Diabetes and Summertime!

Well it’s official, summer vacation has started! I’m actually pretty excited for the kids to be home for the summer. Summertime is absolutely wonderful for the most part on Clifford’s blood sugars! A short trip on the trampoline will dip his numbers like crazy, so it’s great for unexplained highs, and we must boost him up if he’s running normal so he can get on and enjoy himself like everyone else.

Basal’s have been increased as of last week all across the board, and I have a feeling by this time next week we’ll be decreasing those said basals again. From sun up to sun down those kids are outside playing or doing some sort of activity, and exercise/activity works wonders on blood sugars. But can also be dangerous if it drops too low too fast. So when it comes to diabetes and summertime it’s always important to remember to test more frequently and be aware of how your body is feeling, or how your loved one is acting to ensure you have a safe and healthy summer!

D Blog Week: Day #5 What they should know…

Today's D-Blog Prompt: "Let’s borrow a topic from a #dsma chat held last September.  The tweet asked “What is one thing you would tell someone that doesn’t have diabetes about living with diabetes?”.  Let’s do a little advocating and post what we wish people knew about diabetes.  Have more than one thing you wish people knew?  Go ahead and tell us everything."

 

In short the one thing I would like everyone living without diabetes to know is this…………….We didn’t cause this……

Clifford wasn’t force fed sugar, he didn’t go to McDonalds daily, he didn’t eat candy, cake, or other sugary treats for breakfast. No matter what we did there was no way to prevent the attack of diabetes.

Plain and simple, I know I could tell you literally hundreds of things on what it’s like to live with diabetes, what it’s like to care for a child with diabetes, but the one misconception of diabetes I want to address is

WE DIDN”T CAUSE THIS!!

D Blog Week: Day #4 Fantasy Device

 

When I envision a fantasy D device I think about KITT from Knight Rider. I don’t know why but I imagine a device with the same voice that can be transferred into the car when it comes time to drive.

This device will alert you of highs and lows 1 hr before they are set to occur. This device will talk to your pump let it know exactly what your blood sugar is, what the carb amount is and tell it to give you an exact amount of insulin. No more finger pricks, no carb counting, somehow this machine / device will just KNOW what to do.

Or we can just have The Rock come and scare/will your pancreas into kick starting and working again, because well he’s The Rock. I perhaps would say Chuck Norris, but not really a Chuck Norris fan, besides the The Rock is a much scarier pancreas re-starter….

D Blog Week: Day #3 One thing to improve….

Well that’s really quite simple now isn’t is…. Clifford’s pancreas!!!! I’d definitely improve that… Ah but we are speaking “realistically” what we can improve. And since we all know no amount home remedies, or moss on trees in Africa, can cure diabetes, then there’s no chance of realistically improving his pancreas…..

So “realistically” speaking I’d improve my ability to wake myself up in the middle of the night. I hear my alarm that I set on my phone for the most part, but there are days that I wake up in the morning freaking because my phone is off. I turn it back on to realize, no the battery did not die, somehow in my sleep deprived subconscious state I completely turned off my phone. I try, I really, really try to get up, and sometimes my body just shuts itself off completely until morning.

So if I could improve anything it would be my ability to wake up. I’m not a super hero although I do think I’d look really good in a cape, so all I can do until I sport my new cape and superhuman powers is to hope I hear the many alarms I have set for the night to help keep Clifford alive and safe!

D Blog Week Day #2: One Great Thing

Living with Diabetes, (or caring for someone who lives with it) sure does take a lot of work, and it’s easy to be hard on ourselves if we aren’t “perfect”. But today it’s time to give ourselves some much deserved credit. Tell us about one diabetes thing you (or your loved one) does spectacularly!

