Just some randomness. Is that a word?

Emily's wearing her monitor! The trainer called me on Monday to set up the training session. She came on Wednesday morning and got us all ready to go!

I was so nervous, you would have thought I was the one getting the monitor. I WISH!!! I would take this disease and everything it comes with, I'd take it a million times. But it's not so, so I get nervous for my kid. I knew the insertion of the sensor would hurt and I told Emily pretty much what to expect, so she was scared of that part. But, once I tackled her and pinned her down and got the sensor inserted, she was totally fine! In fact, she forgot it was even on her. It's really small, probably the size of a quarter and it is attached to her by an adhesive. So when it was time to attach the transmitter to the sensor (it's what speaks to the monitor), she didn't know what was going on.

Anyway, we're attached, calibrated, and totally cool with the whole thing. The only thing that I don't like right now is the alarms and alerts are too quiet. Her glucose meter (the thingy I check her fingersticks with) beeps louder than this very expensive piece of equipment.

She went to bed low, so I gave her a little snack and watched her blood sugar rise on the monitor! Too cool! I began to freak out about not being able to hear the alarm if she went low, but she had a good number by midnight with a little arrow telling me it was still going up fast, so I went to bed. She had a good number when she woke up, so it went well it seems.

At this point, the monitor is 20 points lower than her actual blood glucose, which is completely fine with me. If the monitor tells me she's low and I check her and she's not, but on her way to being low, then I can catch it before it becomes and issue.

*insert huge sigh of relief here*

My little Avery JOY seems to be adjusting to this new thing, too. Yesterday, I had my friend and neighbor, Lori, watch her while we trained, and when I picked her up, she was very sad and clingy. And when I'd check the monitor, she acted like she didn't want me going near Emily. Almost like, "Hey, look at meee!" It made me sad. But, she rebounded very quickly, even though she refused to nap. The girls played (screamed and bickered) the rest of the day.

UNTIL...Daddy came home with a surprise! Both girls had been through a tough day, so we arranged for each to get a treat. He came home with Barbie dolls. The girls LOVE them! I really don't care about Barbies, I just never figured they would like them. Well, I know Avery would like them, but I thought maybe a few years down the road. Oh.my.gosh. they love them! They love to undress them and laugh at their booty cracks and Avery tries pushing on their boobies and then they bring them to me to re-dress, and then it happens all over again. Emily loves brushing Barbie's hair.

And one last thing, just to make you laugh... This morning on our way out the door to Emily's school Christmas party (in pajamas!) I went to put my shoes on and there was a SPIDER on my shoe! And a ladybug, but who's scared of a lady bug? A freakin' SPIDER TOUCHED my shoe! I threw the shoe (kind of-not really-but almost in the direction of Avery) and did a little dance. You know the dance: a tippity-tappity prancy dance. And I screamed. Emily just laughed and said, "Do it again!" Then I told her there was a spider on my shoe and she said, "Attack it!!!" Well, I don't normally "attack" spiders. If they're not actually coming at me, I go in the opposite direction and wait for the husband to take care of it. But, since this spider might go for one of the girls, I stepped on it. Gross, gag, crunch! Nasty!

So I wore sandals (with socks!).

Finally!

I'm so happy! Yesterday we finally got Emily's Continuous Glucose Monitor! This has been such a long process.

I had first heard about a CGM in July when I went to a meet-up of other Diabetes moms in the area. We had gone to dinner at Joe T. Garcia's in Fort Worth and I sat next to this woman who had a little boy about a year younger than Emily. Just before we were to eat, she turned to me and said, "Have you seen one of these before?" and she showed me this little machine about the size of a cell phone. I said, "Is it a pump?" and she said, "No, check this out! It's a live reading of what his blood sugar is." What??? I had never heard of one of these cool things. "It gives a live reading and it graphs it out. It has an alarm on it that tells me when his blood sugar is getting low or high. It helps us catch the lows and correct the highs before he gets too sick."

(I swear I heard the Alleluia chorus singing)

It has arrows telling you whether her blood sugar is going up or down. One arrow for "it's on it's way down, you need to eat/take insulin," and two arrows meaning, "fix it now!!!"

I came away from this meetup with one thing on my mind: I had to have this machine. Emily doesn't recognize her lows and we struggle with knowing when she's high because she may sneak a bit of food here and there, or tell us she ate this much when she really ate more than that.

