A friend indeed

Fred, Elise and I just came back from hanging out with Laura and her kiddos. All I can say is I am so happy to have this incredible woman in my life. From the first time we ever spoke on the phone, our conversations have always come very easily. It's just like talking with an old friend.

We are so different from each other, but so much the same in the ways that matter.

Thanks Laura, for renewing my spirit. For making me laugh. And for being one of my windmills in Holland. Love ya, my D-Sista!

Pass

I woke up this morning with butterflies in my stomach. I mean really, who on earth gets like this before their child's doctor appoinments besides me?

Six months ago, Elise's A1C went up to 8.9. I was upset, but not surprised. We had had lots of high numbers due to illness and growth spurts, but I wanted to do better.

Three months ago, her A1C was 7.9. And I felt a little better about that. But I knew we could do better. We again had some illnesses that led to some crazy high numbers.

Today I had no idea what her number would be. I thought it might have stayed around the same because of those high night time numbers we had been dealing with.

Joanne, why don't you just shut up and get to the point. Which is an A1C of 7.0. Seriously, I almost started to cry when the doc told us. I know that we should not live and die by that number, but it gives me validation that we are doing a good job.

And the other bit of good news? We don't need to dilute Elise's Humalog anymore. Which on one hand makes me sad because her insulin needs are going up (which, duh... Joanne). But on the other, much happier hand, it means fewer supplies we need to keep on hand, and we don't have to go through the diluting process anymore... YAY! It will make giving Elise her sliding scale a bit difficult since her scale is 300 - 400 she gets 1 unit of DH, and for > 400, she gets 2 units. When you compare her diluted to full-strength, 5 units of DH equals 1 unit of full-strength. But I guess we'll just cross that bridge when we come to it.

So, yay! Thanks for all the comments on my post yesterday. I love how you guys are so great at cheering each other on. Love you all, and I couldn't do any of this without you.

A post in which I talk about stuff

Is it just me or have these last few months come at us at warp speed? Why yes, I AM a Star Trek fan (only TNG though... me likey the Jean-Luc).

How on earth did I get on that topic? I blame it on my current mini M&M high.

Anyway, we seem to have a handle on Elise's night time numbers. Of course, now that I've put that out there into the universe it's all going to go horribly wrong, isn't it? I don't like to jinx things, but we've been having such good numbers lately! Just the other day we had this going on:

7:02 am - 60 (So okay, yeah... that was low.)
10:05 am - 143
11:47 am - 109
2:30 pm - 103
4:30 pm - 138
7:30 pm - 133

Can I get a woo-hoo? The last four or five days, those numbers are pretty much par for the course. I love those numbers so much I'm going to print out the logs and roll around in them naked. Ha ha ha ha... sorry for sticking you with that image. I'll just wait while you finish up your vomiting.

Done? Okay!

Tomorrow we have our endo appointment. I'm excited/nervous about it, but I have no idea what to expect for her A1C. Elise's numbers have been pretty good in the day, but her overnight numbers were so terrible, I have no idea what that will do overall. She also had her H1N1 shot today. So far, nothing out of the ordinary. I'm hoping it stays that way.

Well, that was just a weird, random post with just a glimpse into the bizarre realm of my brain.

Back to my mini M&Ms... which, by the way, are vastly superior to all the other M&Ms. I'm just sayin'.

Shirt Pictures

Sorry it has taken me so long to get these up... you know how life can be! Thanks to my wonderful husband for editing the pictures and doing the amazing collage at the end. Thank you to everyone who ordered a shirt and for sending your pics. Enjoy!

Celebrating WDD

Despite things not going exactly according to plan, we did have a good World Diabetes Day. It started off with me sleeping in until about 10:00, while Fred and Elise went on their usual Daddy/Daughter Date Saturday breakfast.

We were supposed to have lunch with Laura and her husband and kiddos, but unfortunately Nate came down with some mysterious red bumps. Since the doc she took him to couldn't figure out what they were, we played it safe and didn't meet.

