I am doing the A to Z Blogging Challenge.
I was supposed to announce a theme but as I usually write about my daughter and her type 1 diabetes diagnoses I will probably stick to that and parenting in general.
Looking forward to challenging myself and meeting new people.
Things have been going really good around here. Christmas was good, our trip (to DC) was good, January has been good. We’ve been sorta lazy this month, not much running on nights and weekend. But that’s all about to change as February is typically busy and then spring sports starts. I was feeling guilty about the lazy until I think about how hectic our Fall and Spring/Summer usually are.
Also, my girl (and her twin brother) turn 13 in a couple weeks. I am not ready to be the mother of teenagers! Also not sure if I mentioned it before but my brother and his wife are expecting twins this February too. It’s about to get crazy times two around here.
Type 1 never goes away, we deal with it, we hate it, we manage it, and we try not to think about it in-between.
So I haven’t been writing not because I’ve nothing to say but I guess I just don’t know what to say.
My daughter is doing good. Nothing extreme but not in always in the best range. The doctor tweaks as necessary but then the School Nurse has caused some issues – I am still mulling it over but I am not happy about her attitude toward me and my daughter. I think I will pursue it more after the holidays.
I let my daughter go to sleep over at a friends for the first time. It wasn’t as bad as I thought but that was because I knew she was running in a higher range. And that’s not a good thing but it got me through the night (she did text me at 2am, the mother woke her up).
The CGM and pump have made a big difference in the management (so much easier) but I also feel more detached because I am not writing down the numbers, they go from the pump to the computer and I don’t always review it as before.
We are doing a small trip after Christmas to a place my daughter really wants to go, so I hope she enjoys it. Eating will be harder since there will be mostly locally owned restaurants and not chains but we’ll swag our way through it.
So Merry Christmas to all who take the time to read this and hopefully next year will bring much happiness to all!
We do have a date set for training. It was hard to find a day that might work but hopefully we’ll get it going. I am still a little nervous and apprehensive but my daughter is excited so I hope it all goes well. She is playing volleyball so it’s going to be interesting to see how we work it out with that activity.
I think the reason I am nervous is I feel like we are in a good routine and managing thing so well that now we have to ‘relearn’ some things and do things differently. I have also read about some cons with the inserts and sensors and am nervous about it being more painful, falling off, and the tubing being a pain. We don’t do the CGMsensor until a couple of weeks after starting the pump. I also would love to be able to hack it but the CGM in the cloud movement seems to work with the Dexcom better. I would love to be able to see her numbers when not together.
So I am hopeful and we will see how it goes.
We have the pump however it’s been sitting in the box for 3 weeks now with no scheduled training. It’s a bummer. When we got it, my daughter and I went through and checked it all out. We did some of the online training one Saturday (about 5 hours) and then the waited to hear about the in-person training. And waited. And waited. I have reached out through various avenues (calling/emailing the last rep I spoke with, emailing the Dr. office for advise, reaching out to Karen at http://bittersweetdiabetes.com/ for advise). I have heard from some contacts in the company but am still waiting to hear from the trainer. So it’s a little disappointing and it’s hard to explain to my daughter to be patient when the pump is sitting RIGHT THERE. I told her it would take a while but I just wish they would have given us a timeline. Not hearing from anyone for over a week when you expected only a couple of days is frustrating. I hope to hear something firmer by Monday or we might need to rethink working with this company and try something else.
We went ahead with getting the blood work done and today I found out my daughter is approved for the pump. I am excited for her but also nervous. We will be getting the supplies within a week and then training starts. They said it could take close to a month to get the training done. She are getting the Medtronic 530g with sensor. I am more excited about the sensor (cgm).
CAMP – had a blast, made new friends, wants a pump now
BEACH – was great in many ways but numbers ran high the whole time (with maybe 2 or 3 hypos). But fun was had by all. Jelly fish got both kids but wasn’t as bad as expected in the long run.
Then there were two weeks between vacation and school. It went by so fast but we did lots of resting because once school starts, sport start and then there is no rest for anyone.
Also had our 3-month with the endo. Her A1C was 8%, down form 14% at dx 4 months ago. My daughter really wants the pump, the endo was ambivalent said it probably wouldn’t really help her control too much since it was pretty good. However the choice was really up to us.
Again, my daughter really wants it but I am hesitant. I do understand that there is some more ‘freedom’ as far as schedules and eating but then there is something connected to her all the time and I just hope it doesn’t bother her too much. Plus I have read so many pros and cons that I just don’t know – but I do think it’s really up to her so we are moving forward with insurance inquiries.
We are leaning towards the Medtronic. Any input?
One last thing, school started today. Still no 504 plan. I called the nurse and counselor from last year and finally had to call the Principal. We should be having a meeting next week. I took the supplies and some handouts for the teachers to the open house last night. I am not really worried since we are a small, rural community with a LPN there everyday but it is a little frustrating to not get this taken care of as expected.
I am really slacking on my posts. It’s hard to write sometimes when everyday feels like a repeat or just not having anything new to say. However the truth is I just don’t make time for writing.
My daughter has been doing great since camp 1. Softball ended last week. They came in 2nd in the tournament and got trophies anyway. We went to a local fair and she rode some rides with friends. I felt like a stalker following them, but it was unplanned and I wanted to be close if she felt low. There were other parents doing the same without the diagnoses so that helped.
This week she is at a camp just for Type 1 kids. I think it will be an awesome experience for her and can’t wait to see her and find out. The camp has the BG checks built into the schedule and wake them up twice during the night (my biggest grip from the other non-medical camp). One of her doctor’s is also there so that helps my anxiety level too.
The day I pick her up, we are headed to the beach. The vacation was planned prior to dx so not really the ideal but we’ll make it work. I am looking forward to our vacation, we have lots of down time planned so hopefully it won’t be too much.
So the kids came home and we all survived and rested on Saturday…then I took the kids to a water park on Sunday…
So we get to the water park, 2 hours+ from home and my daughter goes to check her blood glucose level…’Mom you forgot the lancets‘ – hmm, well now ‘I’ didn’t, ‘we’ did. So we improvise and use a pin needle to pick her finger, better to have forgotten the lancets than the needles, right?
She was running high after a week of running in normal/lower range at camp.
All was going good until my son wanted dipping dots for a snack. I asked my daughter if she was hungry, she said no. I asked if she cared if brother got the ice cream, she said yes. Well, what to do? I looked up the carb count, 17 for vanilla. Doable with all the activity of the day. We get to the stand, no vanilla. So we go with birthday cake and I get a bigger one to share with her (it’s hot, ice cream sounds). I check the carb count again, 22 still maybe fine. Then she wants to eat the whole thing and take insulin (which she never ever wants to do). I ponder and do some Googling and can’t see that taking insulin is a good idea. She always runs low when active so I thought it ‘might’ be ok and we’d check her in a couple of hours anyway.
Two hours later we are preparing to leave and she’s really tired, so we check and she’s 69 – what? So low after ice cream….didn’t really expect that.
Eats some smarties to correct, recheck later and is in range.
We stop for dinner about an hour later and still in range.
We eat and I use her sliding scale for game days since she was in the water and up and down steps, etc.
2 hr drive then home pre-bed check is 378!!! What? Recheck in 15 minutes is 387. OK not sure what to do but no snack since tired I let her sleep only because on active days she goes so low. The 2am check is 161. This morning 110.
So far today, she’s in range.
Another challenging puzzle, did I do the right thing? If she would have been high at 2 am I might have given insulin then but we have never been educated to do that. Also if she was not so active I would not have done many things the same.
Have I mentioned that I hate this type 1 guessing game?
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