So, I called Em's endo (endocrine doctor for her diabetes) and said, "I want this monitor!" They said they'd give me some information on some monitors that they recommend and that I could make the decision on which one we thought was best for Emily and let them know which one we picked. We had a diabetes education class a couple of weeks down the road, in August, and the nurse educator would give us the information then.

Yeah, riiiight.

We got to the class and the nurse had no idea what we were talking about. She said, "Just pick one," almost in a "duh!" tone of voice. I was mad, because two weeks had gone by and nothing had been done to start the process of getting the monitor.

Rob and I did some research and we found the monitor we wanted. When we're ready for the pump, both the pump and the CGM sensor will speak to the same monitor, meaning one less thing Em would have to wear or that we'd have to carry around. So, I filled out a form online, a representative called me to get the ordering process started and she talked me in to getting a pump for Emily. Why not, it'd be best for her health to "keep her diabetes in better control." Okay, cool, let's do this!

The rep said we'd have the pump in the next couple of days, but the CGM would take a bit longer because of insurance blah blah. She said she'd get the paperwork to the doctor's office to fill out and return and things would get rolling.

A couple of days later I get an email from the rep that had a forward attached from the doctor's office. We hadn't talked to the doctor about getting the pump, there was education we needed and a trial to go through to make sure Emily could tolerate the pump. So no, we cannot have the pump. And basically the rep stopped working on the CGM at that point, too.

Um, okay, no one told me any of this! How was I supposed to know we needed the education and trial? The rep was the one that talked me into the pump, I never brought it up, all I wanted was the CMG. I emailed the rep back to see if she could please continue the process on the CGM, since that was all we wanted in the first place. She said she'd email the nurse.

Weeks go by and NOTHING. By this time, it's October. I'm just about ready to freakin' pay cash for this thing so I can help my kid keep her blood sugar within her limits so she doesn't get sick. So, I called and made an appointment with the doctor to get some answers. I'm so glad I did, because they had the papers, they just needed a signature. The nurse practitioner I saw personally handed the papers to the doctor to sign, faxed them over and said, "It's in the hands of the monitor company now!"

Is this a freakin' long story or what??? Gah!

I assumed things were rolling on the rep's end. So we waited. And waited. And freaky-fracky waited! Come ONnnnNNnn!!! What's the freakin' deal? I emailed our rep again in mid November and she said there was a "discrepancy" on the prescription and they were waiting on the doctor. Bleepity-bleepity-freakin'-frackin'-CRAP!

We waited some more.

I think I waited too long. I'm too nice. And maybe a bit stupid.

And now it's December and at this point, I was ready to just get a monitor from another company. On Tuesday, I called the doctor's office to see where we were in the process, and they had me call my rep. Poop.

I dialed the number, closed my eyes and asked, "Where are we in the process of getting our monitor?" "Well, we just need you to sign this paper we're going to email to you, and get you to fax it back to us. We're expediting shipment and you'll have it on Thursday."

My mouth fell open. No-freakin'-way. "Okay, thanks." I don't believe you, representative lady. I'll believe it when I see it.

I didn't see the monitor until SATURDAY. But it's here, it's sitting right next to me. I can touch it and look at it and I have it and no one can take it from me. It's mine. I mean, it's Emily's.

And now, we wait for someone to call us to set up a training class to learn how to use this thing. They said it would be within ten business days that they'd call us. I'm not holding my breath for that to happen. I'm calling them on day eleven to set it up if they haven't called by then. Enough of this waiting crap. If it was just for me, I'd just learn it on my own. But it's for my kid and I'd better do it right so I don't make her sick.

At this point, Emily is not crazy about having this thing attached to her all the time. But I'm hoping she'll figure out it's for the best, it'll help her stay healthy, and I won't have to hover so much. I'm so tired of the hovering. Especially the middle-of-the-night hovering.

Diabetes SUCKS!

We had a rough evening tonight. Emily's blood sugar CraSHed!!! It was very scary. I believe what started it all was she didn't eat all of her snack and I thought she had and I gave her insulin for what I thought she ate. I didn't check her blood sugar at dinner because it had been less than two hours since she had her snack and usually when I test under two hours since eating, her sugar is high and I know it's high because she had just eaten, blah, blah, blah... And then we had mini pizzas for dinner and I probably gave her too much insulin for them.

