Homework, traffic jams, and sick cats

This is how my day goes, a plethora of crazy things to take care of.

We were still on that temp basal of +10% for the  growth spurt.  When will those sugars come back down?  Your guess is as good as mine, so lots of checks and worry over that.

Then Scrappy pukes this morning, 3 days after ending her lactulose.  Need another rx for that, something to pick up tomorrow.

Then it's time for the Monday allergy shot after school.  Traffic jam has the road closed to York, so we get off, turn around.  Won't make it before they close for the day.  We'll never get to the end of the blue or grren bottles of the allergy shots.  That's ok, I forgot to make an appt anyway.  We'll probably be sick next week and have to postpone again.

We got to bring our home work folder home so we'll get a demerit for that tomorrow. At least we remembered to tell us there is no band tomorrow after school, so off to the vet to get the medicine. then home to change our set.

My car goes into the shop for an oil change tomorrow.  Dear hubby has to get Catie to school and the car dropped off and get to his training by 8 AM, not gonna happen.

I have two letters to get done at work tomorrow before a 2 hour have it out meeting with the team at work. Work is supposed to be my relaxing place, hmph.

And they are calling for snow for the rest of the week.  April Fools.

Growth Spurts

So last night before dinner we were 326, lovely.  I check again 2 hours after dinner which is usually a time of lows and it was 375. %&^%*$ So I debate with dad, change the set?  Growth spurt?

Set looks good, 43 units in the cartridge.  We hedge our bets.  It's a growth spurt.  Increase that basal 20% and give a correction with the pen.  Check again 3 times before bed, we're going down to 265, no ketones. Check twice more during the night.

Wake up to 151 (yea temp basal!!) change set out like normal on a Suunday morning.  Measure our height - yep, Houston, we have measurable growth.

I must be the only mom in America who measures her kid's height every week. But, hey, it will be over soon, so what the heck.  I don't weigh her that often and don't give her a complex about her weight at all, if anything, she could gain a few.  She's grown 3.5 inches since September, at this rate she will be taller than me in one year, and I'm 5'6".

So this afternoon while shopping she says she's shaky, 74.  Before dinner and after 12 crabs of smarties, she's 106.  The temp basal is off.  We'll see where the roller coaster goes next.

The A1C came back at 7.9.  While this may not sound great, with all the growth spurting going on and considering this is a drop from the 8.1 we had in December, it's a small triumph.  I will take it.

Accupuncture and the mystery dance class girl

OK, I'm all for alternative medicines if they make people feel better.  I think they bring alot of relaxation to people, massage therapy, choropractors, accupuncture, etc.

But when they tell you they can cure diabetes (mailto:*@%5E&&%5E$#^&$%@*& is all I have to say.

TYPE 2 NOT TYPE 1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ergggggg

So anyway Catie was at Friday dance class and before we left I tested her blood sugar.  The girls in the next class left their things there in the changing room.  One left a medic alert necklace that said Diabetes on it.  Who is this girl and where has she been hiding?????  I will be looking of her purple glasses next week, you better believe it, and I will stalk her down until she and Catie say hi to each other.

Number Games

I should buy some MegaMillions tickets with all the numbers I see and base my happiness on daily.

Today's high (so far) 282
Today's low (so far) 112

Just found out the A1C - 7.9 (down from 8.1 three months ago - yea!!)

Yesterday's low  41 (yuck)
Yesterday's high 284 (2 hours before the low)

Too bad MegaMillions doesn't have decimals or three digit numbers.

Tomorrow is the last day of the course we've been teaching at work.  Thank goodness. It will be done by lunch time.

Scruffy is eating again. Catie is playing the clarinet. The sun came out.  MegaMillions is up to $304 million.  That's all pretty good stuff.

Today was a low day

and I hope we're not getting sick.We just need some time off to relax and go shopping.

And now the cat that loves to eat, won't eat.  Why??? Eat Scruffy eat.

I just want everyone to be ok.

My baby sure can draw:

This is why I hate set changes

Look at this carnage,

Ingredients for this set change:
1 vial of insulin
2 pink animas 6mm infusion sets ($$$)
1 animas cartridge
1 alcohol pad (not recalled)
1 skin tac wipe (not recalled because IV Prep was recalled)
1 unisolve wipe (cleans off the old skin tac)
1 Metro Bank pen
1 Elmo ice pack
1 insulin pump
1 diabetic kid
2 locked up cats
1 frazzled mom

The first one went on half a$$ so I pulled it off and started over.  The second one was questionable when after breakfast we were up to 306.  But 2 hours after lunch we were 76 so it's working.

