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).