Anyway, she came to me about thirty minutes after I gave her the insulin and said her stomach hurt. Yesterday she had thrown up a couple of times and felt yucky all day, so I figured the pizza was hurting her stomach. She didn't have a shirt on and I asked her why, and she said something that just didn't make sense. I asked her again, and she said the same thing that I couldn't understand. Then I noticed she was sweating. Click! Test her sugar!

She was at 41! So, I tried to get her to eat or drink something, which by this time she was crying and grumping that her sister had hit her, even though she was nowhere near her. So, I grabbed a tube of frosting and began squirting it in her mouth. She hated that! So I tested her again and she was at 34. Panic set in! I wasn't getting sugar in her fast enough. It was then that I found her snack from this afternoon under the chair, unfinished. I had given her insulin for something that I thought she ate. I tried giving her candy, she didn't want it, I tried giving her soda, she didn't want it. I squirted more frosting in her mouth, and she cried and refused to swallow.

By this time, Rob came home from work. He took over and was able to get Emily to eat some candy. I heard her ask him if she was in a dream. I started to cry. This is so not fair. My poor girl. I was feeling anger and sadness and guilt. Angry because I couldn't get her to eat or drink, angry that she has this disease and I can't fix it, angry because I can't take it and put it on myself. Sad because I know this will probably happen again, sad because I STILL don't have a continuous glucose monitor that would have alerted me to her crashing blood sugar long before we got to this point, sad because poor Avery gets cast aside during these chaotic moments, sad because Emily was confused to the point that she thought she was dreaming. Guilt because I should have checked her sugar before dinner, guilt because I should have found the unfinished snack sooner, guilt for leaving Avery to fend for herself, guilt because I feel guilty for feeling guilty.

sigh

We finally see that her blood sugar was coming up, and then she started acting funny again, and I find that her sugar was going down again. She was still complaining of her stomach hurting, probably from all the stuff we were pouring down her. But she had to have more. She HAD to. After she ate some Halloween candy, I checked her and she still wasn't coming up, I called the on-call diabetes nurse. By this time, it had been nearly two hours of us cramming things in Emily's mouth. The effects of the insulin peak at two hours, so the nurse said we had done all the right things, we were almost there, keep giving her sips of soda or bites to eat every ten minutes and then we should be out of the woods.

Okay, whew! Because I seriously thought we were going to have to use the emergency glucagon syringe. The effects of this shot would be nausea and vomiting and an overall sick feeling. I really didn't want to do that to her unless it was completely necessary. Since we were nearly out of the woods, and after another finger stick, she was slowly coming up, we knew we didn't have to give the shot. Whew!!! Did NOT want to do that.

I poured a bowl of marshmallows and we made a fun family moment out of getting Emily out of her low. We told scary stories in the dark with a flashlight. The stories were really more silly than scary and after each of us told a story, we'd eat a couple of marshmallows. Avery had NO problem participating in the eating of the marshmallows. Emily finally got a great sugar reading and we had a fun time as a family. We even did shadow puppets. So fun!

And now I'm having trouble sleeping. Possibly adrenaline still wearing off, the caffeinated drink I had before bedtime, or just me worrying, I don't quite know. But her blood sugar is super and she's sleeping and breathing and Avery is sleeping and breathing so I will try to sleep now.

My Girls!

My Avery Joy...

She is talking so much now. For a while, she was calling her sister "Deh-deh." I'm not sure where she got that, but that's what she calls her. And herself. But now, very recently, she's started calling Emily "Ahm." At first I thought she was saying "arm" but then I realized she was saying "Em." That's usually what we call Emily around the house. "Em! Get in here." "Em! Don't lick the TV!" "EM!!!!" So now she calls her "Ahm." Her dad is "Dads." "Where Dads? Bye-bye? Work."

She doesn't really dig in her poopy diaper so much any more. But if you ask her if she has gone poo, she makes a stinky face and says, "Noooo." And then as I change the poopy diaper, she says, "Is it uck? Is it uck? Is it uck?"

She knows a couple of letters of the alphabet. Mostly the letter O. She'll say, "O" and then keep her mouth in the shape of an O and feel it. Hard to explain, but it's funny. But she's very interested in the alphabet. Emily has an art project on the fridge with her name spelled out with beans, and Avery tries to spell it out. "E, E, O, I, Y." Usually the Y is like "Whyyyy?"

