2011 Ambassador of PA for the Diabetes Dude

Cliffy was excited when he received Daniella (The diabetes flamingo ) in the mail the other day from his buddy Noah (The Diabetes Dude) . With Daniella Cliffy is going to help raise awareness for Diabetes. We are currently working on getting him to "flock" his classmates with Daniella, and I'm in contact with our State Representative Sam Smith, from our District to get Cliffy and Daniella to meet with him.

We will be busy the next few months in getting the word out. Be on the look out for posts with Cliffy and Daniella to see what they've been up to.

The Most Difficult thing about Diabetes and Exercise....

Exercise is great for everyone, but is particularly awesome for those with Diabetes. It helps to lower blood sugar numbers, which in turn means less insulin for Clifford. But there is also a hitch to exercise and diabetes. That is the management.

When Cliffy exercises his blood sugar lowers at least by 20 or more. We've tried this on World Diabetes Day including playtime outside on the swingset, lowering his blood sugar from 159 to 128, in the matter of 15 minutes. This is great, but sometimes can be tricky in trying to make sure he doesn't drop too low too fast. So to me the most difficult part to diabetes management and exercise is the attempt to make sure we are getting the benefits of the activity and keeping his blood sugar stable.

This post is my March entry in the DSMA Blog Carnival. If you’d like to participate too, you can get all of the information athttp://diabetessocmed.com/2011/march-dsma-blog-carnival“

Seeing Blue once again....

Unfortunately the DOC knows too well what the wave of blue candles across our social networks mean. It means a life was cut short to this vicious disease once again. This time two innocent lives were taken away due to Type 1 diabetes. One a 24 year old man, who had been missing when he went to visit his sister, and an 8th grade boy who went undiagnosed. Please say prayers for both the families as they mourn the loss of their loved ones.

No one should be dying from non diagnosis of Type 1. It is VERY important to recognize the signs and symptoms ahead of time, you can never be too careful. Take a moment to familiarize yourself with them, you never know when it will come in handy. You may save someones life!

Type 1 diabetes signs and symptoms can come on quickly and may include:

• Increased thirst and frequent urination. As excess sugar builds up in your bloodstream, fluid is pulled from your tissues. This may leave you thirsty. As a result, you may drink — and urinate — more than usual.
• Extreme hunger. Without enough insulin to move sugar into your cells, your muscles and organs become depleted of energy. This triggers intense hunger that may persist even after you eat. Without insulin, the sugar in your food never reaches your energy-starved tissues.
• Weight loss. Despite eating more than usual to relieve hunger, you may lose weight — sometimes rapidly. Without the energy sugar supplies, your muscle tissues and fat stores may simply shrink.
• Fatigue. If your cells are deprived of sugar, you may become tired and irritable.
• Blurred vision. If your blood sugar level is too high, fluid may be pulled from your tissues — including the lenses of your eyes. This may affect your ability to focus clearly.

I didn't know any of these symptoms before Cliffy was diagnosed. But he had weight loss, fatigue, extreme thirst, frequent urination. I know I said there are times I want to scream at the top of my lungs "I HATE BEING A PANCREAS", but I'm happy that today Cliffy is with us , and happy that I have the chance to be his pancreas! Unfortunately for so many that is not the case. Know the symptoms!!! It can save lives.

I hate being a Pancreas.....

I've worn many hats in my life thus far, there are those I was born into, daughter and sister. Those I've acquired as I grew up, student, athlete, and friend. And there is the most important hat of all, MOM. Little did I know that God would choose to bless me with a special kind of child. A child with whom I would wear yet another hat, a pancreas. A child with Type 1 diabetes.

There are days where I feel my duties as a pancreas have been handled wonderfully, then there are days where I just want to scream out that I hate being a pancreas... But unlike Clifford's actual pancreas, I may get tired, and worn out, but I will not quit working.

