Behavior and Diabetes....

Have you ever noticed your child having overly obnoxious behavior as in being more whiny then normal? Perhaps throwing a tantrum over something you think is very silly. How about lashing out with rude words and phrases at you and siblings? Well this sort of behavior is normal for kids of all ages with or without D.

However there are times I can tell Cliffy is either high or low based on his behavior alone. When he's high, he tends to be more whiny, more easy to throw a temper tantrum, especially over nothing at all. He is more grumpy, and crabby when he's high as well. Besides having a high blood sugar is no fun at all, you get a headache and feel down right icky, and worn out. When he's lower he has overly obnoxious behavior and tends to be downright rude and disrespectful.

But like with everything else D related I don't let Clifford use his diabetes as an excuse to be bad. He's a smart kid and if I started letting him do that he would act up and blame it on D all the time. I've had many talks with him that start either with, "Go test yourself, then we'll talk", or "Just because your (low/high) doesn't give you the right to act up. Trying having that convo in public around others. "Just because your high doesn't mean you can act like that to me"... The looks are priceless.

I fully understand some of these behaviors are increased in intensity due to blood sugar's. However I do not let him use it as an excuse. It goes with he can do whatever he sets his mind to D or not. I want him to feel like a normal kid, and we talk about the actions and how he doesn't get a free ticket to being disrespectful.

What to accomplish before the Apocalypse.....

With Judgement Day now rescheduled until October 21st, 2011, I got to thinking what I wanted to accomplish before it gets here. First off I see it happening more like my picture, but eh, that's just me. Secondly I would prefer it wait at least 6+ months into 2012 so I can accomplish one of my bigger things to get done before said apocalypse, but that's a personal one and it's secret ;).

Now we really don't have a lot of time until Oct 21st, 2012, so I better get cracking on what I want to get done. The twins will be turning 1 at the beginning of October, so that's a big one. I think a cure for Diabetes would be awesome before the end. Also a nice visit to Ireland would be super as well. I would like to get a new cute dress, a dress that I can wear now being Non pregnant for the summer, and perhaps some new sandals. A new bikini would be nice as well, but I need to get a tan first, no one wants to see Caspar walking around.

Now with all fun and games over with I really do not believe Judgement Day will happen on Oct 21st, 2011. And it's a little kick to Christians everywhere for ONE person to claim he knows when it is going to happen when there is technically only one person who actually knows.

"No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father

Diabetes and Insurance...

We've had our battles in the past and have come out on top, with the most recent being a pharmacist boo boo that took 6 days to fix. Yes 6 days until we had in hand all our monthly diabetic supplies that keep Clifford alive. They were lucky that I make sure to stockpile and had all that I needed to get us through until the pulled their heads out of their bums and fixed the error.

So now this time it's the insurance. We asked about getting Clifford on a CGM because he's not always feeling his lows. He will feel himself drop, but not always his lows. He is also having random lows during the night only found on random checks, not scheduled ones.

This mama needs some sleep and so does our T1D. Just something to put our mind at ease a bit and help with these random drops. So what are we told, "Talk to the administrator that handles the insurance claims to see if it's covered". Well the admin finally calls back about a week later to let me know "It's not covered at all, they won't cover it", however you can purchase the machine for only $1200, and the sensors are $40 a pop and need to be changed what every 2-3 days.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA to you miss administrator because I refuse to be told that the insurance won't cover something I'm dead set on that my son needs. So I nicely said, "Okay you'll be hearing from me again soon" muahahahahaha (evil laugh).

Currently in the process of talking with said insurance company and having our Case Management team that handles claims that "are not covered" work on it. I'll update when things get situated. But insurance and diabetes is enough to give me a headache. It's not like a pain killer you can just deal with the pain without. Certain diabetic supplies and oh yeah INSULIN they need to what's that, yeah LIVE!

Looking at Photographs.....

That's Clifford about 1 month before being diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. D probably already began it's invasion on his body during this time, but we had no idea. It's hard to go back and look at old photographs, instead of just remembering the happy times, or that particular occasion, it's more of a "Hey that was before D" scenario. All of the pictures now are "Before D", and "After D".

Eventually I get to remembering what happened or what was going on when that picture was taken, but the first thought was that was before all of this.. How do you get past labeling your pictures "Before and After D?". You don't, you will always remember if that picture was taken before or after. It's not always a bad thing, it can be hard, and sad, but it's also a time to think about how lucky you are, even now after the diagnosis.

This particular picture may have been before D, and even though it's hard to look back on these pictures, it's also a happy feeling because he is still with us. It takes awhile to get over the guilt of diagnosis I will call it. I previously wrote a post on this subject which you can find here. But eventually we do move on from blaming ourselves for D entering our lives, and work in taking as much comfort in our new "norm" that we can. Besides D has enough power in our relationship already, don't give it more then it deserves!