Speaking of why, the other day she asked where her dads was and I said at work and she said, "Why?" I said, "Because we need money." "Why?" "So we can buy stuff." "Why?" and on and on.

Emily and Avery were singing into the box fan the other day. They like the sound of their voices. I'm pretty sure every kid must love speaking into a fan. I remember doing it as a kid. And spitting into it. Not so smart. Anyway...Emily was singing the alphabet into the fan and Avery was trying to sing, too: "E, E, E, B, B, me, me, me, me, me..." Oh, how I love this kid! She is funny!

She likes sounds. She'll hear a sound and hold her hand to her ear and say, "Wassat? Wassat?" Yesterday, I was sitting at the computer and she was close by, being real quiet, I think she was looking at a book, so I rubbed my foot on the base of the desk and it made a..well...farting sound. She said, "Wassat?" I kept doing it to see if she could figure out where the sound was coming from and she said, "Momma!" in a very accusatory manner. It wasn't me, I swear!

Avery LOVES her sister! She loves bugging her, too. It's a sport to her. She will steal her sister's toys, run, giggle and scream, and wait for her sister to come after her. They sometimes play well together. Sometimes. The one time that they really get along is in the bath. Because there's water involved. There is lots of screaming and laughing and splashing and dunking and water always ends up all over the floor and on the walls. Even on the wall opposite of the bathtub. Major splashage! So, now they don't bathe together. It's just safer for me.
My Emily.

She is loving preschool! She loves her friends and teachers.

Emily prances everywhere she goes. Everywhere. It's amazing!

Even though she prances, she is NOT graceful. She falls a lot. She has lots of bruises on her legs. She is just plain clumsy. She can trip over a speck of dust, yet there are times she can be walking backwards, talking to me, and looking somewhere else and trip on one of her toys and not fall.

Every day is beautiful to her. Even when she was in the hospital after her diabetes diagnosis, every day was beautiful. IV in arm, hospital gown agape in the back, hair all askew, and it was a beautiful day. And even today after feeling puny and feverish, it was a beautiful day. Amazing!

I think she secretly LOVES her little sister. From day one, she has not been a fan of Avery. She would touch her, but only if you told her to, and she refused to be next to her in a photo. She finally warmed up to her a bit after she started walking. And now that Avery is talking, I think Emily likes her. She loves trying to get Avery to say things, and when Avery will repeat what Emily says, Emily gets very excited! It's so fun to watch them interact. When Avery picks on Emily, I can tell Emily likes it somewhat. There is a twinkle in her eye, even though she's protesting being kicked or spit upon. She'll even giggle as she's tattling on Avery. She likes her.

I love my girls!

Train Ride and Water Fountains!

Emily had a doctor's appointment with her diabetes doctor (which went well!) and then after that, we went to eat lunch. We had pizza at a pizza parlor. While we waited, Emily and her dad worked on a word puzzle together.
After we ate, we went on a train ride.
We like to get popcorn, not just to eat, but to feed the fish later on!

But we sometimes just eat it...

I wanted to get the girls to pose with the train for me, but Avery just didn't want to do that. And she wasn't shy about telling everyone she didn't want to do that. "Hey, I don't want to do that! I don't want to pose with the train! I rode it, it's over, let me eat my popcorn! Who would want to pose with a train anyway?"
Oh.
So, after the train ride, we went to the botanic gardens. So pretty! I was able to catch a photo of a bee!


We fed the fish! They were not there at first...
"Hey, where's the fishes? I came to feed the fishes! Hey, fishes!"
...but soon after the popcorn hit the water, they were right there! And they were big!
It was a nice day for our activities.

Our Trip to the Pumpkin Patch!

On Wednesday, we went to the pumpkin patch. So fun! The weather was perfect and we were so glad that the ground wasn't wet. Last year the ground was wet from a recent rain and the pumpkins had started to "ripen" and the area inside the fence of the pony ride was a mixture of mud, hay, and pony poo. Talk about stiiinky! But, it was a lot less stinky this year!

Avery seemed to really like the pumpkins. She enjoyed touching them and trying to pick them up. She also used a couple as bongo drums.
Emily enjoyed the big blow-up slide with the other big kids!
"Oof!" Most of the pumpkins were too heavy for Avery to carry around.

Emily pulled the wagon with Avery in it. For about thirty seconds...
And then hopped in the wagon with Avery so Daddy could have a turn at pulling the wagon.

