Diabetes didn't stop us! July 2-11th Trip Report ~ New Again pg 2

[Rapunzel]

The Who:
Me, Robyn, a 30 (turned 31 on the trip on 7/7) mom of 2 wonderful kids.


Lauren, my gorgeous 7 year old daughter. She has been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes for 2 years and her 2 year "D-versary" was on 7/8/2012 (also while on this trip.)

The When:
July 2nd-11th. Originally it was supposed to be July 2-9th but I added 2 extra days.
July 2nd and 3rd we stayed at Pop Centry
July 4-8th we transferred to World Center Marriott (I'll explain more about this later)
July 8-11th we went back to Pop.

The Why:
The whole reason behind this trip was to attend a diabetes conference from the 4-8th at the World Center Marriott. I figured since we'd be there...we might as well do Disney and see family I haven't seen in years!

A little background:
Having a child get diagnosed with diabetes is like being smacked in the face. For 6 months I knew something was wrong, for 6 months I took her to the doctor multiple times for different symptoms of "something" and each time there was an explanation or a medication and a "if it doesn't clear up, bring her back". Well looking back now all of those symptoms WERE diabetes, but one by one they just looked like odd little things a 5 year old would go through. Finally the day after my 29th birthday I took her to the doc AGAIN thinking she had a UTI or Kidney infection fully expecting her doc to tell me to take her to a Urologist...instead the words "You need to go to the hospital, right now. Do not go home. Lauren will be admitted to the pediatric ICU, they already have a room for you. She has Type 1 Diabetes" rang through my head.

Her blood sugar was well over the 700's, and her A1C (The A1C test measures your average blood glucose control for the past 2 to 3 months.) was 12.6 or something equally ridiculous. It should have been 5-6.5....

You're bombarded with information, things you have to learn right then and there. You can't study it...come back and start doing it. You must start all of these things IMMEDIATELY. Shots - 4+ times a day, 2 medications, carb counting. So we did. We also started doing walks for the ADA (we'll be doing our 3rd in September!) our first one was just 3 months after she was diagnosed.

I found a website with so much information and found they had a conference every year, always held in Orlando. So we decided to go. My husband couldn't get off work, and my son decided he'd rather spend time with my mom. So just my precious baby girl and I were headed to Disney and Diabetes!

(Of course Photobucket seems to be going through maintenance right now so the massive amount of pictures (1320 to be exact) will start soon!)

 

[Rapunzel]

place saver!

 

[Rapunzel]

Our flight on the 2nd was at 5:30am. Which meant we had to leave our house at 3, or so I thought. Apparently we live much closer to Midway at 3am. When we got to the airport the counters and curbside check were not even open for Southwest.

We finally got our bags checked, tickets in hand. A small snafu through security with Laurens insulin pump and we found seats at our gate.
I sat down and facebooked for a second and looked up to find:

My diva. Apparently she packed a tiara in her carry-on. At 4:30AM my little princess was ready for Disney World! I had to "shush" her a few times because she loves to sing, and while listening to her iPod she doesn't realize that the entire gate of people can hear her singing Justin Bieber!

Our flight was uneventful, we landed 9 minutes early and we were on the Magical Express bus and moving within 10 minutes.

We arrived at PoP Century where our CM, Lauren, asked my Lauren if she would come help her.

After being checked in by 2 Laurens our room was ready.
Sidenote: I will NEVER use online check-in again. I requested a 1st floor room, close to the busses. We got a 50's room farthest away from everything it seemed.

My little gymnast!

I'm usually a planner. This trip was a fly by the seat of your pants, "what do you want to do?" trip! Our first day I knew we were doing Hollywood Studios, we were meeting my Aunt and 4 of my cousins that day.

We decided to head back to the hotel mid-afternoon (missing our 50's Prime Time Reservation) hoping to get some sleep. We both had been up since around 2:30am. Sleep we did not...but swim we did! We tried out the bowling pin pool, it was very quiet.

After a while we headed back to Studios for EMH!

 

[Reberella]

Following along! Your daughter is so cute!

 

[Rapunzel]

Following along! Your daughter is so cute!

YAY! Thank you!

I was starting to think my post smelled funny!

 

[Aimros]

Just wanted to let you know that I am subscribed and patiently waiting for the next update!

