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.

Update on Us!

Yes, I know it has been a very long time since I last updated. Forgive me, but I have an excuse! Uhh...I...got...lazy. Puh.


So, some things about us that have happened since March:


Emily turned FOUR!!! I can't believe it! Wasn't she just a baby? Wasn't it just yesterday that it was going to be for.evv.errr before I had to think about putting her in school? Goodness, time flies when you get old.


She will be starting a part-time preschool in a couple of weeks. We are so excited! We bought her an insulated lunch bag for her to take her lunch to school in. She is WAY excited about that. She immediately packed her lunch in it, and then took her lunch out and ate it. Hmmm, why didn't I buy one of those sooner?

Something else that changed for us is Emily was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes in late April. She'd been thirsty and going pee a lot (A LOT) and always, always hungry. I thought this might have been a phase she was going through, and even asked other moms of kids her age if this was something that they were experiencing with their kids. But in the back of my mind, I was thinking "This may be diabetes." I didn't want to think this. My dad has Type 1 Diabetes, and that's the reason I was thinking about it, because I remember him telling me that he was very thirsty and had to go to the bathroom a lot.


I asked a friend of mine, whose little girl that is Emily age has diabetes, and she said, "Take her in to see the doctor!" Not what I wanted to hear. I was so afraid that they'd tell me it was diabetes. And that's exactly what the doctor told me. We had to go straight to the hospital for Emily to be checked in, and we were told to expect to stay there for four days.

We were there for three days, learning about diabetes, getting her blood sugar under control, and adjusting to this new lifestyle that was to become NORMAL for us. It was a whirlwind of information, emotions, all things sharp (needles, fingersticks...)!

But, at this point, we're adjusting, Emily is cooperating with most of this, but we are still struggling with keeping her blood sugar within normal limits. It's a daily struggle, and most days she's too high. We cheer at the normal numbers! And when she's low, Emily cheers because then she gets a snack. *sigh*

Avery is doing great! She talks a lot! She doesn't say much that we understand, but we pretend, and you can tell it makes her feel good that we respond to what she's saying. And if you don't respond, boy, lookout! She will get in your face and yell until you "understand" what she's saying. When she wants a drink, she'll drop her sippy cup in our lap and say, "Please?" How can anyone resist and small child saying, AND signing, "Please?" It melts my heart. She can have whatever she wants!

She going through this stage where she likes to put her hands in her poopy diaper to--I guess--feel her poop. She ends up with poop on her hands, shirt, shorts, floor, wall, toys, and ME pretty much every day. I hate it. I try to put a onesie on her (she's too long in the torso for onesies anymore) and pants, but she always finds a way to get in there. It's gross! She'll come to me with poo on her hands and she'll open and close her hands and say, "Guck!" It's gross.


Avery really knows how to push her sister's buttons. Whatever Emily is playing with, Avery will find any opportunity to take the toy and RUN! She'll run away and giggle and squeal, and of course, Emily will run after her yelling and screaming and tackling. It's kind of fun to watch. Sometimes there are tears, and sometimes they end up in a pile of giggles.

I want to try to do better in keeping up with this blog. I hope I can, so everyone can see what's going on at our house!