice cream sundaes for him before. He usually eats the cherry and the whipped cream and takes a nibble of ice cream. But just in case, I have to be prepared and that means learning about the nutritional content.  Benny gets insulin based on the carbs he eats.

So let's do the math - a banana has about 25-30 carbs. 2 scoops of vanilla ice cream, whipped cream and a cherry has 35 carbs - no hot fudge.  What else goes into a banana split?  I'm reading on line that a Friendly's Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Friend-Z has 96 carbs.  Oh my lord.. I just found the Friendly's nutrition page. A Royal Banana Split has 880 calories and 132 carbs.  Benny usually eats about 30 carbs in one meal.  I'm not sure he's ever had 132 carbs in one day!

Well, hopefully he won't eat the whole thing and we'll do it at lunch time so we'll have the afternoon to work it out.  The next question is, how much will power am I going to have?  I get a little carried away when it comes to hot fudge, myself.  Dispenser man, if you please, serve us up a mess of calories. Banana split for my baby.. and a glass of plain water for me!

 

 

World Diabetes Day

November 14th is World Diabetes Day. Slade and I will be at the JDRF Gala, helping to raise money here in Charlotte.  I'm also going to try to get Benny to take part in the Big Blue Test tomorrow.  I love this idea.  They're asking people to check their blood sugar at 2pm, post the results on line, do some exercise and post again.  I think Benny will get a kick out of seeing other numbers.  I'll post it on Twitter tomorrow.

Of course, no guarantee Benny will cooperate. He knocks me out with his amazing cooperation and great attitude, but he is four. Good example: We change Benny's inset every three days.  This is how the pump actually connects to his body. The inset looks sort of like a nickel-sized nicotine patch with a nub on it.  A long tube connects to that little nub and is attached on the other end to a cartidge inside the pump. Add insulin and you're off and pumping.

For the first year, changing the inset - he calls it a button - was a nightmare. It has a needle that goes in and comes out, leaving a tiny canula behind.  The needle doesn't stay in but it does hurt.  Benny refused any numbing cream - he thought the cream would hurt too.  Now, thank goodness, we use the cream and it's so much better.  But Benny still works us.

We let him decide how we do the button.  Lately, it's been while Slade holds him upside down and I pop it on. That's funny but Benny's getting big! He weighs 57 pounds now and it's getting harder for Slade to throw him around.  He'll also change his mind halfway through the acrobatics and ask for more time. Remember, he's got to be naked from the waist down for all this.  It got crazy the other night, after a lot of other 4 year old nonsense, and we just walked away to let everyone cool off.

I whispered to Benny we should trick Daddy.  Let's do your button really quiet, I said.  Then you can go tell Daddy you're ready for him to do it. When he says okay, I told Benny, you can yell 'Psych!'  He loved it and I popped the button on, no drama.

Benny leaves his room, walks up to his dad and tells him he's ready to go. When Slade says, "Great!" Benny turns to me and says, "What am I supposed to say now?" Oh well.

One last thing on diabetes. Check out this video.  Takes less than two minutes and does a great job of showing you why for us, there really is no such thing as a free lunch.  (Happy World Diabetes Day!)

 

 

Social Media & Elections

So what do you think about social media in this election? I'm not sure it influenced any outcomes, but it meant some interesting moments.  By social media, of course, I mean Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn.  Even if you're not on these outlets, most of the candidates are.

Good example: check out Charlotte social media expert Jeff Elder's comparison of Charlotte's mayoral candidateson Facebook.

I follow a lot of politicians on Twitter (and I'm followed by quite a few as well).  At WBT we follow the equal time rules very carefully - in fact we try to go above and beyond.  In the weeks leading up to the election we don't talk to one candidate without talking to them all (on the same show).  That led to some confusion for me as I post on Facebook and Twitter.