 

[729tink]

Me too! I'm following. You have a cutie!

 

[ShortStuff]

Your daughter is adorable!!! I have diabetes and one of the main problems I have is tolerating the heat, after a certain point. (I am an old grandma though). LOOKING FORWARD TO MORE OF YOUR ADVENTURES AND 1300+ pictures!!

Ooops, sorry for the caps!

 

[special ed teacher]

Hi,
My son is diabetic and having a hard time with summer heat. We go to Disney in a week. I'm curious how your daughter did with the heat?
(she's very cute.)

 

[Emma1987]

Really looking forward to the rest of this trip report!

 

[Angies1274]

Joining in!! Our trips overlapped a little and we also stayed at Pop Century. I'm excited to read your report! Your daughter is adorable!

 

[Rapunzel]

Just wanted to let you know that I am subscribed and patiently waiting for the next update!

Welcome!!!

Me too! I'm following. You have a cutie!

Thank you so much and Welcome!

Your daughter is adorable!!! I have diabetes and one of the main problems I have is tolerating the heat, after a certain point. (I am an old grandma though). LOOKING FORWARD TO MORE OF YOUR ADVENTURES AND 1300+ pictures!!

Ooops, sorry for the caps!

Welcome!

Hi,
My son is diabetic and having a hard time with summer heat. We go to Disney in a week. I'm curious how your daughter did with the heat?
(she's very cute.)

She did much better than I expected. We ended up going to Guest Services and requesting a GAC card, it helped a lot by providing at least a shady area for us to wait in lines, instead of in the direct sun-light. Her blood sugars were amazing the whole time and generally I'd bolus her for about 3/4ths of what I should have for all the snacks and meals.

Really looking forward to the rest of this trip report!

Yay! Thank you and welcome

Joining in!! Our trips overlapped a little and we also stayed at Pop Century. I'm excited to read your report! Your daughter is adorable!

How fun! I want to go back so badly. Welcome and thank you!

 

[Rapunzel]

July 2nd - Evening (Hollywood Studios)

As we were heading back to Studios I had to stop and ask a question at Concierge, after answering my question the CM said "hang on one second" and went over to a large vase and gave Lauren a carnation.

Standing at the bus stop:

She was so happy, but didn't want to take it back to our room so she decided to sip it into my baggalini.

We headed back to Studios and she wanted to ride ToT again (mind you we rode this first thing in the morning and she screamed the whole time we were going up and down because she was so scared and vowed to never ride it again).....I was a little apprehensive.

Standing in line to ride:

As we entered the air conditioning I heard the words that always make my heart skip a beat "mommy I feel low".....juggling her meter on my knee and helping her take her blood sugar we found out she was 39. I pulled out the baggie of skittles and a juice box and had her go to town. She finished her skittles as we were watching the show in the library.

Feeling much better by the time we got to the elevators she decided she would defiantly ride.

Now where the title of this chapter comes from: as we were going up and down I saw something floating as we were being pulled down...and someone behind me exclaimed "look a flower!" The flower came right out from being zipped into my bag and just floated, in mid-air. It seemed to just hover there as we were being whisked up and down on ToT! Then the ride ended and the flower was no-where to be found. Later that night as I was replenishing our snacks and juice boxes I found about 3" if the stem at the bottom of my bag!

From there we had fast passes to ride Toy Story from earlier that morning.

She told me I wasn't being fair and that she wouldn't ride with me again unless I helped her win...lol

We rode a few other things including the Great Movie ride (that quickly became one of her favorites.)

As we were leaving the park we found a CM making art on the concrete with water and a broom...

Lauren requested a Mickey and he went through all of the steps explaining them one by one:

He asked her what was missing and she immediately said "his eyes!" So she got to help fill those in.

She then said "Can we turn Mickey into Minnie?!" and he said sure, and added a bow and eyelashes!

I want to live here!!!

Good night Hollywood Studios!

Up Next - Magic Kingdom!

 

[TXDisneyFan1]

Hi! I am enjoying your TR. I am very interested in how your daughter handled the Disney stresses (break in routine, odd eating times, heat, physical activity, etc) in relation to her Diabetes. My 6 yr. old son was diagnosed three years ago and we are heading to Disney in May. It will be his first trip and I am nervous about how his body will handle everything. I really value your advice in this area and any tips you could give. Thanks!

