Hi, my name is Peyton.  I’m 9 years old.  My summer so far has been pretty much like everyone else’s.  My auntie and cousins came to visit from the East Coast so my parents could go away for a few days.  I’ve hung out with friends skateboarding, scootering and bmxing.  We have a family trip planned in a few days to Palm Springs.  We are going to do a lot of swimming.  So I will take my pump off when I swim, then hook back up every hour or so to get my insulin.  I’m also going to the DYF diabetes day camp in Marin in August and can’t wait to meet some new friends with diabetes too.

I can do the same thing as everyone else, but we have to plan ahead.  For example, my mom is packing all my diabetes supplies plus extras for our trip to Palm Springs.  When I went to play at my friend Sebastian’s yesterday, my mom talked to his parents about what I’m going to eat and how many carbs I should have.  A lot of the other parents think I can’t eat certain things, but I can eat whatever everyone else eats–I just need to give myself enough insulin to cover the carbs.  And some people are nervous to take care of me because they are afraid I might go low or high, but not my friends’ parents!  I haven’t been able to have a sleepover yet though, which I really want to do, because my parents are too nervous about that.  But now that I’m 9, I do a lot more of the diabetes stuff myself.  When I get up in the morning, I check my own blood sugar, count my breakfast carbs and put it all into my pump.  Now that I’m older, I like using the pump myself.  I like being able to choose what I want to eat when I am ready to eat like my brother and sister.  And I’m happy my friends’ parents are willing to have me over.  I am lucky to have such great friends and family!