OK, this is like an introduction to the world of blogging and to me and my daughter who has Type 1 diabetes. My daughter is Catie and she would be sure to remind me to mention her dad and the two cats who live with us too.
We joined the world of diabetic living on June 19, 2009 when she was 8. It was right after school ended for the year and she just wouldn't get better after having a bad cold the last week of school. We got through her dance recital on June 12, 2009, but she was tired, hungry and very thirsty. Then she said her glasses weren't working and can she have another drink? That whole week before dx I kept reading about diabetes on the internet and I even went to Rite Aid to look at the blood glucose checkers, I had no idea what to get so i waited. Catie's dad said, no way, she doesn't have diabetes, that was for old, fat people. Hmmm. then she threw up after the babysitter took her to Friendly's for lunch and the mall for a smootie. I call the pediatrician late on a Friday afternoon and begged them to check her blood sugar. They said no problem. It was 503. Off we went to the hospital. She had lost 10 pounds in the last two weeks and was so dehydrated. We only had to stay 2 days, but we came home with a bag full of prescriptions and instructions and I felt like I had a newborn again.
Flash forward and year and a half. She is now 10 and half, has her pink insulin pump (wishes it were purple) and has adjusted just fine, I guess. When I asked her the other day how was it having diabetes, she said the worst thing was that she can't eat the treats people bring into school for birthdays because the school nurse doesn't have a clue about counting carbs and catie can't make guesses herself yet. Soon I hope she will feel confident enough to guess the carbs on a 1.5 inch square peice of baklava (guesses anyone?). The best thing about diabetes, she said, is that candy is medicine. She loves getting low in dance class because she gets smarties to bring up her blood sugar.
The worst thing for me? The constant worry about what is her sugar now? will it crash before i pick her up after school? or the middle of the night when I'm sleeping and should have checked her sooner? Or will it be high too often and someday the doctor will say, "well her eyes have some issues..." Just the last few days have brought on a growth spurt and now her numbers are constantly high so now I get to ride the re-basaling glucoaster. The fun of having a tween diabetic.
Does she manage her own care? I try to make her cognizant of being sure to check her sugar often enough, going to nurse at school before she is too shaky. changing her own set so she knows how to do it, adding up her carbs for a meal so she can plug them into her pump for the bolus. But if mom or dad does it, she's fine with that, as long as she gets to go back to playing on her computer and can call her friend on time, or get to the mall this afternoon to get a pair of shoes since her feet grew. The seriousness of the whole thing hasn't truly impacted her, not yet.
I fear when she'll be a teen and she gets that teen moodiness of not wanting to deal with it anymore, the potential depression or eating disorders. so I try to keep everything even keel, no big deal for her and do all the worrying. Is that the right way to handle it? Rhetorical question.
I wish i had a good enough camera to do D365, but that's ok. Today I will discuss rage basaling- is there such a thing? Should I up all her basal segmenbts .05 to get these highs down since she is high across the board? What the heck, I'll try it. Then I'll report back.
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