Have you ever had that pulling feeling that you need to do something right away? That type of feeling occurred to me at 2:30 am while I was up with the twins. It was the type of feeling that I had to stop what I was doing and just NEEDED to test Clifford. I couldn't wait till 3 like normal, for some reason my world ceased to move until I went and tested him. Normally this type of feeling, leads to a discovery of lows, and has been life saving in the past. But this time brought on another number I, as a pancreas, hate to see, 401! This is where my duties as a pancreas must kick in and I must make the right decision on what to do. I debated briefly with myself, do I correct and give an injection to a sleeping boy at 2:30 in the morning, or do I let him ride it out and hope he goes back down by morning. I decided to re test him, to make sure the number was correct. The next beep of the meter revealed what I had hoped was just a fluke, 403! I did not feel good to let him ride this out through the night knowing he climbs in the early morning hours of 4 to 5 am. I decided to correct and give him an injection. But these are the times I spoke of where I detest my pancreatic duties, and I detest his pancreas for not doing it's job... But they are also the times when all goes well, that I am happy I was there to serve as a pancreas for him, when his has decided to quit.. As of 6am we are sitting pretty at 153, a much better number to have him waking up to.. Clifford did end up waking up for the injection and wanted me to make a guess on what his waking number would be, I guessed 182, he said nope it's going to be 123! I surely hope for him he is correct, that would be an awesome number!

A break from D......

I've heard it must be nice to have a break from D while Cliffy is in school.... A break from D????? I never have a break from D. Sure there are times when Cliffy is at school or at his dads that I'm not handling the hands on with D, but that doesn't mean I'm not thinking about it. That doesn't mean that I'm still not "on call" if the nurse or his dad has a question about D or his care. I still haven't gotten used to getting the kids lunch ready without testing someones blood sugar or getting an injection ready. It is a weird feeling to me just to get lunch ready and have them eat, and nothing else. It also doesn't help that when I finally start thinking he's in good hands, I hear how someone messed something up when he was at school, and then I have to talk with them again, and have to start to worry constantly about his care when he's there. It may be a good day when the phone is silent from no one calling, but it's also those days that I'm watching the clock awaiting his return so I can see how it all went. It's also days like today where it's a guessing game on the amount of carbs, because Cliffy wants Pizza like everyone else. I honestly think it's days like this that are harder then the "Hands on" care of D. At least when he's home I know what's going on, and where his numbers are at.


At the end of the month we go back to clinic to get our A1c, what I refer to as my report card. Which will give a generalized idea of how well we've been fighting D the last 3 months. In December our A1c was 7.1, which is great, but I was disappointed in myself for the reason being in September it was 6.9, so we had a bit of an increase. I would really LOVE to see a drop this time, or for it to stay the same, no increase!! However we had over a week straight of highs, crazy highs from being sick, and the days leading up to that week we had highs, as well as the days after. And just when you think things are getting back to normal (if there is even such a thing) you have a morning like today 323!! I cannot wait until we can start our classes to move towards the pump. When I correct him overnight with an injection its a guessing game if he's actually going to climb or if he will even out before morning. And for that reason even though I hate seeing his waking number over 300, I don't like to correct until he's pushing 300-400 at 3am. Which he was not last night, he was sitting steady the last few hours at around 210. So sad to say today was one of those mornings that D went "Neener, neener, neener " to us when we saw that number. So for now D has got one over on us, but I will most definitely make sure it doesn't tomorrow.

We are finally becoming a virus free household. But let me tell you that was a long 2 and a half weeks. I was beginning to think I would never have a day without a sick child. It went through Cliffy, Hayleigh, and Abby first. It took a full 10 days for Abby to feel better. Then I was hit, thankfully only for 3 days, then Annie got not just Influenza B but an ear infection too. It very much threw off her sleeping schedule, and my baby who once slept through the night (8pm-5am) with Maggie, has now been waking up every 1-2 hrs all night long for the last 5 nights. Needless to say Mommy is very tired... Lastly it hit Eric, but he was another lucky one and only had it a few days. After 2 and a half weeks, Chad is the only one who hasn't gotten sick at all, no fever, no congestion, no sinus issues, nothing. He is contributing it to him taking his new vitamin, Double X. Which I think is true, since he made me start taking it along with a Vitamin C supplement from Nutrilite when I was sick and I only had it 3 days versus a week like the rest of the kids. Hopefully things can get back to normal now and we can get back into a routine, because this up every few hours again is not fun.