Ponies!
Emily waves to her adoring fans...
I totally dig that she's wearing flip-flops to ride a pony! So city-fied of her!
Avery was able to share a ride with Emily. Avery was a bit scared at first to ride alone. I'm glad Emily didn't mind sharing the saddle with her little sister!
"Yeeehaaww!" I think she was watching her shadow!
Staring contest, who will blink first? I do love it when she crouches like this.
Bouncy house!
Daddy and his little girls!
Fun day! Afterwards, we went to Southlake and ate at Brio's (yummy Italian food!) and threw pennies into the water fountains (and danced).

Decorating for Halloween!

Grandma Hill bought the girls some cute sticker crafts and window decorations so that they could get the house ready for Halloween. Emily is very excited about this holiday. I'm sure it has something to do with all the candy she'll be getting. (I'm excited because of all the candy she'll be getting! Muaahaahaaaa!)

Here is Avery putting the window decorations up.
I love how she arranged the words: "Trick, Treat, or..." Like it's an empty threat or something. "Gimme candy or I'll...you know."
I love these cute fall trees. Emily's is on the left and Avery's is on the right. Avery had trouble with the stickers. She stuck a leaf sticker on her shirt and I said, "No, put it on the tree." She stuck it on the table and I said, "No, on the tree." She stuck it on my arm and I said, "On the treeeee!" (me, pointing.to.the.tree) Then she kissed the leaf. Sweet, silly girl!

The girls enjoyed the foam sticker haunted house. I helped with some, but mostly Emily did it, with a tiny bit of help from Avery. (She had troubles with the ghosts, too, sticking them to her shirt instead of the house.)
They worked well together! Rare occasion.

I love the googly eyes! I glued the bats' eyes and Em did the rest.

Annnnd, time for a snack!

wanna know why I don't blog much?

because when I do try to do something...

It was a dry erase marker, so it came right off everything except the walls. Every time I try to sit and do some work on the computer, something always happens/someone hit someone/someone is looking at someone/someone has to poo or pee/someone needs a drink/someone needs food/someone is being too quiet/someone needs...I could go on and on.

Today, someone was too quiet. The girls were working on their "homework" and I left for just a moment to look at something on the computer because I'm dumb. I should know better than to do something I want to do. Silly. So now you know why I don't blog much.

And this is why I let her live:
because she is just SO darn cute!!!

Surreal!

I'm having a sort of surreal moment right now.

Do you ever smell a box of crayons or Play-Doh and instantly be taken right back to childhood? Or perhaps see something that can instantly take you to way-back-when? Like a bicycle with tassels or a hula hoop?

Sometimes that's just surreal to me. That something so simple can bring back memories of the good ol' days. I mean, seriously, I can open a box of crayons, take a big sniff, and almost feel myself back in Kindergarten. Seriously.

But yesterday I saw something that I hadn't seen, or smelled, since childhood!


Emily's teacher sent these home with Emily yesterday. Talk about going back to childhood! I remember perusing over these little Scholastic flyers when I was a kid, wishing for this book or that book, hoping my mom would let me buy something.

And omigosh, they smell exactly the same!!!

First Day of Preschool!

Emily's first day of preschool was today! She wasn't nervous at all! She was very relaxed and cool about the whole thing. (Maybe because she knew I was going to be at the school all day to check her blood sugar?) But let me tell you, if this morning was any indication of how she's going to be when we try to get her up for school, we are in BIG trouble! She didn't want to get out of bed! I had to almost drag her out of bed!

But once she got to school, she was ready to dig in! We walked into her classroom and, in classic Emily fashion, she said, "Hey everybody!" and sat right down in her seat and got to work on her little craft project the teachers had for the kids. I had to peel her backpack off her because she was seriously on task. I fixed the barrette that was in her hair and I kissed her cheek and said, "Bye!" She asked me to wipe the glue off her hand and I said, "Nope, I'm off duty!" and I left.

I wanted her to have as normal an experience as possible, so I hung out in my car and did crossword puzzles while class was going on (after a quick trip to Sonic to get myself a nice big drink) and then I'd sit in the director's office when it was time to check Em's sugar. I didn't look in on her once, even though I was very curious as to what she was up to. I could hear her voice every once in a while, which gave me comfort. I checked her sugar as the kids were going into the lunchroom for a little snack, and then again after they came back from playing in the gym. I just quickly checked her sugar, not saying much to her and trying not to make a big deal of it in front of the other kids. Then, as she was going back to the lunch room for lunch, I checked her, and then before she went back to class, I gave her her shot. She didn't seem to care that I was there, or bothered that I kept checking her sugar.

