Powering Through The Extraordinary... with Diabetes

Sometimes it can feel like a struggle just get through an ordinary day when you (or your child) live with diabetes.

That's why the story of Steve Richert and Living Vertical is unbelievably amazing and inspiring.  Steve was diagnosed with Type 1 when he was 16 years old.  But instead of letting diabetes ruin his life, he used it as motivation to do incredible things.  Steve is a climber - of mountains and lots of other things too!  And he created Living Vertical as a way to empower people living with diabetes.

Of course, I can't help but think of his Mama.  I know if Sweets wanted to climb a mountain, I would be both crazy proud and crazy scared!  And I would hope she had the right tools that would enable her to keep her diabetes in check.

That's where Roche and Durcell enter this story!  Roche and Duracell have joined forces to create a program called Power Through the Extraordinary.  They are also working with Steve Richert.  Their goal is to inspire people with diabetes to follow their dreams and go after their passions -- without letting diabetes hold them back.  But that's not where this partnership ends.  Roche and Duracell have worked together to create a Durcell battery powered ACCU-Chek Nano blood glucose meter!

I am thrilled for Sweets and I to have the opportunity to participate in this program!  We love the philosophy of Power Through the Extraordinary and we also love the ACCU-Chek Nano meter.  We started with an ACCU-Chek meter at diagnosis and have been using a Nano for the past year or so.  We trust it's reliability and find it easy to use - for Sweets, us, the school nurse, or anyone!

No, she's not climbing any mountains!  But what she IS doing is taking tumbling lessons.

Sweets has done gymnastics for a few years.  She's done the bars and beam and floor exercises.  And she has really enjoyed it.  But she also really likes cheerleading.  And so she decided that a class focused on tumbling would really help her with her cheer moves.

Honestly, I didn't expect tumbling to be any different than gymnastics.

The first class was all it took to know I was wrong!

Instead of being one of ten or so girls, she was one of three or four.  There wasn't much wait time for the equipment.  There really wasn't equipment.  It was all cartwheels, round offs, hand stands, walkovers, and back handsprings.

Flip.  Flip.  Flip.  Flip.
Bounce. Bounce. Bounce. Bounce.

Think an hour of bounce house time.
With after school snack insulin peaking.

Down. Down. Down.

Did we say, "I don't think this is going to work."  "This is too dangerous."  "It's just going to be too hard to keep her blood sugar up."  "She's not going to be able to do this."

NO WAY.

Jason and I looked at each other the first night and said, "Well, THIS is going to be a challenge!"

And it was!

I will be posting more this week about just what we did to make this work.  We had some successes.  And we had some.... learning experiences!

But what is most important is that we have a little girl going for her dreams and doing what she loves.

And she just so happens to be powering through with Type 1 Diabetes.

**Disclosure: By participating in the Power Through the Extraordinary program, Accu-Chek has provided us with an Accu-Chek Nano meter and Accu-Check Smart View test strips for a month.  P&G/Duracell has also covered our cost of tumbling lessons.  I have agreed to blog about our experiences.**