Monday, May 16, 2011

Day 7 Stuff I've learned from other blogs

I have learned tons.  I have so many blogs saved as favorites.  Both of parents with T1 and people, mostly young adults, with T1.  I have learned so much, where do I start:

From Kerri on SUM: about D-camp and how I need to send my daughter (ok, I might be ready some day), how you can make a career out of D, how you can have a baby if you want to!!, how your cats can be CGM's and detect lows, how life can even be fun with D !?!

From Kim at Texting my Pancreas: That you can draw cool pictures with paintbrush, that weddings and pumps are awesome together, that Blunt Lancet is an awesome band, how to laugh at D.

From Meri: How having 3 with D is way crazier than just 1.

From Hallie: Surviving a seizure!!

From Lorraine: the mini Glucagon treatment, Family D-camp, how a seven year old can change his pod.

Oh and so much more.  I can never write like they do, but I can only hope to share that we are another family dealing with D.

Above all else, it helps so much to know we are not alone. Thanks Karen for blog week.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Day 6 Snapshots

Not d-related, but today we lost our 11th tooth:

A molar.  Too cool.

Friday, May 13, 2011

Day 5 - Awesome things

My take: Nothing awesome about diabetes, nothing awesome about Friday the 13th.

Catie's two cents: the fact that candy is medicine.

Day 4 a day late - 10 things I hate about Diabetes

As a parent this is what it does to me and my daughter:

1. The lost sleep from checking at night.  I don't care who says I don't have to, I still will check.

2. The worry until the next sugar reading.

3.  The lows.

4. The highs.

5. Millions of doctor appointments. Asthma helps out on this one more.

6. It's 24/7 and never ending.

7.  The threat to her health, her life.

8. Changing sets, will this one hurt or be no big deal?

9. That the pharmacists know my name when they see my face.

10. She can't eat whatever she wants, whenever she wants (Catie's number one beef) when she's at school or with her friends.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Day 3 D Bloopers

OK, we have been at this now for almost two years and I can't list too many major bloopers.  I'm a control freak and I try to prevent the worst from happening, meanwhile,other stuff creeps up on me (bad A1C's, etc). Each blooper is a learning experience.

The lowest number we ever had = 28.  That was in the beginning and from this we learned about insulin stacking.

The highest number we ever had = 591. That was when we had a site failure.  We learned about correcting those with a pen and not the pump.

Highest ketones - moderate during a cold.  We learned about drinking lots of fluid makes these go away.

Other dumb stuff: poked myself with the lancet, poked myself with a needle (her dad did this and thought it meant he might get low and needed a donut to counteract that), tried a to put on a site with the adhesive still covered, took the only glucagon with me to work and had to bring it back home, put the test strip in upside down, backward, not enough blood Err 5's, lots of those.  I wish I had more pictures.

Carnage after a screwed up site change.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Day 2 - Letter writing day

Dear Diabetes,

You suck.  I don't have much else to say to you but this: go away. Now.

Dear Asthma,

You suck even more.  You know where you can go.


I won't even give cancer the honor of a note.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Admiration

After reading some of the other blogs I wanted to post about admiring my daughter who has had diabetes now for 1 year and 9 months.

She lets me poke her and test whenever I need to.
She lets me give her drinks and those glucose tablets whenever she needs them.
She lets me run her all over the place to all of her doctors.
She lets me buy her lots of really cool pump pouches.
She lets me give her all the hugs and kisses I can.

And she doesn't complain (not yet, just wait, I'm sure it's coming). the only complaint she says she has is that she wishes she could eat more fattening high carb foods that are so hard to bolus for (fudgie wudgie's at Isaac's).  I hold her back.  I'm a bad mom.

And oh how we love that Choclate lovin' cake...

Day 1 D-Myths

I wasn't sure what to write about in admitring differences.  I'm still trying to find people that I have something in common with in the D-world.

D-Myths I have heard since my daughter's dx (also can be lumped in with stupid things people say to you after they find out you or your kid have D):

1. Did she get that from eating too many sweets/candy/juice?
2. Is that the bad kind of diabetes?
3. Can she eat candy/cake/ice cream?
4. She needs sugar free candy, right?
5. Won't she out grow that?
6. Can't she just take a pill instead of shots?

Each time I hear one of these things I want to pound my head and tell them they are stupid.  Diabetes is fairly common and lots of people have it (Type 2 anyway) so I knew the answers to all of these before my daughter got diabetes. People are just ignorant until it hits them in the face.

So my choices are:
1. educate people
2. tell them they are stupid
3. agree with them, maybe they will realize they are stupid

I usually go for number 1, sometimes I do number 3. Depends on my mood.

This video sums it up. I'm sure everyone has seen it.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

I hate coughing

She's coughing again.  Her numbers are going up. I hate it.  Please make it stop!!!

Her dad is going away for a week, on mother's day. This is where it will get worse.

Coughing is worse than diabetes.  I will anger the diabetes gods here, I better be careful.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Quick Endo visit, and other stuff

Our endo is so busy that when you're supposed to see him every 3 months that means you won't get in for 5 months.  Today they called out of the blue with a cancellation at 1:30.  So I took it.  We had just downloaded the pump data last night to send to the CDE and so I had the data and I was ready.  He said her thyroid might be be getting enlarged so we'll recheck those numbers. And raise those basals at night (yikes, at night) that might help with the breakfast spike.  I'll try it.

He still said no to the CGMS. Damn.

I haven't posted for awhile.  I think I had some burnout with Catie's bad cold and growth spurt in April.  We had mild ketones, a bad reaction to the nebulizer medicine, missed 3 days of school, antibiotics, yuck.  I will still tell the asthma story sometime.  So she was coughing again yesterday and my knee jerk reaction was to keep her home (Tuesday is gym day anyway), so that's why we were home.  Jury is still out whether we are sick or not.  Another panic attack for me.

I want to participate in more DOC blogging things, I want to meet more T1's and T3's. I learn alot from their blogs and feel like we're not so alone in the D-World.

 I'm getting closer to talking to the mysterious T1 girl in Catie's dance school.  She looks about 14, no pump.  I don't want to spook her. But I know what she looks like.