Should I "talk" to a candidate without also "talking" to all the others on line? Both candidates for mayor,  lots of city council candidates, suburban mayors and school board folks were all over Twitter. Sending out messages, sometimes directly to me. I decided that if I couldn't respond to all I wouldn't respond to any.  Since not every candidate is on line, that meant political Twitter silence from me. (Sorry guys, now you know why I was ignoring you!)

Social media is sort of like the Wild West but I think most journalists are doing a good job of feeling their way around it.  Do any of the old rules apply?  What do you think?

Ten Years in Charlotte

Is it possible we've been in Charlotte ten years already? 

My husband, Slade, and I had been married for a year and a half when I got the job that brought us here.  We bought our first house together, had two children, moved to a bigger house and boom. Ten years.

When we moved here in 1999, Concord Mills was open just one week.  I-77 north of uptown was only 2 lanes (the merge from I-85 was crazy). Birkdale Village hadn't opened. The Hornets were still in town and the Arena vote hadn't happened. My favorite Charlotte building, the Hearst Tower, hadn't yet been built and MLK Blvd was still called 2nd Street.

I can't claim to have been here for what I think was the fundamental change of Charlotte from a sleepy Southern town to booming New South city.  That happened in the late 80's and early 90's as farmland turned into developments and malls and uptown Charlotte added skyscrapers.

I still love the collision of cultures.  MoonPie and Frappuccino.  BBQ and Beaujolais. Cash and Crash, for the banking town with the speedy cars.  Of course, things have slowed down here as they have everywhere, but I'm still sold on Charlotte's bright future.

I was so excited to move here from Syracuse where I had been the morning anchor for the NBC affiliate.  Tired of the snow and of getting up at 3am, I was looking forward to better weather and a later wake up call.  Got the first, but the second only lasted a few years.  I was a daytime anchor/reporter at WBTV until 2002 when I decided to switch to WBT and morning radio.

Before this position, the longest I'd ever stayed in one place was three years.  I've been coming to work at One Julian Price Place for ten years now.  Hope to see you around here for at least ten more!

Who's Watching the Kids?

I embarrassed myself with our new babysitter yesterday. But it was for a good reason.  Tell you more about that in a minute. First, a little background.

Finding childcare these days is tough enough, but when you've got a kid with a chronic condition like type 1 diabetes, it gets a little more complicated. When we find babysitters willing to help, we treasure them!

Our providers have to know how to check blood sugar, count carbs, use the insulin pump and watch for highs and lows. That's along with all the regular babysitter stuff, like engaging the kids, enforcing bedtime and knowing how to work our TV (actually, that's more complicated than Benny's pump!). Until now, we've taught them all the diabetes stuff they need to know and we've been incredibly lucky to have one sitter who has type 1 herself and another with a medical background.

You can imagine how thrilled I was to find out about the upcoming Caregiver Retreat in Charlotte. Animas, the company that makes Benny's pump, is offering it later this month. It's free.  It's geared toward grandparent, babysitters, coaches, teachers, anyone who helps care for a kid with type 1. This is the very first time it's being offered, anywhere in the country. Did I mention it's free?

It's the evening of Friday September 18th and all day Saturday September 19th at the Renaissance Hotel in Charlotte.  Click here for all the information.  Again, it's free, but they do ask that you register.

Apparently, this came about after Dr. Mark Parker with Pediatric Endocrinology pushed for it because of all the questions from patient families.  What a mensch. He's the keynote speaker at the conference. 

So here's where it got embarassing for me.  I asked a potential sitter to check it out. When she told me she was excited to go, I burst into tears. We were in front of a whole bunch of people and I just started tearing up. Everyone wanted to know what was wrong.  Turns out everything was very right.

It's hard to describe how much it means that people are willing to learn about diabetes to help care for my kids.  I'm sure it will get easier as Benny gets older and can use his own pump, check his own blood sugar.  But right now, he needs more than a sitter.  He needs a helper. And how lucky are we that Animas, Dr. Parker and so many others want to help.

