State Lifeguard Championship

Earlier in the summer, Seth was on a lifeguard team that competed and won the regional lifeguard competition.  The top 3 teams from each region advanced to the state competition. Last Monday was the Texas Amateur Athletic Federation State Lifeguard Championship.  This is the first time a team from Jason's pool has competed in the state competition.  Being the only team from a small town (and a small facility), they were by far the underdogs.  Competition was fierce, with several teams that have been to state before and many that come from year-round facilities with hundreds of guards.  Also, if you remember, this team not only has a member with type 1 diabetes, but also a team captain that had a liver transplant 3 years ago.

Each team had 4 events to complete.  The first event was a spinal scenario.  The guards not only had to respond to a spinal injury (fake, of course) but they also had to address rule violations in and around the pool as well.

The next event was a big pool scenario.  There were several incidents the guards had to respond to: an active drowning, a baby in the pool, an unconscious person, and a "shadow baby."

The final part was actually 2 events: first aid and CPR.  The first aid event was crazy!  There were 3 victims.  The first was a baby (doll) that was unconscious, so it only needed to be monitored until EMS arrived.  Victim 2 had heat exhaustion, a bee sting, a broken ankle, asthma, and a seizure. Victim 3 had a gash on the knee, a bloody nose, diabetes (hypoglycemia), and was spitting out teeth.  It was brutal!

The CPR event was immediately after first aid, in the same location.  The mannequin was lying beside what looked like broken glass, with a giant insect on its chest, and a bottle of bleach and an electric cord on the other side.  All hazards had to be dealt with before CPR could begin.  Intense!

After all teams completed the events, scores were tallied and winners announced.  Seth's team didn't place in the top 3, but they weren't last either! They placed 9th, which was so amazing considering it was their first time.

Diabetes did not play incredibly nice, of course.  Seth woke up over 200, and then there was the breakfast spike.  I'm sure he didn't feel his best, but he never complained and he didn't allow it to affect his performance in the events.  He did a conservative correction, knowing it was probably adrenaline. He still crashed on the way home.  I watched Dex while he napped, and woke him up when he was below 70 with diagonal down.

I am so proud of this team!  They worked hard and did a great job.  Watch out for them next year, Georgetown and The Woodlands!  This team may knock you down in the rankings!

Lifeguardians

This weekend was incredible!  Jason's lifeguards competed in the annual lifeguard competition for our area.  He has had teams compete for the last several years, and they always do well.  This year, he had 3 teams competing.  Seth's team name was The Lifeguardians, from the movie The Guardian (starring Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher).  The team watched that movie at our house almost every night the week leading up to the competition.  It inspired them, made them reach for greatness.

So, here's how the weekend went:

We left early on Friday morning. 3/4 of the team rode in our car.  One member was in another car.  Jason is all business when he's driving.

I didn't really see the team very much during the day.  I was busy being a first aid victim (I had a broken ankle). Jason and I took a selfie before the games got started.  We got to work in the same event.  He was judge, I was victim.  Day 1 had 4 events: first aid/cpr, fitness, scanning, and The Weakest Link (lifeguard trivia). 

At each event, the team would re-enact a scene from the movie.

Captain: Pop tall!

Team: (clap clap clap) Hoorah!

When they came to the first aid/cpr event where Jason was judging, they added another scene.

Jason: Lifeguardians, will you come find me if I am lost?

Team: Yes, Senior Chief!!

Jason:  Will you come save me if I am drowing?

Team: Yes, Senior Chief!

Jason: I believe you will.

I wish I had taken a picture of the one of the excellent splints on my "broken ankle," but unfortunately, I only took this really sad, how not to splint an ankle.  

After all the teams rotated through the first 3 events, The Weakest Link started.  All 30-something teams did this event at the same time.  After Seth missed a question and got out, he noticed his Dex sensor was coming out.  No problem, I brought a backup.  We planned to put it on when we got back to the hotel.

All the teams from our pool had dinner together that night.  It was just fun team-bonding time.  When we got back to the hotel, I asked Seth about putting on a new sensor.  He decided to wait until after the games were over.  I was a little nervous about that, but because of the nature of the games he wasn't really able to look at his receiver very often anyway.  Deep breath, mom.  It will be fine!  Jason needed the tape replaced on his sensor, but his held up pretty well.

Day 2 started out super early. I was busy again, this time as a rule-breaker in the scenario event. Jason was again a judge for that same event.  Again, when the Lifeguardians finished his event, they re-enacted the scene from the movie:

Jason: Lifeguardians, will you come find me if I am lost?

Team: Yes, Senior Chief!!

Jason:  Will you come save me if I am drowing?

Team: Yes, Senior Chief!

Jason: I believe you will.

And upon leaving each event that day:

Captain: Pop tall!

Team: (clap clap clap) Hoorah!

 No pictures from the early events on Day 2, which were scenario (watching for rule-breakers and injured/unconscious people), spinal (correctly removing a victim from the pool when they have a suspected spinal injury), 3 blind mice (blindfold first aid - one team member talks 3 blindfolded team members through a first aid event), and Crash Bag Clean-Up (not completely sure about the details on this one, but something about putting supplies into a bag correctly using a diagram. Fastest one done correctly won.).  

After those 4 events, the obstacle course began.  Each team member had to complete their task, then tag the next member for their portion.  Person A had to stack chairs then tow person C across the pool.  Person B then had to pick up "trash" on the side of the pool, then take a buoyancy belt to person C.  

Person C then aqua-jogged across the pool....

.....then she got to slide down the really cool slide and tag person D.

Seth was person D. He had to get on a rescue board (backboard) and paddle across the pool.