Screw You D, this summer!!

After 4 days of waking with "Moderate" ketones, (We flushed them out everyday btw) we finally had a reading of none this morning!! All week I've been pushing Vitamin C, and his children's vitamins to keep him free from catching what was going through the younger kids. So far so good :). The verdict from the doctors was the girls had an Upper Respiratory infection, which was one of the 800 million things Google suggested it could be, Go Google for being right!

After this past cold/flu season I'm really hoping we can all catch a break from illnesses. Caring for a sick kid is well difficult, caring for a sick diabetic kid is scary on top of difficult. Thankfully we managed to get through many illnesses free from going to the ER or any hopsital stays! We will be going into the Summer season with a new attitude, "Screw you D!, we're in charge!".

We are not going to let D ruin our summer. D will not get in the way of normal summer fun like playing outside, running, playing sports, or anything else that involves an increase in activity! D can take a back seat this summer and let us do our thing. So to D we will say:

Screw You D

This summer you will let us be

Normal kids all full of life

Take a backseat and cause no strife

We will run, jump, skip and play

until the sunshine fades away

When you come knocking

we will be rocking

On top of our D game

causing you nothing but shame

Take a break this summer

Because for you, D, it will be a bummer

Okay so my poetic skills are lacking but you get the picture! Why not join us in saying "Screw You to D" for your summer vacation as well!

The dreaded Ketones....

Per my last posting, I suspected that Clifford might be getting sick. We have no temperature, no cough, no runny nose, no other symptoms of him getting sick, other then a few higher blood sugars, and the dreaded ketones. We were within range during the night, (116 at 10pm, etc) and woke at 244 with as you can see 1.2 ketones.... *sigh* Second day of what we'll call "moderate" ketones. Yesterday was 0.9. The normal "ketone" schedule followed ( Drink extra water, pee, drink more water, pee again, extra insulin, pee)

I really do not like seeing this number on the ketone meter, just sayin'. Tells me, because the 244 is not super high, and we've had those numbers before with "ZERO" ketones, he is most likely getting sick. So in the event he had his vitamins as normal, and some added vitamin C to hopefully kick whatever is trying to get him 's hiney!

I originally suspected Croup as the culprit to enter the house via Hayleigh from Preschool. As Hayleigh had out of no where spiked a fever, and had a deep barking cough. But even after going to the doctor's there was no diagnosis. Now with Maggie coughing, and wheezing, Abby losing her voice, and coughing, I'm thinking it may be something else. We shall see what the doctor says today for both those girls.

I definitely miss the "School free" days when germs were kept at bay and we went through cold/ flu/allergy season with nothing more then a few sniffles.... It just looks like I'll be adding more vitamins, and immunity items to my arsenal come fall when Abby goes to Kindergarten, to bring even more germs home. Also thinking perhaps we should invest in some masks (serious, not kidding)...... Here's hoping it's not much of anything and all will be free from it soon, seeing as we are entering into SUMMER VACATION.

Back to my original topic, Ketones... They suck, plain and simple. We flushed them out yesterday, and we'll flush them out today but how dare they sneak into Cliffy's body. Thank you D for helping them to appear. But just like you, they are not welcome. At least with Ketones we can get rid of them.... One day D your day will come, one day... * Evil laugh follows*....

Illnesses and More.....

The house has some how become stricken with a cold, at least the kids that is. Cliffy hasn't yet started showing symptoms but it's a matter of time because his bg#'s are fluctuating up a storm from good to high. All last week we didn't have a high waking number and today it was 214 with 0.3 ketones. While I know under 0.4 not really much ketones, but still much higher then our 0.0 or 0.1.

Just the fluctuation in bg#'s tells me something is coming on. I guess that is one positive of Diabetes, you can usually tell a day or two in advance from bg#'s that he is getting sick or will be sick soon. Thankfully the only positive thing from this "cold" to me is that it's just that a cold, there is no vomiting.

If you know about T1D and vomiting well, then you will know just how relieved I am that it does not accompany this cold. It is very hard to keep the bg#s up of someone who can't keep any food, (carbs) in their tummy's. With this cold we'll probably have some high's to deal with and maybe small or trace doses of ketones from the higher numbers. So it will be fluids, fluids, fluids, and probably some motrin for a fever. There is only a total of 14 school days left and I was really hoping he wouldn't miss anymore. After the winter this household has had, I was hoping we'd get a break from illnesses.

There were not one but two week and a half stretches where all the kids were sick. Clifford missed a week of school from the flu. Not just that but his bg#'s were being tested at least 20-25 times a day to make sure we could keep his numbers up from dropping, we went through a lot of pixie sticks, and juicy juice during that time, as well as one mini glucagon shot. But it all he stayed out of the hospital and I manged to flush out his ketones.

So here's crossing fingers, and praying he's not catching something because we need to catch a break in the illness department, especially when it involves diabetes.