The song beneath the song

In this post I wrote a few months ago, I talked about all the things we do to try and get diabetes to behave that outsiders don't see, and how exhausting it can get.

When you look at the graphs below, you think, "hey!  Not bad.  Those are some pretty good after breakfast and lunch numbers!'

And you know what?  They are. But what we've been dealing with over the past week is anything but nice.

Strep.  High fever.  Ketones.  BGs in the 400-500 range.  Antibiotics. Blah.

Over the past week, through trial and error, I've discovered that we can hold off those high BGs by bolusing her for double what she eats (so if she has 50g of carbs, I bolus for 100g).  And starting at 1:00 pm, I run a 50% temp basal (so her basal + half for non-podders) for the rest of the day.

The result is today's decent looking graphs.  But the back story on those pretty numbers contains a lot of fear.

It's scary because at dinner, when she eats her most carbs, I am dumping a tonne of insulin into her.  Just before she goes to bed.  

Just before we go to bed.

Actually, I'm chicken when it comes to dinner and don't bolus x2.  Last night I bolused for 140g when she ate 80g and she STILL hovered around 350 until we did multiple corrections.

On this last day of World Diabetes Awareness Month, I wish that people would get what a double-edged sword insulin can be.  Yes, it saves my daughters life.  She cannot live without it.  But it can also take her life if I don't tread carefully.

It's a pretty frightening dance and I'm trying my hardest to sense when diabetes is changing the beat on me.

Even 7 years later, I'm still learning the moves to this dance.

One flu over the cuckcoo's nest

Since December 17th, our household has been a hotbed of germs.  Mostly of the flu-like nature.  I am currently writing this post while recovering from my own battle.  It has left me light-headed and quite stupid, so please forgive anything written that makes no sense.

I wanted to chronicle my family's battle with the flu so that I can look back and see who sick and what was effective as far as treatment.  Plus I'm a little bored and have seen all the Love It or List It episodes that are on today.

Elise
Received flu shot back in October.  Was first one sick.  First trip to doctor showed negative for flu or strep. Extremely high BGs continued as well as fever, so I took her to urgent care.  Flu and strep re-test also negative.  Amazingly awesome doc who has experience with T1 decides to do a urine test. Positive for bacteria. Dx is UTI. As of today, still no flu.

Fred
Second one to fall.  No flu vaccine. Started getting sick on/around Dec. 21. Extreme flu-like symptoms, but no doctor visit.  Is still not feeling well as of today.

Lucas
Received flu vaccine about two weeks ago.  Fever started Christmas Eve. Very cranky with a fever coming and going. Went to doc 3 days after fever started. Flu test negative. Has his moments of feeling well, but still not terrific.

Me
Thought I had escaped the madness, but on Saturday started feeling like I had been run over.  It got to the point where I could barely move because I was shaking so bad and everything hurt.  Managed to get myself to an urgent care where I met quite possibly the world's creepiest doc. Positive for the flu type A.  Put on Tamiflu. Two days later not feeling super terrific, but at least I'm no longer convinced that I'm dying. Never got the vaccine.

Mattias
Our last man standing.  At least he was until yesterday.  Now he has fever and chills.  When he has Tylenol he goes back to his rather adorable self, but once it wears off... watch out! Received the flu mist in October.

So what does all this anecdotal evidence tell me?

• Receiving vaccine well before flu season is best
• Shot seems to trump mist, but...
• ... the mist seems to lessen the symptoms
• Getting yourself some Tamiflu (as long as you're in the proper time frame) will lessen the duration and possible severity
• Doing nothing=being sick longer

 So there you have it, my very unscientific study on our family's battle with the flu. Hope you were able to avoid it (the flu, not my post) and stay well.

Still Crazy after all these years

So.  My last post alluded to something dramatic happening to Elise and I over the past week.  Yeah... about that...