The Beedies

One of the best ways we've found to deal with my son's diabetes is to try to see the humor in some of the crazy situations.  Obviously, I'm not alone in this.  Just found a terrific blog.  Click here to see some funny definitions and terms about The Beedies. Don't forget to check the carbage.

We need a laugh. Found out last month that my six year old cousin has type 1 diabetes.  Typical story. Tired all the time, losing weight, cranky, thirsty.  We last saw Aaron at my grandmother's 90th birthday party in December.  I'm glad he got to see Benny.  His mom says they were able to talk about our experience to explain the situation.  It helps that Benny was swimming, playing, eating cake and being crazy just like all the other little kids.

Until now, we've thought Benny was sort of a blip. One of the 90% of type 1 kids without another relative with diabetes.  Now we're all wondering if there's something in our genetic soup.  Doesn't really matter I guess.

Aaron's doctor has him on a different regimen than Benny ever went through.  We've always dosed him according to what he ate, mostly after he ate it. That makes sense with a toddler 'cause you can't predict exactly what they'll eat.  Aaron, though, is on a plan where he must eat meals & snacks with a certain amount of carbs to match the insulin shots he takes two or three times a day.  His mom tells me he's already asking for an insulin pump, so that routine will probably change in a few months.

We got a good A1c number last time around (the 3-month measure of blood glucose) and Benny's tolerating all his "gear" really well right now. So.....jinx!  Naah.. we'll just keep taking it as it comes. 

Friday August 14th 12noon

Great idea from a heart-wrenching story.  Tomorrow, Friday August 14th at 12noon EST, send a message of thanks to our troops over Facebook or Twitter.  

That's it. A simple, wonderful idea that's quickly gaining attention.  It started from the loss of 4 soldiers from North Carolina in June, killed in Iraq, all on the same day.  You can read that story, and more about tomorrow's 12noon event, at Mike Redding's blog (click here).

We talked to Mike this morning on WBT and we'll chat again tomorrow.  If you don't have a twitter or facebook account, you can send your thanks tot he troops through Mike's blog.

It's a social media story.  Interesting, because this is the first story on NewsTalk 1110 WBT that, as far as I know, originated purely through social media. (I know, I don't like that term either.)

Yesterday, listener Brian Christiansen sent me a Facebook message about Mike, known to most people around here at the Carolina Traveler - a terrific segment that used to run on our NBC affiliate. Brian messaged over FB that I should check out Mike's latest post. So I did.

Mike and I follow each other on Twitter.  So I sent out a tweet (hate that word, too) that we wanted to talk to him and he should send an email to our producer, Charles.  That was that and you can listen to the interview from today's show here.

So thanks to Brian - who also takes some incredible pictures with the NC National Guard.  And thanks to Mike for his great idea.  Now let's all say thanks tomorrow at noon.

Off to Camp!

I started going to sleep-away camp when I was six years old.  My older sister was going and there was no way I was going to be left behind.  That was the first of 8 years of summer spent away from home.  Summer camp gave me independence, confidence and what we know call "life experience." (I will not be blogging about what much of that means any time soon!)

This summer was set to be a big one for my kids.  We signed up my seven year old daughter for her first taste of sleep-away camp.  Ten days - just a little sample.  My four year old was excited for a few days of diabetes camp.  The rest of the summer was set up as usual - my husband and I both work so we've been dong full day programs when school's out all along.  We are camp experts.

Almost immediately, though, we hit a road block.  Counselors arriving at Lea's camp to set up and get ready started getting sick.  By the third day, more than a dozen had crowded the infirmary.  The health department declined to test for it, but said it was pretty clear it was H1N1 - swine flu.  They had to cancel the whole first month of camp, including Lea's session.  Ouch.

(Quick sidebar on that. I'm on Twitter and I posted about the cancellation. CBS White House correspondent Mark Knoller saw the post and sent it along to CBS news. The network did a story, which you can see here. It's not about our camp or us but apparently we were the spark. You can follow me and Mark on Twitter, if you so wish, at www.twitter.com/staceysimms and www.twitter.com/markknoller.  Mark is by far my favorite person to follow on Twitter and if you read him for a day you'll see why.)