I definitely never like to toot my own horn that’s for sure. But one thing I think in “D” life that I do pretty decently is being the math portion of Clifford’s pancreas. There are times when he’s lower (not necessarily low, low) but still has Insulin on board (Active insulin still working) well this requires math my friends. His sensitivity is 120 which means for every 1 unit of insulin his blood sugar is lowered on average by 120. So I’ve done the math that is about 12 for every .1 units. If he’s say 79 (like last night) and has 0.4 active, that doesn’t seem too good. However there’s the other part of me that takes into consideration he had white chocolate pretzels for a snack about 40 mins ago and the chocolate likes to come to the party and cause his blood sugar to peek at a much later time than normal foods . So Now instead of just doing the math with the 0.4 units active, his blood sugar number you have to take into consideration the chocolate. This means figuring out how many carbs it is going to take to prevent him from dropping low and keep him from going to high. Oy vey it makes my head hurt now! For the most part I don’t do too bad with this I will go with 8 out of 10 times we’re pretty spot on with the guestimates.

This math factor comes into play all day long he was 113 @ 2:30 am. Okay so now I’m sitting here half awake trying to figure out if I give him something to boost him or let him ride. Seeing as between 4 and 5 he “typically” goes higher due to the growth hormone being more active and partying! However in this incident to me it was only 2:30, 3, to 3:30 he tends to dip. Plus his basal is still running at a higher rate between 12 and 3am. So I gave him 3 pixie sticks, which btw only have 15 grams of carbs per seven small sticks, so roughly a little over 2grams each, yes I did this math in my head at 2:30 am. I have to, it’s what keeps him alive. Just shy of 7 grams of carbs kept him riding good until morning! He woke up at 6:15 at 107, but didn’t technically get up till 7am to eat when he was 132!

I like to brag about these “good days” but as you know there are not so good days like the other night. Unfortunately for us I believe it was either a site issue or insulin issue as I changed out the insulin when we changed his site. Either way he’s back to having good #’s.

D Blog Week: DAY 1 Find a Friend

So this year I am participating in the 3rd Annual D Blog week. This is my 2nd year participating and I really enjoy it.

Today is Day 1, and with Day 1 today’s topic is Find a Friend. We’re kicking off D blog week by making new connections.

The one blog that I read pretty much daily is Meri’s Blog at: Our Diabetic Life. If you are looking for some honest, open and real reading about life with Diabetes you definitely will be pleased.

So I know we’re supposed to list just one, but I really think this whole list is perfect for everyone to find a friend. Click here for the list of 192 participants in this years D blog week.

Diabetes doesn’t sleep

Diabetes doesn’t sleep and because diabetes doesn’t sleep, neither do I.

So typically I would NOT Post my morning (up all night with D picture) but w/e it’s that type of morning. Diabetes does NOT sleep. I know we’ve said this many times before but it doesn’t care what time of day it is. It doesn’t need to rest and take a break for it’s next attack, it has unlimited energy! And unfortunately I do not, but I try. A typical night with Diabetes is NOT always like the one I’m about to describe, but unfortunately they do happen from time to time. A typical night with Diabetes is overnight testing, getting up to an alarm at 12 or 12:30, either correcting, leaving him be, or having to shove a juice box in his face if he’s low. If you correct or treat which honestly it’s about 70/30 that you have to do one of those other than leave him be, then you are back up in an hour to another alarm to retest, treating you want to wait 15 mins, retest, then back up in an hour just to be sure. From there it’s another alarm at 3am. Again the whole cycle begins, treat, correct, let him be. If one of the 2 then an hour once more.  I really, honestly LOVE those let him be sort of nights! Because I get to sleep!

And then you have days like last night. It was mother’s day and he got to indulge in a treat, besides, he’s a kid first right? He had chocolate cake, peanut butter icing with Resse pieces…. Yum to the max! However to my confusion he dropped like a rock to 59 before bed?!?!?!? Okay so we treated, waited and he was 90 in 30 mins, however here’s the kicker he still had 0.9 insulin on board (IOB) so what do I do, I treat again, but not as much as I was thinking to. Retest, he’s 269 (Oy vey! No winning, so I correct 0.9 units) back up at 12:30 (alarm time) and he’s 342 :/ so now I’m thinking we have a pump issue, a site issue one of them, retested after washing his fingers and it says 424! Really? One sigh of relief, no ketones, so I correct AGAIN! and retest in an hour. Well no more alarms for the night for me because Miss Annie decided to have a party from 1am to 4am with Hayleigh waking up in between, at this point I’m convinced I’m never sleeping again. Retest in an hour 363 Grrrrr. I wait another hour at 3:30ish he’s still 368, but no ketones, so I decided instead of waking him up to change a site at 3:30 seeing as he had no ketones, that I would correct and move on my way. I tested once more before finally getting back to bed close to 4:30 and he’s still riding in the lower 300s, so I had decided I would recheck at 5am when Chad’s alarm went off.