It was funny, though, at lunch time because the director looked in on Emily while the kids were eating and Emily was under the table, refusing to eat. Yep, that's my girl.

The director of her school was SO nice to let me hang around all day, and the teachers were very willing to let me take Emily aside for our quick checks and shot. It was a great experience and I am learning a lot about will be happening while Em's at school and I can sort of predict what her sugars are going to be. I think, though, today and next week it will be difficult to tell for sure what to predict since she had vaccinations on Wednesday. Those can totally mess up her #s.

At the end of the school day, the teacher sent a folder home with an outline of what they did in class and also a cute little craft that the kids did. It was a poem and she had her little hand prints on it. So cute! Avery is definitely going to this school when she's older!

Preschool

Emily starts preschool on Thursday this week. I'm excited! I'm so ready to send her to school so she can make friends and learn things that I don't know how to teach, like why "food" and "good" don't sound the same.

But I'm also nervous. Not nervous for me, but for her. And her teachers. And anyone in her tantrum radius. She's been a bit out of control lately and I don't know if it's the diabetes or if it's just Emily being Emily.

We went to "Meet the Teacher" night on Wednesday. I already love the school, the teachers, and the director! They are incredibly accomodating to our situation with the diabetes and very willing to do anything they can to make Emily's experience at their school as normal as possible. What a relief for us!

Avery enjoyed going to the school and checking out the toys and books. I would LOVE to have her go to their playschool, but we just don't have the money. I'm sure she'd have a ball with all the kids. But really, I think once we get our schedule down with Emily, Avery and I are going to get some serious one-on-one time to play and have fun. Poor Avery gets kind of overlooked at times because she is so quiet.

Fun Stuff

I wanted to quickly jot down some of the fun things we've had going on...

Emily has a stuffed giraffe named Pony. She put her in a baby doll stroller and rolled her into the room and said, "This is my baby, Pony." She showed me her purse and said, "And this is my purse," and then she dumped everything out of the purse and began telling me what was inside.

"This is an ear thermometer, in case she needs to plug her ear. This is a shot, in case she gets sick. Here is a phone, in case it's an emergency and you need to call. This is a blanket, in case she gets sleepy. This is scissors, in case she gets too much hair. This is a sword, in case she wants to get into a fight. I have to go to the store to get a baby, just like you have. You watch Pony until I get back. Bye! Good luck with that!"

Yesterday I took the girls to McDonald's. They really needed to get out of the house. I think they get tired of looking at me all day long. Both girls love meeting new friends and Emily really enjoys telling her life story to anyone who will listen. I overheard her talking to another kid's parent... "I'm Emily. I have diabetes. There was blood coming out and I had an IV. And I have a cat named Chloe." And then while she was climbing in the play area, I could hear her telling some of the kids that she gets shots in her tummy and her booty. I think it's good for her to talk about her diabetes, but I'm pretty sure her approach needs work.

Lately the girls have been painting with water colors. It's fun for them, not so much fun for me. It's just a mess. A huge, brown, wet mess when it's all over with. But really, their paintings are cute. I have some hung on the refrigerator.
The other day the girls had a fashion show. It was very cute! Emily wore a pink princess dress, a princess tiara, a princess wand, and a princess purse. And Avery wore a ballerina tutu, a black purse, a fairy wand, and princess shoes, which did not match AND they were on the wrong feet (she was going for the "nothing matches" look!). Very sweet and cute!!!

And today, they are playing with their stuffed animals. It's so neat watching the girls play with the animals much like I did when I was little. They make beds for them, wrap them in blankets, and push them around in baby carriages and strollers. AND steal each others animals. Like just now, Avery came screaming in here because Emily stole her platypus. *sigh*

So that's it for now. The girls are screaming at each other, so I need to referee.

A Day in the Life

I thought I'd write a post about what goes on during the day of our family and how we all deal with Diabetes Type 1. Yes, Emily is the one with the disease, but it kind of affects the whole family. Mom and Dad have to calculate carbs and insulin doses, give shots, watch what Emily eats, lose sleep (oh wait, that's JUST ME!), stick fingers, make sure Avery is getting attention...