It all started Friday night/Saturday morning.  If you are a veteran parent, you know that this is the time when all children get sick.  In the wee hours of the morning heading into a weekend.

Elise woke us up complaining of a tummy ache and a sore throat.  Wunderbar.  Her BG was high and ketones starting to creep up.  by 8:00 am, she was 359 and 2.4.  With a temp of almost 103.

She wanted no breakfast, so I gave her water and put her in the car to drive to the doc, who is open starting at 9:00 am on Saturdays.  My plan was to drive there and call from the parking lot so we'd be the first ones seen.  On the way into the office, Elise threw up several times.

Did I mention that it was Fred's birthday weekend, and his parents had just flown in to visit?  Because it was.  And they had.

Fred's mom came with me and the dx was strep.  The doc offered us the option of a shot instead of the 10 day course of antibiotics.  Elise was cool with it, so that's what we did.  We had to sit and wait afterwards for 15 minutes to make sure she didn't have a reaction.

Throughout our time at the doc, I checked her BG several times, bolused (when necessary), and set temp basals.  I started to see an improvement in her numbers, but had no idea what her ketones were because I had used my last strip before I left the house and forgot to replenish.  This comes into play later in the story.

After the 15 minutes, we headed out to the car.  Elise was strapped in and as I was driving towards the highway, Elise started to scream that her neck hurt and she was breathing really strangely.  Trying not to crash the car, we headed back to the office where they put her on an oxygen/pulse monitor.  The doc came in and checked her over and couldn't see anything wrong.  Elise kept whimpering that her neck (not throat) hurt.  Her BG at this point was in the low 200s.

The doc left us for about 15 minutes and came back to check again.  She was about to let us go when Elise's pulse shot way up and she started to shake and scream that her tummy hurt.  The doc was very worried about DKA, since she had large ketones to start with, and hadn't been able to keep any fluids down.  And the Mom-of-the-year left the ketone strips at home.  Go me!

She wanted to call an ambulance to take us to the Children's ER, but I was afraid it would freak Elise out even more.  Plus I had my mother-in-law with me, and I couldn't leave her there by herself.  I assured the doc I could get her to the hospital on my own.

So we jump on the highway and I start doing my best imitation of a Nascar driver with some right turns thrown in for kicks.  About 10 minutes into the 20 minute drive, Elise passes out.  Not asleep.  Out.  My mother-in-law cannot wake her, and I have no idea what Elise's BG is. To top it all off, I get lost because I came in from a different direction than I'm used to (damn these flat lands with their no landmarks!  Where are some mountains when you need them???).

I also need to mention that I am juggling calls between Laura (Nate's Mom), Fred, and the endo-on-call.  The latter one, our connection gets cut of in the middle of his instructions.  I try to reach Fred again, can't.  So I call Laura and doing  my best to reign the crazy in, I ask her for help getting to the hospital.  At this point, Fred calls, so I switch over and completely loose it.  Doing my best impression of an insane person, I start to scream at him when he asks me if I'm going north or south.  Why was I screaming?  Because I could have been headed east for all I knew... freaking metroplex and their confounding highway system.

Dontcha wish you were on my speed dial?  I'm a peach, I tell ya...

Anyway, we finally find the hospital, get Elise in and get her IV fluids.  A blood draw shows her ketones are down and her BG is 128.  They have no explanation for the shaking, stomach pain or passing out, but I am just thankful that Elise is perking up.  By 2:30 pm, we were given the all clear to go home.  Elise says, (and I quote) "this was the most funnest day ever!"  Wha???

During my ride from hell to the hospital, I drove 90 mph (highway only), ran a few red lights and made some illegal u-turns.  I was praying I would get stopped by a cop, so he could show me the way to the hospital.

The moral of this story?  Don't forget your freaking ketones strips at home.  The end.

Joining the world of missing persons

I was hoping that my last post would somehow kick start my desire to write, but apparently, not so much. It's not that I don't have anything to write about. There are a bunch of ideas floating around in my brain, I just lack the energy to get it out.