One problem , when you don’t sleep and your exhausted you sleep right through that alarm and even him leaving for work, and instead wake up at 6:50 to Clifford up for the day. Well best part, he’s ALIVE!! But really kid 6:50???? He really needs dark curtains for his windows…. Kicker of it all he’s 348! You’ve got to be kidding me. I said a few choice words, then checked ketones, NONE! So confused at this point but decided to change his site anyways so he’s not skyrocketing at school. Here’s hoping his day goes better, he got 4.5 units for breakfast so crossing fingers, saying prayers that’s enough to bring him down.

Diabetes doesn’t sleep and because diabetes doesn’t sleep, neither do I.

Diabetes doesn't want to let you just be a kid......

Field Trip Day! One of the funniest things you can remember from being a child, especially when the field trip lasts all day long. The memo went out to Diabetes to act calm, cool, and collective on field trip day, but apparently it doesn't follow memos, or any rules for that matter.

Today Clifford had his Safety Day field trip at our County Fairgrounds. It was a nice set up and everything was fun and educational. Diabetes didn't get our memo to remain cool, calm, collective, and most importantly OUT of the way. Diabetes however doesn't really care if it's field trip day and you just want to be a kid. Diabetes could care less about what you want, it's main concern is about what it wants, and that is to wreak havoc over your body. Here we were 9:30 am sitting in the barn at our Fairgrounds about to watch a high voltage demonstration and I decided to do a "check" you know just to be sure. He was 409! I mean in comparison to what I was thinking, I guess Diabetes played a little nice. Grabbed his ketone meter was sure the site went bad, and this just depressed the crap outta me. Thankfully no ketones, time to correct. One hour later another "check" to see if he was coming down. He was still 345! "Facepalm".

So what did I do then? Well I've had my experience with the infamous rage bolusing now you can say that much. I wasn't about to let diabetes keep rearing it's ugly head and ruin field trip day. He was already feeling some effects from the high you could tell, rubbing his eyes, blinking like crazy, which tells me his eyes were not feeling too hot, or rather they were feeling really HOT. Even though if you'd ask him how he was feeling he'd tell you "I'm fine". So we corrected again, more aggressively than normal that's for sure. Fast forward to lunch time. Aside from the wicked cold temperatures, frozen hands and fingers we couldn't feel, we were having a good time. And Diabetes well it decided to play nice finally as he was 145. When he arrived home he was 147! This pancreas was patting herself on the back.  Two lows (77 and 63) later he was back with a 130 for dinner time, and an ending note of 109 for bedtime. Here's hoping that Diabetes got the bedtime memo that this pancreas is tired, has to work all night and is in need of her beauty sleep (as you can tell from the above picture).

Point to this post is, Diabetes could care less what you have planned. When you have Diabetes it's always there with you, no matter what you do to try to maintain it, it's always going to be there, some days it will play nice and others it will decide to be a huge pain in the rear end. But one fact remains constant it's always going to be there. It's going to be there when Clifford learns to drive, it's going to be there when he graduates from high school, it will be there when he get's married, it will be there at the birth of his first child (whom I pray so hard will not have to experience what their Daddy has to), it will be there throughout every monumental milestone in his life! However so will I, battling back (for as long as God allows), so will Clifford battling back, as pushing and fighting back to keep it in its place!

You think you know, but you have no idea…….

di.a.be.tes noun  : any of various abnormal conditions characterized by the secretion and excretion of excessive amounts of urine;

Sorry Webster’s dictionary but I’m going to change your definition of the big D up a bit

di.a.be.tes noun a monster that feasts on the bodies of unsuspecting victims, wreaking havoc throughout their lives, never permitting a full night’s sleep,always awake, always feasting, never takes a vacation, and so dangerous that the sound/word (DIE) is in it, and that is very well what it can do to you.