If I could write a book.............

If I could write a book I would start it with a happy ending.

"And then there was you........ "

And then there was you is really not an ending, but my happy beginning. The words that fill in the rest of the space before there was you do not matter, what matters is the here and now. Here and now stands us together, what came before this is our story about the bridges that connected us together throughout time to always make sure we one day crossed them to meet again.

When you touch someones life so deeply that they carry you with them always throughout time and space, well now that should mean something. It speaks wonders about your character, your life, and more importantly about the type of person you are. If I could write a phrase to pass on to our children so that they would one day know where it all began it would be this.

It all started with a look.... And from then on out my heart was hooked.....

Our past isn't what defines us, our past is what molds us to become the person we are today. But your never truly the person you were meant to be until your heart is where it was meant to be.

My point of writing a brief picture into my head on our relationship is this. With everything that has happened. I am still probably to some sickenly happy. I am now becoming the person I was meant to be. The person that my son needs to fight the good fight for him in his path to a cure for the disease that invaded his body. And for that I am very thankful. Thankful that I can be who I need to be for myself, and for my family. I'm also thankful that I can be who I was meant to be because my heart is finally where it was meant to be......

Our Year with Diabetes

One year ago today was one of the worst possible days of my life. I watched as my then 6 year old son laid in a hospital bed fighting for his life. He was unresponsive, and in what I found out was DKA, Diabetic ketoacidosis.

Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) is a state of absolute or relative insulin deficiency aggravated by ensuing hyperglycemia, dehydration, and acidosis-producing derangements in intermediary metabolism. The most common causes are underlying infection, disruption of insulin treatment, and new onset of diabetes.

As I watched him laying there that day, I couldn't help but start to think, "How am I going to do this, and more importantly, "How is he going to do this"...I really had no understanding at that time what exactly was going on, and what exactly Type 1 diabetes was. I was ignorant to the two types, and had no knowledge of the disease other then a few facts about Type 2. I couldn't fathom the idea of having to give my son a shot, (Let alone 6 a day). I was at the time deathly afraid of needles for myself. How was I going to manage to give my son a shot. I had so many questions that needed answered but couldn't seem to get the words out of my mouth.

I watched as the nurses showed me how to draw up his insulin, and administer the injections. During the first day Cliffy really didn't know what was going on as he was in and out of sleep. It wasn't until the second day that he started to come around after having his insulin injections. You could see how much better he was starting to look. It wasn't until this time that the idea of him having diabetes became a reality. Until then I think I was in denial thinking they had it wrong. The thought of his pancreas only functioning at 20% like they stated didn't make any sense to me what so ever. He had what I thought was only the flu. To me all he needed was to get some fluids in him and get back to eating... Well that was not the case. And it wasn't until he started to look a lot healthier with the insulin injections that I realized they were right.

It has definitely been a crazy but prosperous year with D. We have had 3 hospitalizations in addition to diagnosis, 2 from hypo episodes causing a seizure and Cliffy passing out, and one from the Flu. But in all the amount of knowledge I have absorbed since diagnosis is crazy. And unlike a year ago, we are now connected with a great support system known as the DOC (Diabetic Online Community.). Without them I may have completely lost my mind by now.

For everything that has happened Cliffy has come out on top, he is the same boy I remember but only stronger, and much more grown up. The is the one downside of Diabetes. Diabetes has forced him to grown up much faster then he should have to. But despite of it all he is a happy boy, he loves life, and his family, especially his siblings. And for it all I commend him for all he has had to endure this year, and for all he's overcome!

I also must commend Chad for everything he has done as well. For what it's worth to him I appreciate everything he has done, and couldn't have made it through it all without him as well. He stuck by our sides and went through the same things Cliffy and I did, and learned how to take care of him as well.

In ending, this may not be one anniversary I wish to celebrate one year in, but I am very happy we have made it this far. I am more happy that my son is alive to celebrate this anniversary as well. I'm sure in time I will learn not to be as bitter to D as I might be now, because I have definitely have become less and less over the course of our year with Diabetes.