I'm sitting here trying to decide at what point to start. I think I'll begin at bedtime and go from there, because there are times when I get up to check on Em in the middle of the night. Especially last night.

(For reference, Emily's blood sugar needs to be in the range of 80-200.)

So, here is our day, beginning at bedtime last night:

9:30pm (Bedtime) Check blood sugar, she's @ 241. We had gone out for treats at Sonic after dinner and swimming, so she is high and her levels haven't come down yet after I had given her insulin for the treat. (And just for kicks, I give her a couple of sips of juice just in case I did give her too much insulin for the treat) She goes to bed with her stuffed giraffe named Pony and a jet airplane from her army men set. I say, "Aww, you're going to bed with an airplane? How sweet!" and she promptly informs me that it was a jet, not an airplane, sort of in a "duh" tone of voice. Well, alrighty then!

11:50pm Out of curiosity, I want to see what her sugar is at since I had corrected her for the treat and gave her juice. I have a strong feeling I had given her too much insulin. She is at 55. LOW! Even with the sips of juice! So I gave her more juice--half a juice bag (Capri Sun). (Times like these are when I KNOW the Lord is guiding me in taking care of my daughter. What if I hadn't listened to my feelings? What if I had waited an hour longer to check her? Ugh.)

12:22am Checking to make sure her sugar went up and is in a good range. It is 136. Perfect!

2:04am I have a nagging feeling that her sugar might have taken a nose dive after the juice (it's done that before, right after a brief spike), so I check her again. I still have not been to sleep. She is at 135. Super! But if I hadn't checked her, I would be laying there wondering if I should check her. I just go with my gut. Most of the time my gut is right. I have a wise gut.

So you'd think I'd go to sleep, right? No... Still laying in bed, wide awake, thinking about everything. And watching Netflix. I watch old episodes of 21 Jump Street, which gives me bad flashbacks of the 80s.

4:29am I just want to make sure, again, that her sugar isn't low. If I don't check now but wait until she wakes up around 8, how low is she going to be? Sooo, I check her again. 110. It's still in range, but I figure since she was on a steady decline, I'd better give her some more juice. She takes a couple of sips of a juice bag and whispers, "Thanks, Mom," and I go back to bed.

By this time, I have used almost every finger on her left hand for finger sticks (it's the one that's closest to the edge of the bed). Even in the dark, I can see the little bruises, and I can feel how rough her fingertips are getting. She doesn't even flinch when I stick her in her sleep. My heart breaks a little.

We have a chart for her finger sticks. This way we don't use the same spot on her finger in the same day. We use the edge of her finger tip pads, one poke on each side of the tip. It sort of gives her tiny fingers a little break.

After this last sugar check, I fall asleep! Shhh!

8:10am (Breakfast) sugar @ 131. Very good! So glad I gave her sips of juice. She isn't ready to eat just yet.

8:53am She eats french toast sticks (something she discovered she likes during her hospital stay!) and has another juice bag.

9:30am I give her insulin (right arm) and she's good til lunch. I really waited too long to give her her insulin. She needs to get it within 30 minutes of beginning to eat, but I lost track of time.

For everything she eats and drinks at a meal, we count the carbs. Then based on the amount of carbs, we calculate the units of insulin she gets. Really, her diet hasn't changed since the diagnosis, except now at snacktimes, she usually eats what we call "free" snacks. These are no- or low-carb snacks like cheese or deli meats.

12:01pm (Lunch) sugar @ 289. Most likely high because the insulin takes about two hours to really bring down the sugar level from eating. She eats hot dogs cut into sticks and dips them in ranch dressing and eats a bag of Sun Chips.

Normally when she's high, I will add more insulin to the syringe when I shoot her after her meal, but I don't this time because I know it's still coming down from the last dose.

12:35pm Insulin injection (left leg).

Emily has seven sites where she gets her insulin. And each site has about nine areas that you can give the shots. Imagine a tic-tac-toe diagram. We have to rotate sites and areas within the sites because if an insulin injection is given in one spot too many times, she site gets lumpy and the insulin doesn't get absorbed into her body.

She gets shots in both arms, both legs, both bottom cheeks, and her stomach below the belly button. The shot goes into the skin in the fatty part. Since she doesn't have much fat in her tummy, I only go into about six spots around the belly button.