I also forgot the Fred was going to a Portuguese restaurant to watch Portugal play in a World Cup qualifying game, which was at the same time we usually go grocery shopping. I totally HATE when shopping time gets messed with, because it's always so hard to fit into our already very tight schedule.

We also had to take Elise to Chick-fil-a for dinner, because that's where we were supposed to go for lunch, and this kid doesn't forget ANYTHING! We told her that for lunch there was a change of plans and we were going to eat at home. She was very sad, but we thought she had forgotten about it. Then when we were discussing dinner plans and Elise said, "how 'bout Chicka-fway?"

Who can say no to that?

So we all went our to Chick-fil-a for dinner and when Elise was playing the the play area afterwards, one of the Moms came up to me and asked about our shirts. So I got to tell her about World Diabetes Day (she knew about Type 1 since she worked in the medical field). Then she asks we if we go to IBC (our church). Turns out we know each other through some long, twisted explanation I won't go into, but it was funny!

Another cool thing was that there was a Dad in the play area who was listening in on our conversation, and was very interested in finding out more about diabetes. He asked some great questions and of course I was only too happy to answer!

I've received a bunch of amazing shirt pictures (if you haven't sent yours yet, please send them asap to shirts@helpmefred.com), and I'm hoping to put them all up in one big post tomorrow. Or the next day. We'll see how life goes.

I can't wait for next year... hopefully we'll get on the shirt orders a little earlier and get a whole bunch more blue out there!

World Diabetes Day

On this day, I am thankful.

I am thankful for Dr. Banting. And knowledge. And our endo who cares for Elise. And the scientists that are working towards a cure for Type 1 Diabetes for my daughter and everyone else who suffers from this disease.

I am thankful for insulin, BG meters, ketone meters, ketostix, glucagon (which, thankfully we've never had to use - but I am thankful I have it just in case), syringes, pumps (which we don't use, but it's nice to have options), and everything that we have that keeps Elise alive.

I am thankful for the internet. And blogs. And especially all of you. I would not have made it this far without your support and encouragement to get me through the rough times. I've enjoyed laughing with you when times are good. I am blessed to be part of an amazing community.

Because we live so far away from family, we have weathered this diagnosis on our own. It seems the people we called our friends were nowhere to be found. We had a few visitors in the hospital, and maybe four days of meals when we were discharged. After that... nothing. Complete. Radio. Silence.

Fred had to leave to go to New York two hours after we left the hospital, and thank God my Mom was able to fly in to help because I don't know what I would have done. I have never been so lonely and alone in all my life.

It made me sad to see the people we considered friends to scatter like leaves in the wind, but it also woke me up to the type of people we needed to be surrounded by. People who are compassionate, empathetic, will cheer you on when things are going well (even if all may not be so great on their end of things), and give you a shoulder to cry on when everything sucks. People who listen, but don't judge. And know when to offer advice and when to shut up and just listen. I am so glad I found people like that living in my computer!

So, on World Diabetes Day 2009, I will be thankful.

I'm especially thankful for them.

P.S. don't forget to email me pictures of you and your family wearing your shirts! You can send them to the shirts@helpmefred.com address. Don't forget to include names, ages, city & state, and when they were diagnosed (if you want to, that is).

Having my say

My letter to the editor was published, and I have the proof! How cool is that! Thanks to Shamae for sending me the hard copy. I really wanted to have it so I could show it to Elise one day.

If you missed the whole kerfuffle, here is the original letter to the editor that had all us D-Mommas up in arms:

Complaint

On Oct. 3, myself and my girlfriend were eating lunch at Burger King. A family came in and sat across the aisle from us. While the father was ordering food, we were shocked and appalled to see a boy inject himself with whatever medication, in front of God and everybody all while sitting at the table. We found this extremely offensive. That sort of business should be done in private. How about a little respect for those around you. Other than the obvious fact that it's not sanitary for those who use the table next, you have no idea how something like that can affect people. People go through a lot in their life and things like that may bring up certain feelings and memories best forgotten. I would like to thank those that day for totally ruining my meal.

