Life can be rough...

We've been battling a swing of blood sugars the last few days. The numbers will be normal. Then suddenly spike up to alarming levels requiring me to wake up every 3 hours for corrections. Then it'll go back to normal. Tonight has been high and I'm praying it'll drop down because I'm feeling so burned out. I know it's always going to be like this - but I can't help but wish that it would give us like a week's vacation. After 3 months don't we deserve at least that? Or at least some regularity? Unless chaos is the new regular.

On a different note I've discovered blogging is a useful threat. Jilly was being a wee bit naughty today. Doing something and not stopping when told to. I finally threatened her that if she didn't stop I was going to blog about what she was doing. That stopped her shenanigans fast!

Kids say the funniest things...

I have a family tradition of watching the Macy's Thanksgiving parade. A tradition I'm forcing on my daughter. And while she likes the floats and giant balloons she finds the multiple high school bands and singing floats dull. A bored 8 year old equals a naughty 8 year old.

Me: You know if you don't start being good Santa isn't going to give any gifts. You know that right?
Jilly feeling overly saucy: Yeah. Instead he'll stuff my stocking full of chocolate cake with out any insulin.

Another reason why she's amazing...

When Jilly started grade K her teacher had the class make these little school buses out of construction paper for the front board. Each bus was brightly colored and had the child's name and the words 'I can (fill in blank)'. One kid said 'I can say my A, B, C's'. Another said 'I can play with my dog'. All pretty normal 5 year old thoughts.

Jilly's said:

'I can save the world.'

I hope she keeps that belief with her forever.

Double checking doesn't mean it's perfect..

The morning routine...

Our morning's are becoming a consistent pattern now:

6:45 - Alarm goes off and I smack snooze.
7:00 - I finally get out of bed. Let the old dog out, use the bathroom, feed the cat and take my pills.
7:20 - I pick out Jilly's clothing which often involves me going out into the laundry room because who has time to put the folded clothes away? I then cuddle up with Jilly and try to wake her up. Usually it takes me blowing in her face and tickling her ear with a lock of her hair to get her to wake up. And by waking up I mean 'she pretends to sleep while trying to hide a smile'. I then end up removing her blankets, and telling her she needs to wake up because I can hear the puppy crying.
7:35 - I have a 50% chance of remembering to put my pants on before I walk the puppy. Otherwise I realize it as i'm standing out in my slippers and pajamas in front of all the traffic driving by.
7:45 - Puppy is in her big crate having breakfast, then gets walked again then is let loose to play. While she's having breakfast Jilly comes up stairs with messy hair and hauling a blanket, 2 stuffed animals and her D kit. The first thing she says to me is 'Can I watch TV?' to which I always reply 'Is your hair brushed and your back pack packed?'. Answer is always Oh..yeah..
8:00 - Jilly checks her blood sugar. I've made breakfast: 1 cup of cereal, 1 cup of milk, 2 pieces of bacon, and a fruit (usually bannana).
8:10 - Jilly gives her morning injection after me asking multiple times if I need to turn the TV off so she can focus. She checks her kit to make sure it's got everything she needs for the day. Then while she's eating I check her kit again because you can never be too careful.
8:15 - I'm making lunch. She wants to eat the same thing over and over again for lunch and I've relented. I'm learning to pick my battles. I make her a bento box with mini hot dogs, a milk, a cheese stick cut up, a fruit, crackers and a little dessert such as one mini twinkie. I make it look cute and pretty, something she can proudly show off to her friends. Food that shows my love. And as I'm putting it in her lunchbox I look up at the clock. Poop!
8:20 - I'm yelling at Jilly to turn the TV off, get her shoes on, get her coat, get her bags and kit. As we're late. I'm scrambling to get dressed, brush my hair, put make up on, get pets where they need to go, find my wallet - find my keys, yell at Jilly again that she needs to put a 'coat' on as it's winter. Not just a light weight hoodie - her coat. Get out to the car, verify we have the kit, lunchbox and D kit. And then I realize I haven't had time to make my own lunch or breakfast.

That's my morning. So it didn't really surprise me today when the school nurse called to tell me the humalog vial in Jilly's pen was empty. It was then that I remembered that when I had done the 3am check earlier that morning I had seen that the pen was low and had made the mental note to replace it in the morning. Who can remember what they were thinking at 3 am? Not me that's for sure!

I had them check her BS and feed her lunch while I had a frantic drive home from work. I then grabbed two vials - one for the pen and the other for the nurse's fridge as a back up. Now that we're into month 3 with T1D we're starting to get enough supplies to be properly prepared. When I got to the school Jilly was fine. She was sitting in the nurses office playing a game with another little girl. She replaced the vial, did her injection and went back to class as I drove back to work. She also thanked me and told me how much she loves me. Which is really the most important part of it all.

