Dusting off to Vote for Ryan

Hello there! Remember me? Yes? Thanks! No? Um, that's ok, we may have never met... according to blogspot I haven't posted here since last September!

Well, here I am, to ask the DOC to do me a favor. Even though it makes me feel like a bit of a fair-weather-blogger-friend. I entered a photo of my younger son playing soccer in a Facebook contest, and I wrote about how he doesn't let diabetes get in his way while playing travel soccer. I'd like to ask for your vote, if you have a minute (and a facebook account!)

Here is the link: http://tinyurl.com/VoteforRyanP

If you go to the link, you'll notice that I wrote about Ryan's diabetes. When I heard about the contest, and thought about what I would write, I was torn between focusing on the fact that Ryan is really, really wonderful at leading his team (even as they've suffered some big losses in a new, tougher league this season) and writing about diabetes.

Each time I attempted the 100 words, though, I could not NOT write about diabetes. You know how it is - it's there, sometimes a giant elephant in the house, sometimes just an annoying mouse. That's true on the soccer field. Sometimes it plays no part, but other times it's huge, like when the coach waves us over from the other side of the field because a half-time blood sugar check turns up a number that must be dealt with immediately, or when I cross my fingers that the high-blood-sugar correction I gave him kicks in just enough to make it safe to play. Maybe it's my 26 years of diabetes advocacy, maybe it's the feeling that many parents-of-kids-with-diabetes have (that "dammit, the kid stabs himself 10 times a day, he should get something positive out of this thing! feeling)... who knows. His challenges are certainly not the biggest ones ever faced by a young athlete but we're proud of the way he's pursued his intense love of sports despite having to manage all the diabetes stuff.

Thanks in advance for voting, and please feel free to share the link on your Facebook wall. And twitter, if there's anyone out there who understands that newfangled tweeting thing!