By the way, what is a GAC card?

 

[Rapunzel]

Hi! I am enjoying your TR. I am very interested in how your daughter handled the Disney stresses (break in routine, odd eating times, heat, physical activity, etc) in relation to her Diabetes. My 6 yr. old son was diagnosed three years ago and we are heading to Disney in May. It will be his first trip and I am nervous about how his body will handle everything. I really value your advice in this area and any tips you could give. Thanks!

By the way, what is a GAC card?

Welcome! We ate when she wanted to eat and I kept a lot of snacks and juice boxes in my bag. She's never been a huge breakfast eater so I always had a cereal bar or baggie of Multi-grain cherrios with us in the AM just for her to snack on. We saved grapes from a children's meal to have for breakfast one day too. With the heat (it was HOT when we were there) and all of the walking, I ended up bolusing for less than she needed for each snack and meal. I never saw one high when we were there, but a few lows did creep in. Thankfully the first day was the lowest at 39, the rest of the time she was feeling lows in the 60's.

This was also our first trip, and she was diagnosed 2 years ago. I worried and stressed. Of course all Diabetes are different, and even around here all days are different.

The GAC card is a Guest Assistance Card. It's NOT a Fast pass. It's a red card that you get at Guest Relations at any of the parks. It's good for your entire stay, and for up to 6 people in your party. Ours allowed her to enter the wheelchair entrance on rides (which most rides the same Que is the wheelchair entrance) and it also allowed us to have a shady area to wait for rides (again most lines are shady).
For instance we rode Expedition Everest and they had a specific area in their Que open where you have to wait around a garden, and it's all in the sun...so when that part was open they sent us through the fast pass line, but most of the time the Que was short enough we just waited in the regular line which was A. Wheel Chair Accessible as well as B. Shaded.

 

[TXDisneyFan1]

Thank you for the tips and sharing your experiences with your exceptional little girl! Giving her less insulin than you normally would is great advice...I will definitely give that a try with my son. The 'lows' really scare me.

Keep the reports coming!

 

[Rapunzel]

I woke up this morning, bright and early...don't ask me how...we were both up for about 24 hours the day before!

I let the princess sleep for a little bit before waking her up.

We headed to Magic Kingdom, and were greeted by the Opening Show as we were walking down from the busses. HOLY CROWD!!!

Instead of attempting to make it through that sea of people, Lauren and I decided to hop the train to Frontierland. We rode Big Thunder RR about 4 times in a row before a line formed.

Then, the kid wanted to ride Space Mountain. This vacation was about her..so who was I to argue?! We rode this a few times in a row as well.

We rode the Peoplemover

Then we stopped and watched some of the dance party going on, while taking an ice cream break..

I love this little girl...lol

We headed back to the resort to have a swim. I was told not to leave the park on the 3rd because it would eventually be closed to more guests because of the 360 4th of July fireworks that evening.

Did we get back in that night?!

 

[Rapunzel]

The 360 Fireworks were scheduled at 9pm. We were running late and made it to the bus stop at POP at 8:30....during a massive storm. <~ Picture that, but 2 of us...not smiling because it's pouring and thundering and lightening...oh and we didn't have an umbrella either!

We made it too MK at 9:15, where we entered the sea of people entering the park. We finally made it into the park where we were told the fireworks were delayed. WOOT! We thought we missed them. Lauren wanted to go on the Mountains, but there was no way we were going to make it down Main street.

We were corralled to the back side of the park.

We made it over to Tomorrow land where Lauren tested her skills driving

We spun on the tea cups

Then made our way to the new Fantasyland:

As we were walking from the new Barnstormer towards Peterpan the Fireworks started. No announcement, no music...just fireworks EVERYWHERE!

I want to say it was close to 10:30 or so. We found an awesome spot to watch

Went to Frontierland and Adventureland, rode all the rides there and headed back to PoP exhausted. The next morning we were leaving PoP for a few days.

 

[debdebdebby13]

I am subscribing My 6 year old was diagnosed last December, so we are inching our way towards our one year anniversary. We are taking our first post diabetes Disney trip at the end of October and I'm a bit nervous about getting her enough insulin since the carb counts at the park are not available.