She was so disappointed. But after the tears (and the promise of a sleep-over with a friend) she settled down.  We talked about other local day camps and mapped out the rest of the summer.  Soon after, the camp sent out a package with a t-shirt and bandanna and a nice note for the kids who had to miss.  That was nice and really made her smile. 

Her little brother, on the other hand, had the time of his life.  Camp Kudos is a 3-day camp put on by the great people at Pediatric Endocrinology Diabetes Specialists in Charlotte.  The doctors and nurses have done this for the past 15 years and it's wonderful.  The kids get a real day camp experience with sports and arts & crafts, but everyone there has type 1 diabetes. It's amazing.

Many children at Camp Kudos have never spent a full day away from their parents. Others, like Benny, don't spend much time if any with other children with diabetes. He loved it.  His counselor, Josh, was a young guy, a Charlotte fire fighter with type 1.  Benny just loved him (what 4 year old wouldn't?).

I was excited because Benny now wears his medic-alert bracelet.  Boy, has that been a struggle. I wish I'd slapped it on him when he was 23 months old and first diagnosed.  He just has not like the way it feels, or something.  We just told him he couldn't go to camp without it. Done. And he hasn't taken it off since.

The only snag came a few days after Camp Kudos ended.  Benny got very upset with us. He insisted camp was still going on without him. It took a while (and a lot of tears) but we finally convinced him that it was just three days and we would never, ever let them have Camp Kudos again without him.  So thank you Beth Theiling and Kristi McDermott and all the doctors, nurses and counselors.  We'll be back next year!

The rest of the summer will be regular day camps and then back to school August 25th.  Hard to believe we'll soon be in the home stretch of summer.  I do hope Lea will decide to try sleep-away camp again next summer and that Benny will go to the diabetes sleep-away camp they offer for kids older than 7. 

Summer camp was wonderful for me.  I only stopped when I was 15 and decided I was getting too old.  My mom gave me the choice to go back to camp or get a job ('you're not going to sit around the house all summer!").  So I went to work and that was that was the beginning of a whole different adventure!

A big check for a big cause

 

That's me with Carolina Panthers Coach John Fox and all the great youth ambassadors from Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation of Charlotte.  If you look real close at that big check, you'll see it's from me!  I'm so excited to tell you that I was able to donate $10,000 to JDRF from sales of my book, I Can't Cook, But I Know Someone Who Can.

I don't really have the words to tell you how thrilled I was to write that check.  As you know, my little boy has type 1 diabetes, so this is a very personal cause.  JDRF does incredible work, helping fund the doctors and researchers who are going to find a cure for this insidious condition.

We had a blast at the annual golf tournament - The Harris Teeter Celebrity Classic.  You can see more pictures here(and we'll be adding more later today).  All the pics are courtesy Ron Deshaies and Treasured Events of Charlotte and he's got dozens more on his website.  Check out the skirt hole (that's guys in skirts!)

We're still selling my book (click here to find out how to get $10 off) and I hope to make another big donation this fall.  Better make sure nothing happens to that big check!

Congratulations, Michael Allen!

Okay, indulge me in a little bit of name dropping.  We're pretty excited for PGA Player Michael Allen.  In his first time on the 50+ tour, Allen won the Senior PGA Championship.

Allen is a friend of my husband's.  They met a few years ago on a business venture.  Our friend Izzy Justice invented something called the Short Game Bullseye.  It's a target tool that helps you work on your short game (natch).  Bonus - hear Jim Szoke on the website.

Michael Allen was the oldest player in the field to make the cut a couple of weeks ago here at Quail Hollow.  That's the last time Slade saw him - they had dinner together with Izzy and a couple of other guys from the tournament. 

Allen's daughter has type 1 diabetes.  I gave him and his wife a copy of my book when he was in town.  I told Slade I'm sure that's what made all the difference this time out!