He was first in and first out!  They won their heat!

After lunch, the awards started.  Medals are awarded for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place for each event, as well as an overall winner.  The top 3 overall winners advance to the state competition.

The Lifeguardians won 1st place in one event, and 2nd place in 3 events.  When they began to announce the overall winners, I was nervous!  4 medals meant they had a really good chance of placing in top 3.  There's no way to describe the utter joy when they called out "1st place, Lifeguardians!"  Screaming, hugging, tears of joy.  Indescribable and surreal!  The team is headed to state!  Jason has coached teams the last 5 years and has wanted to take a team to state the whole time.  Now he gets to take not just a team, but a team with his son on it!  Besides having a person with type 1 on their team, the team captain had a liver transplant almost 3 years ago.  This team is going to the state competition with a busted pancreas and a borrowed liver!  How incredible is that????  

After they received their award, one final time:

Captain: Pop tall!

Team: (clap clap clap) Hoorah!

Then Jason had to do his bit one last time as well:

Jason: Lifeguardians, will you come find me if I am lost?

Team: Yes, Senior Chief!!

Jason:  Will you come save me if I am drowing?

Team: Yes, Senior Chief!

Jason: I know you will.

The Lifeguardians with their coach

We headed home after the awards.  Only 1/2 of the team was in our car this time.  They were absolutely on cloud 9!  Seth was jingling his medals together and said, "That's what winners sound like."  No, he was not being arrogant.  He was just celebrating!

When we got back to the pool, I had to take a picture of the trophy.  It actually belongs to the city, and will stay at City Hall.  There is also a travelling trophy that the team will get to keep until next year.  The city name and year will go on that trophy.  Hopefully they will be able to get it back next year!

I'm hoping to have another blog post the first part of August telling you how this incredible group of young people won the state competition.  Stay tuned!

 

DI Competition

A couple of weeks ago, Seth competed in Destination Imagination (DI).  It was his 8th time to compete; he started in 5th grade.  4 of the team members have been together since 6th grade (7 years). They are an amazing group of teenagers!  They are going to do awesome things in our world. 

Here's a glimpse into the world of DI.  The kids do EVERYTHING, including writing the script, designing and making the costumes and props, creating a soundtrack, and performing.  Everything!  There is an adult manager there just so they aren't unsupervised.

Shopping for costume ideas.  Seth got a little bored and started stacking golf pencils.

Final night of practice before the big competition.
Seth loves the tricycle for some reason.
 I think I have a picture of him on it every year.

This year's competition involved choosing a work of art, then centering the entire performance around it.  I had seen the work of art prior to the competition, but didn't know what all was going on with it.  DI is kinda like fight club.  The kids don't talk about it outside of DI.  The only thing I really knew was that Seth needed brown shoes for his costume.

The artwork inspiration for this year's performance.

The kids do ALL of the costume prep.
 If you'll look closely on the back of his arm, you can see a little bump that is his Dexcom sensor.

The  competition consists of 2 parts - a performance and an Instant Challenge.  I don't know much about Instant Challenge (think fight club again), but I know they have a problem to solve in a set time with limited supplies.  This is the hardest part of the competition for Seth's team.  Spectators are not allowed for the IC, but are allowed for the performance.

The performance was fantastic! The appraisers (judges) had awesome things to say about their performance. The engaged and delighted the audience from beginning to end.  There was humor.  The team used their musical talents as part of the performance.  It was just wonderful, beginning to end.

Team picture with their manager after the performance.  They nailed it!

There is a big awards show at the end of the day.  The scores from performance and IC are totaled and medals are given for each category.  Seth's team placed 3rd in their category overall.  BUT, they earned a DaVinci award.  DaVinci awards are given for excellence in their performance.  The appraiser's sheet for the DaVinci award had nothing but great things to say about their performance. This is only the 2nd DaVinci award ever earned by a team from Seth's school.  The first one was earned by this same team 2 years ago!  Like I said, they are an amazing group of kids!

At the awards ceremony with their DaVinci award.

Diabetes did not play into the day much at all.  Other than his Dex sensor showing and having to do an injection in the hall for his lunch, it was not much of a factor.  Seth tamed the D-beast like a boss.  He watched his Dex trend graph and took appropriate actions throughout the day.  I just wanted to share his amazing accomplishment.  With diabetes along the path is a little trickier, but with careful management he has been able to continue doing all of the same activities he did before d. Not only does he do them, he ROCKS them. KDA every day.

Don't let diabetes stop you

In the past few days, my guys have been really busy! On Wednesday,  they acid washed a friend's pool. Seth had a little  fun in the empty pool.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDHoTxDYhJY&feature=youtube_gdata_player

(Sorry, I don't know yet how to put videos directly into the blog.)

On Thursday,  Jason taught a lifeguard recertification class. That night, it took 4 low treatments (60 grams of carbs) to get him up high enough to go to bed!  He still woke up during the night with a 67 and had to treat again! I thought since he was in bed with me, I would know if he was low and needed help. Wrong!  I slept through the whole thing. Thankfully, he wasn't too low and didn't need my help. Gonna have to figure that out too.

Summer will mean changes to all their doses, I imagine. This past weekend was another lifeguard class. They keep close tabs on diabetes, checking not only before meals but extra checks as well. Lots of extra snacks to keep their numbers in range.


 


Lots and lots of activity, including being the victim  during a spinal rescue scenario.

 

 Morning blood sugars today were 66 (Seth) and 81 (Jason). The extra activity really makes a difference! Just a few more days of school, then we'll be at the pool every day. A new setting for us to learn how to KDA.