My loves

Naked Pancreas - in the desert!

I haven’t felt much like blogging lately…things are pretty steady around here as far as “D” goes…my little “honeymooner” is doing really well. We’ve also been getting ready for our very first JDRF Walk for the Cure this Saturday!

So, I thought I’d copy Reyna and add to the Naked Pancreas meme even though we are not pumping yet. :)

1. What kind on insulin management mode do you use? Adam is currently on MDI, and things are going really well with that right now. I’m anticipating we’ll be on a pump next year, though.


2. How often do you inject/change pump sites? Right now, we’re injecting an average of 6 times a day. Adam is quite the grazer, and sometimes it is more than that!

3. What type (s) of insulin do you use? We use Novolog and Levemir

4. What are your basal settings?
Adam is on 3 units of Levemir – we give him his dose at 7pm every night. Levemir seems to keep things pretty steady – his morning BGs are always in the 120’s.

5. What are your correction factors ?
Adam’s correction factor is 1:150. We haven’t had to use this very often so far.


6. What are your meal ratios ?
1:30 for all meals. His previous endo had him at 1:25 for breakfast, but he was bottoming out at preschool, so I changed it (with the blessing of his new endo) and that has kept things steady.


7. What do you do for activity and/or PE?
Adam is at preschool for 2 ½ hours Monday, Wednesday and Friday and I give him an uncovered snack for snacktime – usually around 15 carbs. When I leave him at school, his BG is usually around 140, and by snacktime 2 hours later he’s ready for a snack. When I test him when he gets home, he’s (hopefully) around 130.

For his football practice and games, we give him a snack before, or glucose tabs if he’s low.


8. How do you manage Pizza, Macaroni and Cheese, or any other "difficult to manage" foods?
No clue. We dose, then deal with the aftermath!


9. How do you prefer to manage your logs/data?
Since we are still new to this, we are using the log sheets our nurse gave us. I went to Kinkos and made like 100 copies of it and keep it all in a 3 ring binder. It works for us right now.

Dead in Bed Syndrome

This is one of those things that I try not to think about...but it's why it's hard to sleep at night. A 13 year old girl just recently passed away due to T1D...after managing her disease well for 10 years, this still can happen. Thinking of her family today.

This is exactly how I feel....

Except Hallie was the one to put it into such eloquent words for me. :)

Steady (for now)

I think I may be finally coming a bit out of my funk/depression/whatever-ness that I've been in the last few weeks. It's definitely not gone, but the last two days I have felt better, so that has to be good.

Adam is doing really well. His numbers are pretty steady and easily manageable. This is what I'm worried about though - this "honeymoon" period tricking me into thinking that things are always going to be this easy.

'Cause I read all y'all's blogs, and I know it's not.

I was talking to my neighbor - the one who has had T1D since she was 30, was a nurse, a CDE AND works for Dexcom - and she said to just try and enjoy the smoothness of things now and hone my skills in carb counting and injections, because at some point, it's not going to be this easy.

I know this...I just wish I knew WHEN that damn pancreas was going to totally stop working.

I do know that I am one of the lucky ones, though. I have a ton of family and friend support. I have the DOC. I have neighbors with T1D, neighbors who are nurses and a couple of friends who are Physician Assistants. I have a wealth of knowledge at my fingertips.

It just doesn't make it any easier when you get up in the morning and realize that yes...I HAVE to get up and check that damn blood sugar. I HAVE to watch every morsel that goes in his mouth. I can't FALL ASLEEP and forget that Adam had a snack and then be surprised when his blood sugar is in the 300's. (Yeah, that made me feel like a total moron.)

I can't be off my game...and that, my friends, is exhausting. And I know that you guys know that all too well.

Surgery and T1D

I have lots to update on, but my first question for all you experienced D-moms out there is - has your child with diabetes had to have surgery?

'Cause we've gotta do it with Adam.

Ugh. I swear, when it rains, it pours. Every 3 months, Adam sees his eye surgeon to keep tabs on his right eye - the one he had a cataract and the lens removed in. For the last year, he's told me that an eye muscle surgery is going to happen at some point, and, well...that point is now. He's scheduled for December, so we've got some time. I'm just worried about the D aspect of it.

We also met our new endo for Adam this week. LOOOOVVE him! He spent an entire hour with us and was really great with him. I am so glad we switched and I feel so much better that we are in his care. With all the talk about A1C's around the DOC, we had Adam's checked while we were at the office. Since we can only have a *good* number at this point, coming down from the 8.5 in the hospital, I was pleased to find out that it was 7.4. Hopefully in 3 months it will be the same.

He didn't see the need to change anything at this point, as Adam's numbers have been pretty steady. We talked about pumps for a bit, but I think we're still about 6 months off from making a decision about that.

lol...

Wanted to post this on Facebook, but no one would really "get" it. Adam was just playing with play-doh, making foods and he runs over to me and says, "Mommy, look! I made a glucose tablet!"

Not quite sure whether to laugh or be sad.

Okay, I laughed. :)

JDRF event - pumps??

First off, I wanted to give an update on my awesome friend. Yesterday, my husband and I had to take our daughter to an appointment and it was smack in the middle of lunch time - Adam would need to be picked up from preschool and be fed lunch....and given an insulin shot.

So, my friend said, "Yes, I'll do it!" and I showed her the ropes. Her next door neighbor is a nurse, so that was her backup in case things got hairy. :) She texted me his blood sugar numbers after school and then she called me and told me everything he ate for lunch - I added up the carbs and told her to draw up 2 units of insulin...and she gave Adam his shot! She texted me when it was done and she was so proud of herself. :) She said she accidentally stuck him twice because her hand was shaking so hard, but she did it! And Adam trusts her, so he just sat there and didn't complain one bit.

I am so blessed to have her.

Next topic...we went to our local JDRF Technology Review and Update yesterday. It was a good chance to meet with pump reps and listen to a panel talk about their experiences. We are still months away from a pump...but my main question is...

How in the world do you decide which one is for you??

If anyone has the time, I'd love to hear how you chose the pump you chose...or even direct me to a post on your blog. My husband and I are both enthralled with the Omnipod since it's tubeless, but after visiting all of the other pump tables, I like the Animas Ping and the fact that the Medtronic has the CGM. Aaaaaahhhh....which to choose? There was a 4 year old and his mom on the panel that had the Omnipod, which I thought was really cool.

And it's not like you can just ask your insurance to pay for a $6,000 pump, try it out and say, "nah, we don't like that one. Can we try another, please?"