So the new rules I learned today:

Even if I make a mistake in her management she'll still love me just as much as ever.

And

Double checking doesn't mean it's going to be perfect.

Family Retreat

Time really flies when you're busy with D...

I haven't posted for a bit - been busy with home, work and fun. We are now going on 2 months with T1D and it's beyond amazing how far we've come. Not to go all sappy but I'm so proud of Jilly. When we were first diagnoised one of our biggest fears was full day - day care. Our family is dependent on both of our jobs so quitting wasn't a possibility for either of us. But with no one to give Jilly her injections at day care I had no idea what we would do. Talk about stress!
I brought my fears up with her endo and thanks to him she is giving her own injections, is learning to carb count and read her chart. And following the endo's advice (and with the help of the day care teachers) we ran through two 'trial' injections at after school care. Ren picked up McDonalds for dinner on his way to pick her up from the center (we never eat McDonalds or most fast food so it was quite a treat). And she did her dinner injections there with the staff. Then she had a full day of day care on Vet's Day. Her and the staff handled the injections, and double checking the dial up amount perfectly! I'm still nervous about summer care because the kids take 3 field trips a week. But we'll make it work.

Jilly and I went to Family Retreat two weekends back and I can not recommend it enough. She met a really good friend, interacted with other T1D kids and had some good mom bonding time. I discovered that our family having T1D is an invite into a club of supportive parents. The club even has it's own lingo. I haven't discovered if there's a handshake yet, but I feel a sense of kin ship with these other families.
The panels I went to were very informative. My favorite was the teen panel where a group of kids honestly told us what it's like to be a teenager with T1D. I want Jilly to be as confident as these kids were. Because they were really amazing in individual ways.

The retreat taught me a new rule:
Never get mad at a kid for high blood sugars. It's just a number, and getting angry or using terms like 'bad and good blood sugars' makes a kid feel responsible or to blame for the diabetes when it's no one's fault.

First Blog Giveaway!!! - Closed

Because who doesn't like free stuff...

I caught a cold and have been feeling very under the weather the last few days. Lucky for me my husband has really stepped up and took over JillyBean's D care - leaving me to get some rest and not spread my germs to the rest of the family. He also took care of both hyper dogs and our very fat and very lazy cat. Being sick made me realize how very lucky I am to be in this marriage, I can't imagine how incredibly strong a single parent of a T1D child must be. To do all this on their own? It can be so very difficult with just the two of us. If there are any single T1D parent readers out there - I just want you to know I think you are amazing.

The rollercoaster of D...

I'm sick. Just a sore throat and achyness most likely caused by sitting in a very cold room that had the AC on at full blast yesterday at work. The AC might not be the cause of these germs but i'm pretty certain it's played it's part in how I'm feeling today. So under the orders of my husband I was ostercised to our bedroom where me and my germs could be contained. It was also a great excuse to play some Professor Layton on the DS. I love that game.

Jilly's bloodsugar has been high the last two days. At first it was 'high normal' then it was 'high alarming'. Usually her blood sugar is in the range of 150 to 250 at night after recieving her long acting insulin. Last night she tested in at 375! I gave her a correction, tested this morning and she was 335 - only a wee bit better. I had her test Ketones and the stick lit up with a new color that we've never seen before 'mild'. At this point I started to freak - mild? What am I suppose to do with mild?

I left a message for the doctor, cracked open the pink panther book and read that I should check and correct every 2 to 3 hours for mild ketones. The school nurse isn't always staffed at the school (we adore Jilly's nurse) but she handles several other T1D kids at another nearby grade school and as she has two schools has to bounce back and forth between them. So I called into work sick today - which technically I am even though I was just planning on working the day anyway with my good buddy Dayquil. But I can't commute to work and get to Jilly's school in time for a correction. So I curl up on the couch with a cup of tea.

At 10:30 I go in to her school and test her again. 386! I open a new vial of Hummalog - because at this point I think she's either getting sick or there's something funky with the insulin. I correct her and then call and talk to the nurse. We decide I'll call back for lunch to see how her blood stands. Which I do and what do you know her blood is now in the low 70's! Huge amount of difference. Jilly starts to experience the symptoms of a low so they jelly bean her up with Hello Kitty jelly beans no less, retest then give her half a granola bar for good measure. I decided then that they could let her have her lunch and just cover the carbs for it. I'll pick her up from school today - which she'll be cranky about because she wants to go to daycare and play with her friends. But better a cranky child with controlled blood than a kid passed out in a pile of legos.

Today I hate T1D even though I feel a bit of satisfaction that I'm starting to understand it better. We have a new rule to add to the list:

If BS won't go down switch to a new vial of insulin - then watch carefully for a low.