Today is True Life Tuesday for WEGO health. So let’s start this post with all the truthfulness of diabetes and what it brings

You think you know but you have no idea…… When it hits you or in our case, hits your child, you are not prepared. You are not prepared to watch your child laying in a hospital bed unconscious because high blood sugars are running rampant through his body. You are not prepared to hear the doctor’s explain to you that your son has “Type 1 diabetes”, and you are definitely not prepared to hear them explain it in a way like it’s no big deal. I’m here to say unfortunately it is a HUGE deal, and I wish they would have explained it that way to me in the beginning other than it’s no big deal! Oh yes and guess what no practice, here’s a needle stick it in his arm and give him this life saving medicine, and you have to now do this 6 times a day! I for one was not a fan of needles from the get go. I never could look at them when I was getting a shot. But now I have to do this to my son!!!!!

Fast forward, you are not prepared for a low blood sugar that causes him to pass out. Oh yes and you’re definitely not prepared to give a glucagon injection with your hands shaking trying to stay calm because there are two other kids watching on, trying to act like “it’s no big deal” while on the inside you are freaking thinking you are watching your son die before your eyes.  You definitely are not prepared to watch him have a seizure again because of “DIABETES” which remember is NO BIG DEAL! Thankfully these events are not something we experience on a daily basis, however the things we do experience on a daily basis are almost as scary.

*making sure to count and weight food/carbs diligently so that we don’t have one of the incidents above from too much insulin

*keeping him alive throughout the day. Doing this by giving again this “insulin” that could also at the same time kill him if given too much

*NIGHTS! Don’t even get me started on nights. I hate nights. I love sleep, and well those two just don’t’ go together anymore. It’s either a battle to keep blood sugars down, or a battle to keep them up. Or like one incident in the morning from blood in the cannula a battle to bring numbers down while getting rid of those deadly ketones!

I’m so tired of blood and everything else that comes with diabetes that my head hurts! I’m just tired of diabetes in general which you can read about here.

So here’s the true life according to this post. Diabetes sucks! Our life however is wonderful, I wouldn’t change a thing, well except maybe give Clifford a “WORKING” pancreas! Stupid pancreas and Damn Diabetes” For now I’m his working pancreas, until he’s given the duty of being his full time pancreas. Oh and case I forgot to mention it Diabetes You SUCK!

So tired of diabetes…

 

Just so tired of diabetes, and what it does to him. So tired that even though it’s bedtime the night is not over. That the battle cannot even be done for rest time. So tired that when I wake up in the middle of the night unexpectedly I think it’s God’s way of telling me to go check on him. I can’t get back to sleep until I do. Even more tired of the fact that he is in fact low at 2am sometimes out of the blue! So tired that yes my mind goes there, “WHAT IF” I didn’t wake up unexpectedly to test him, the scheduled test wasn’t for another hour! So tired that even though great technology like the CGM and MYSentry are available that we aren’t privy to these lifesaving devices because the insurance deems them not necessary. If one of these insurance folks had to watch their son suffer a seizure from a hypo knowing there was absolutely nothing they could do about it, and in fact the seizure seemed to play out in slow motion all the while your mind is thinking you are watching him die right there in front of you, then maybe, just maybe they would deem these devices necessary. Perhaps if they knew what it was like to go on broken sleep for what seems like forever, they might think otherwise. I’m so tired of blood! I’m so tired of pain, not just the physical pain that Clifford has to endure but the emotional pain it puts on the whole family. I’m so tired of being a freaking calculator that my head hurts. I’m so tired of doing the job of a pancreas that was defeated when his immune system came throwing down. I’m so tired of hearing there will be a cure in 10 years…From what I’ve heard many other D mom’s before me have heard this same thing, find the cure already damnit, and move on from believing Diabetes is your pot of gold, I think people’s lives are much more important than any amount of money in the world.  I’m overall just so tired of the whole damn thing.

But even though I’m tired I still move forward. I still work to fight as hard as I can to make sure he stays alive DAILY! I don’t like to think of it that way, but when you’re told you actually save your child’s life DAILY, that’s huge and at the same time sad. No matter how tired I am its all worth it to see him smiling and laughing and enjoying life! It’s all worth it seeing him enjoy being just a “kid” not a kid with diabetes. So even though I’m so tired of you diabetes, I will continue to fight you!