Two days from now and we get to do it all over again.

Yesterday we had our A1C blood draw.  Results later.

People that just don't get it...

Some of the most stupid comments I've heard since Catie got diabetes (in no particular order):
1. Aren't her sugars regulated yet?
2. Won't she outgrow it?
3. Can't she just take a pill?
4. Won't she be fine on the field trip since she's usually ok most other days?
5. Why do you have to check her in the middle of the night?
6. Why do you still have to count carbs and check her blood sugar if she has a pump?
7. Isn't it overkill to weigh her food?
8. You would only be 15 minutes away, it's ok to leave her with her 12 year old cousin for 5 hours.
9. It's just a cookie, let her be a kid...

Taylor Swift

My tween loves Taylor Swift.  Loves her.  She heard her story about how she started writing songs at age 12 and begged her parents to take her to Nashvillle and the rest is history.  So Catie started writing her own songs.  And she plays the clarinet and got a Taylor Swift song sheet music (Love Story) and played it right through by sight reading.  Awesome.  Whatever motivates us.

Keep singing Taylor and stay a nice girl!!
Changed a set tonight without recalled IV Prep.  And it fell off *@&&^@*
Tried again with skin Tac.  That stuff is majorly sticky and any set is guaranteed to stay on with this stuff. I'll check it here in another hour to make sure the insulin is getting in.

The Tooth Fairy

Yep, kids with diabetes still lose teeth and still have the the tooth fairy visit.  On Saturday night Catie lost her first cuspid.  This was tooth number 9.  The tooth that is replacing it had already broken ground over a month ago so the old one had to get out of there.  Saturday night she wiggled it like usual and this time it cracked and bled, so it really had to come out.  Dad suggested orajel, and after I put a glob of that on it, she let me pull it out.  I couldn't wait for The Rock to show up.

Well he came, Catie got $5, and then he must have sprinkled that magic sleepy/forgetful dust on us and that was that.

Toontown

My tween can spend hours on this web site.  Why?  They move from scene to scene, change their clothes and defeat 'cogs" who are robots with manager names.  Learns kids to hate big business I guess.  And hang out with their friends in this world and chat with each other.  Even when they get together they get on the computers and get into Tootown.

Ok, here's my version of Dia-Tootown.  Toons have to wander around and resist temptations to eat sugary treats.  They earn points for selecting low carb items to eat and for exercising. They defeat food police and stupid relatives they think insulin pumps are a waste of money (they get extra points for defeating those people).  Defeating these people and earning good points get them a low A1C score. And in addition to picking out cool clothes they get to pick cool pump pouches for their toons.

Catie would think this is a boring game.

Dia-toons trying to get low A1C's.

It's always something

"Mom, today Rachel puked in church."  Great, another tummy bug is going around.  Lord, help me.

IV prep recall just happens to include the box we have been using since we started pumping in September, 6 months ago. Why?

I like that new Geico commecial about the guy under a rock.  I want to be that guy. Bad.

Guy under a rock

Band Day, Mushy Fastnaughts, and why I hate infusion sets

Today was Band Day and Catie had to go to the high school from 9 to 2 with lunch served.  No nurse.

So the band teacher brings alomg Catie's entire bin of supplies from the nurse's office.  They better be back in the nurse's office tomorrow for testing.

So there were snacks and pizza for lunch.  Dad was scheduled for lunch testing/counting carbs and bolusing. He showed up on time, tested her, texted mom so mom wouldn't worry, and counted carbs pretty well.  Pizza is always a guess, but after school the number wasn't too bad, only needed a small correction.  the cool thing is Catie counted her own carbs/bolused for the morning snack and got it all right!!

So tonight when we got home with extra math homework from the stuff she missed from being at band day, there was a mushy fastnaught in the bottom of her backpack.  She knew it wold be hard to count so she brought it home.  And it got smushed in the bottom of her bag. And onto her math folder.  Yuck

Picked up my new glasses with the progressive in them today.  Not wearing them since the frame is tight. The more they cost, the less you wear them.