She hates tummy shots and bottom shots. Or "booty" shots, as she calls them :) But we try to make her understand that each site needs some time to rest so we don't over use the same area. We made that mistake early on and she ended up with some lumpy spots on her arms. Arms are her preferred sites. We usually end up using the arms when we're out in public or when we don't feel like fighting with her.

To keep track of all these sites and areas, I made a little chart for each day. This way, she knows what area to expect the insulin to be put in after meals and before bedtime and it's less of a fight (not really, but it helps me keep track), especially on tummy and booty days. On the back of each site square is a tic-tac-toe diagram that I mark where the injection went so I can keep track.

1:00pm We work on "homework" :) I bought a preschool and Kindergarten workbook that has worksheets for writing the alphabet and numbers, working on prereading and stuff like that. I'm hoping it'll prepare her for when she starts part-time preschool in a couple of weeks! While Emily works, Avery and I play with dolls. I go back and forth between the girls so no one feels left out. To make it fun for Avery, we prance into where Emily is working, and then prance back to the bedroom where the dolls are. If I were a smart mom, I'd just bring the dolls into where Emily is. But today, I am not smart. I am tiiiired. But I do work up a sweat! Does this count as "working out?"

2:00pm I catch an Avery poopy diaper before she runs her hands all in it! This is a victory for me! (I take pride in the small victories!)

2:28pm I call Daddy at work and tell him I didn't make it to the store like I had planned. I'm just too tired to drag the girls around. So he says he'll stop at the store to pick up a couple of things. I'm secretly hoping he'll stop at Sonic so I can have a Big Drink. I need a Big Drink. I'm really starting to drag.

2:30pm The dolls are cast aside and Avery starts playing with the shoes in the entryway now. Usually it's just one shoe, and it's usually on the wrong foot. Avery does like shoes! Emily is gets on the computer to do some online coloring. She's working on her computer skillz.

3:00pm The girls are playing dolls together (love it)!

3:15pm The girls are done playing and are wanting a snack. Emily eats some more hotdog sticks and ranch dressing. Avery eats a breakfast bar. We use a low calorie ranch that comes in a spray bottle. This way, it's free!

3:30pm Time to veg with Nick Jr. I am toast. No energy to do much. The kitchen needs to be cleaned. Perhaps tonight. Or not. Whatever. Emily wants "dessert" after her snack. Um, no, it doesn't quite work that way :) It is a nice thought, though.

4:10pm Avery puts herself down for a nap. This is the third day in a row that she has done this. Seriously, the Lord knew what he was doing when He sent me Avery.

I lay down with Avery to rest. But...

4:13pm Emily is hungry. Again. Her sugar may be running low, because sometimes when she's low, she'll complain about being hungry. I check her sugar. It's @ 172. Great! I give her a fruit bar that is low carb, so no insulin will be needed.

Emily's sugar will sometimes run low if she's been playing hard. Or if I give her too much insulin at the last meal. I recently discovered that she's been hiding food. Sometimes I'll tell her if she eats three chicken nuggets, she can have a little bit of diet soda. And then if she eats three more, she can have some more. Then, thinking that she's eaten the nuggets, I'll give her the soda and then give her insulin for what I think she just ate. I've had to really stress the importance of being honest with what she eats because if she hides her food and I give her insulin for that food, she could get really sick.

4:48pm Daddy is home! No big drink. I'm going to try to nap with Avery. (I slept for an hour and Avery slept for an additional hour after I got up. I have low hopes of her going to bed at a decent hour...)

5:15pm (Dinner) Daddy checks Em's sugar. It's @ 254. High. Did she sneak a snack? Was the fruit bar the cause? Not sure. I suspect the fruit bar sent her over the limit. But I'm sure if I had given her insulin for it, she would have ended up low. Daddy gave her a chicken salad sandwich and a bag of 100 calorie cookies for dinner. And an insulin chaser. :)

7:45pm Emily fell asleep. It's very rare for her to nap. But we roll with it!

8:55pm (Bedtime) Blood sugar is @ 199. *whew* In range! So, she seems okay, but I'm still going to check her at around midnight just to make sure there isn't a big drop in her levels. Because I won't sleep unless I know. Because she is in between sleep and awake right now, I give her long-acting insulin shot in her arm--less chance of her protesting since it's her preferred site.