And my response (4th draft with expletives and yo-mama jokes removed). It's the one entitled "Injection":

Here is the text in case you are unable to read it:

I do not live in your area, but read the letter from the man who was so disturbed by a child giving himself a shot at a restaurant (October 25 edition) with total dismay. My two year old daughter is a Type 1 Diabetic, and we often have to inject her with insulin when we eat out in public.

The fact that there are people out there who have nothing better to do than complain about something so minor is very disheartening. Does he not understand that the very thing that disgusts him, we have to do in order to keep our children alive?

This person is in desperate need of a lesson in compassion. Diabetes is already a horrible thing to have to live with, and according to the letter writer, we should make our kids feel further isolated and ashamed by giving them their medication in hiding. Where would he prefer we do it, in the bathroom? And he complains that giving a shot in public is unsanitary.

This letter really illustrates the lack of understanding people have about Type 1 Diabetes. I, for one, applaud this young man for bravely taking care of himself, whenever and wherever he is.

I'm glad I was able to toss my two cents in!

New friends!

Today Elise and I made some new friends! Not really new, since we've exchanged emails, and chatted on the phone a handful of times. But today we actually got to meet the adorable Nate, and his beautiful Mommy Laura face-to-face!

Laura made the drive out to my neck of the woods for a playtime at the local rec center. It was just so great to sit and talk to someone who knows EXACTLY how you are feeling and what you are going through. No need to explain anything.

We managed to get a few cute pics of Elise and Nate together. None of us, mostly since I am suffering from a bad hair year.

Thanks Laura, I had a great time and I hope I didn't scare you off with my over-the-top, control-freaky, anal-retentive ways of handling diabetes!

I swear she's not trying to strangle him... just going in for a hug

Nate liked playing with Elise's hair

Already holding hands


Okay, how cute are they???

Back to the drawing board

Thanks for all your comments on my last post... it really does help to have some encouragement and to know I'm not alone in wanting to rip my hair out!

The night after I wrote my last post, we still had numbers in the mid 200s throughout the night. We checked quite a few times and saw that she most likely wasn't going low overnight. Just to make sure, last night we just left everything the same, intending to do a few checks throughout the night.

At bedtime she was 116. At 11:00 pm, 199. When we checked at 12:30 and she was 145 (when her NPH was peaking), I figured we should be okay.

Unfortunately, at about 4:30 am, I was awoken to hear her little voice calling me over the baby monitor. She was 52. After 8g of banana, she went back to sleep.

She woke up this morning at 69. The only thing I can think of that was different is she played at our church's indoor playground after dinner last night. It's always hard for me to predict how exercise is going to affect her, but last night I guess it really did!

Does anyone have some sort of "formula" to know how many more carbs to give their kids when they do exercise?

Return of the bad night time numbers

I just don't get what we're doing wrong at night. It seems every time we make a change, we have a few good nights and then it all sucks again. Yes, you heard me... sucks. I'm tired and crabby and all I want is a good nights sleep where I'm not worrying about stupid numbers.

What I can't be sure of is if Elise is going low overnight and the morning highs are a result of a rebound. But we're checking her. Last night before bed she was 197... a bit high, but we gave her the usual dose (3.5 of NPH) and a few less carbs. At 1:30 am she was 193, and she woke us up at 3:00 am crying for banana, something she does when she's low. To our surprise, she was 283! Did we miss a low and she was just slow feeling it?

She woke up this morning at 254 and 1.1 ketones. In fact, I have a suspicion she wakes up with ketones almost every morning. I'm going to start putting cotton balls in her diaper again and using ketostix to find out for sure. The ketones were gone by 10:30, but her BG was almost 300. At lunch she was back to a normal 98.

We have an endo appointment coming up in 10 days and I'd like to have this figured out by then. I just don't know what else to do. Until I know for sure that she's not going low overnight, I don't want to raise her insulin.

We had actually had about a week of pretty good overnight numbers, so I thought we were through this.

It's enough to make you want to sit and eat a whole bowl of apple butter in one sitting.