Why I hate infusion sets:

• You never know if they are working for a few hours by which time you could be sky high
• They hurt sometimes going on
• They hurt coming off
• The adhesive gets bubbles in it and starts to peel up and maybe stops it from working
• Your fingernail catches on them and rips them out @*&^%*#&^*
• They don't come in purple
• They leave little poke holes in your skin

So far our insulin pump experience has been mixed.  I hate changing sets because of the anxiety it brings. We had one site failure with a sky high number.  A1C's haven't really improved.  She's always tethered.  If shots could deliver the precision that a pump could, that would be the best.  Lantus wasn't that bad for us as a basal.  The remote bolus is a cool feature, but you can't remote basal. Blah, blah, blah...

Stupid diabeetus.

Eggs

So today there was surprise snow overnight and it caused a 2 hour delay in school.  This means lunch will be delayed.

So, we let her sleep in, eat breakfast a little later, so that she will make it to lunch without getting low.

And gave her an egg with breakfast.

Our school nurse means well, we even sent her to diabetes for school nurses class, which she learned alot.  But she still thinks Catie eats too many pancakes for breakfast which gives her high sugars post prandially.  Most likely true, but she just can't eat eggs everyday, that gets old.  But when she had that egg today it held her sugars steady so she didn't get low.  Something to be said for eggs.

Easter eggs - milk chocolate kinds.  I ate some of those.  Held me over until lunch :)

Critters

I promised a picture of the critter room.  First a background story - Catie has always loved stuffed animals the most when it came to toys, those were the ones she loved, played with and carried around with her.  When webkinz came out she kept seeing cute ones of those and had to have them.  We would be in the store and say, oo, i don't have this one and hold it like it was hers and how is a mom supposed to tell her to put it back.  So it came home with us.  Again, and Again.

After 10 years of agains we now hve a room in our house just for the critters.  We are lucky enough to have a house big enough to have a room just for the critters.  I try to keep them picked up and in their bins but for some reason they jump back out and it looks like this:

Sigh.  It's so friggin cute that I will truly miss it someday when she either moves out and takes the critters with her or decides to get rid of the whole bunch.

On the D front:  why is it that sometimes, not all the times, we get excited when we hangout with our BFF or even go shopping with her, we end up high later?  Why? Wouldn't the activity lower the blood sugar? Nope, not all the time.  After shopping today and before dinner we're at 236.  I know I counted lunch the same as always. Stupid diabeetus.

This week we have band day complete with a field trip to the high school where the nurse's office is a mile away from the band room and where they plan on pizza for lunch.  Sigh again.  Dad will be meeting her there at lunch time to test/count carbs/bolus.  Hopefully it will turn out better than last Tuesday with the all time high.

Tomorrow is Monday and I hate getting up on Mondays.  This is the one reason alone that I want to retire.

Easter Candy, the Mayflower, and BFF's

I love when Easter candy comes out in the stores and I love that Easter is late this year so we can buy Easter candy from Valentines Day all the way to April 23rd, over two months!  If the stores don't run out.  Gourmet jelly beans, Reeses peanut butter eggs, marshmallow peeps, etc. and these are in the pantry at the same time as the girl scout cookies. Catie can sure calculate how many carbs is in a single piece of candy or a cookie by doing the division from the label. But ask her to do the math on a sandwich - Mom, can't you do that?

Now I have always allowed her to have a few pieces of candy after a meal for dessert, and after she was diagnosed for the diabeetus, I told her she can keep eating those things, no problem.  She always placed limits on herself and never sat there and ate this stuff without stopping, like I've seen some of her friends do. So now she gets 25 carbs for dessert and she says that's plenty. And back she goes to what she was doing.

So today my cousin posts on Facebook that our grandmother's family can be traced back to one of the dudes on the Mayflower.  She's double checking a few things, and will let us know.  Pretty awesome.  I bet alot of people can trace their roots to someone like this.   I recently found my first Irish relative on my mom's side, before that no one was Irish in the family, which was hard to believe.  But I know now that my great great great grandma was a Maggie Keeney, proof enough for St. Patty's Day.

Catie can spend major amounts of time on the phone with her BFF while on Toontown, a disney kid web site.  She tried to get me to play on it too, but it was not my cup of tea.  I don't mind her spending hours doing that.  Although her sugars are a little higher than if she had someone to go outside and play with.  Her BFF lives 25 minutes away so they only see each other once a week if that and the last time they each got back on Tootown.  She has a good buddy at school too, ironically with the same name, but she never gets to see her on the weekends or online.  Between the two of them, she has a BFF where ever she goes.  At this age friends are getting more and more important and will be through high school.

Do I have a BFF?  I get a BFF, she moves away or I move away and then I get new friends and try to keep up with my old friends but it's just not the same if you can't see each other often enough. Sucks cause you miss them. I have a few good friends I can talk to alot, we are all so busy and can't do things together like we could when our lives were before kids, jobs, etc. I hope they are close by when we can retire. These are girlfriends I'm talking about. Hubby's are a ddifferent kind of friend, wink.  I can tell him everything, but you still need girlfriends.  Ever watch Sex and the City?  Those 4 girls are so close, it would be awesome to have 4 friends so close like that for many years.  I think that is why women love that show so much.

BFF's

Remind me to take a picture of the critter room tomorrow.

Dance Class

OK, the other day I mentioning rebasaling after a growth spurt and I did tweek a few of these to get the fasting sugars back in a good range and it worked.  My CDE also mentioned tweeking two ratios, bfast and dinner, the bfast tweek helped, but dinner gave us a low, due to me tweeking the basal too.  So anyway, after two weeks of wackiness due to illness and a growth spurt, we have achieved temporary number nirvana.

Until Friday dance class.

Recital 2006 pre-diabetes/pump.

Every Friday from 4:15 to 5:45 the pump is unplugged because you can not dance around with a pump flapping on you.  You have to look sleek in your leotard.  Not to mention feel normal.  So we have a decent snack and bolus before class and unplug.  After class we test and usually are low due to the activity.  And then we get smarties, yum.  Today we were 115 after class, yes!!  Score.  I'm sure later tonight we'll be sky high again. Press on.

Maybe this weekend I will blog about my hatred of asthma. Maybe not.  TGIF

Midterms and Cats

As my baby heads toward middle school, she now has serious school work ahead of her to include midterms and finals.  Tonight we memorized the symbols for 30 periodic elements.  Are you smarter than a 5th grader?  What's the symbol for insulin? not an element?  But it is a precious item.

I promised the Scruffy story. Catie just loves this cat. Here he is all cleaned up from his humble stray beginnings.  He has eczema, needs special diet food z/d diet which is very expensive, still itches and scratches himself all the time, has tons of crud in his ears, and he attacks my other cat who was here first.  Just for that he lives in the basement most of the time.  But when he's here with the rest of us, he gets the 4th chair at the dinner table, plays fetch with his green mouse tirelessly and will snuggle with you on the couch when you're teleworking or doing the taxes.  He also has bad habits of jumping onto the kitchen island and licking his butt.  My friend found him at the depot where we worked on Dec 29, 2006 and I told her to take him home with her because it was too cold out here.  We were getting ready to move and couldn't take him.  So she said he could live at her house with her other 4 cats and Yorkie until we got moved in.  In the meantime he got Bob Barkered.  We brought him hom eon March 2, 2007, worm and leukemia free, but he had fleas, a broken tail and this itching issue.  Later his tail tip fell off.  The vet didn't believe me until I brought it in for her to look at (in a ziploc).

Look at the scrtach on his nose when we found him.  He even let my friend give him a bath.  What cat takes a bath?  I tried to do that later and got scratched.

I told Catie she has to take him with her to college.  That will be at least 8 years or more.  She says she wants to do college online so she can stay home.  Cats live how long?

This is my baby Scrappy.  She has the best green eyes and gives me lots of kisses.  Scruffy is mean to her.

On a cool note today Kerri Sparling said she wold add me to her blogroll on sixuntilme.  Very cool.  My friend Tamara got to guest blog for her last week.  Blog royalty.

This weekend I will discuss set changes, BFF's and asthma (I hate asthma). Among other things.

Yesterday was an all time high

Nothing to be excited about, we had  to have our first site failure and it upset everyone but my hubby handled it pretty well (he only dropped the insulin on the floor once).  But 591 is definitely not a number you want to hear the nurse say, especially if it's the highest you've had since diagnosis.  Sucks actually.

Today is another day and we have band practice.  Did I ever mention that I think it's pretty cool that Catie gets to be in the band?  I always wanted to play an instrument and my parents always poopooed it due to money. Not a valid reason I say.  I hope she sticks with band through high school because it will give her the best friends.

I will talk about asthma another day and Scruffy too.