I think it all started when Elise was sick a few weeks ago. That tummy bug left me adrift in a sea of lows that were exhausting. Whatever Elise had, it passed onto Mattias who spiked a fever of 104.5 in the middle of the night. Fred was out of town (which he has been most of the month), and it was a little scary.

I had never seen my little guy so sick. He was burning up and just holding him was making me nauseous because I was getting over-heated. It was 2:00 am, and I kept thinking to myself, what if I have to take him to a hospital? What do I do about Elise?

Obviously, the answer was; wake her up and take her with me, but I have never felt so alone and isolated as I did in that moment. Thankfully, his illness passed. But then the teething started. Which is almost worse, because at least when he was sick, he'd get all sleepy and cuddly. When he' teething, he just screams endlessly. Good times.

Then I started feeling sick. Except mine was different in the there-is-something-very-wrong-with-my-body kind of way. My heart started racing for no reason and my resting heart rate was 91. I started feeling nauseous, and tired. I felt weak. All the time.

The worst moment was when I was out with my kids shopping at Target, aka, the HAPPIEST place on earth (Disney has nothing on the big red bullseye), when my heart started to pound. Then I got dizzy. And nauseous. I felt like I was on the verge of passing out.

So I made my way over to a bench and sat down. Eventually, the feeling passed. I'm not going to lie... it was pretty scary. Fred was out of town and all I could think about was what would happen to Mattias, and especially Elise if I had to go to the hospital? It's a terrible feeling to be that alone, feeling like there isn't another person in your immediate area who can step in for you in times of trouble. The whole thing left me very shaken.

I went to the doctor and had a bunch of tests run. My heart was normal, but a bunch of bloodwork came back abnormal. They won't discuss it over the phone with me, and the first appointment I could get is Monday, because Fred just got back into town.

All I can say is it sucks; feeling this way. I want to write. I want to read your blogs and comment and support you, but I just can't. I'm too tired and all I can get away with is the bare minimum. We've been eating a lot of sandwiches around here lately. And I seem to be running out of underwear.

But I will be back. Hopefully soon. And look out, because I will read the crap out of your blogs and comment until you're sick of me. Deal?

The smell of vomiting

I don't know about you, but when unpleasant things in my life arise, sometimes I'll put the situation to song to make it seem somewhat... funny, for lack of a better word.

Like on Friday night... I was nestled very snugly in my bed, playing a hard-fought game of Angry Birds on Fred's iPad that I had commandeered, when from the bedroom down the hall came a very loud... "BLEARGH!!!" (times 3). The bedroom that happens to belong to Elise. Le sigh.

As soon as I walked in, THAT smell hit me, as did the size of what Elise had expelled from her body. Good Lord, it must have been everything she ate that day.

So, as I shook Elise awake (yes, she rolled over and went back to sleep), checked her BG and ketones (80 and .4), stripped her linens, got her undressed and into the bath to wash the puke from her hair, I started humming to myself;

"Bah bah, bah bah, this is the smell of vomiting..." (Death Cab for Cutie's Sound of Settling).

Yes. I know I'm weird. I'm okay with it.

Anyway, the rest of the night was spent trying to get Elise's BG up, her ketones down, and the carbs we gave her to stay IN her. We tried apple juice, a popsicle, diluted OJ... everything we gave her came back up. Some of it on my bathroom floor. My very carpeted bathroom floor. That Mattias had barfed on only 24 hours prior.

(Side rant: Who decided that it was a good idea to put carpeting in a bathroom; the elimination station for all things disgusting from the human body? I can only imagine the cesspool of human vileness that is breeding in those carpet fibers).

In the end, smarties were the only thing she would tolerate and by 2:00 am, we finally got her BG to a point we felt comfortable with putting her to bed. And her ketones were falling instead of rising. She was still feeling yucky the next morning, but the pukefest had passed.

We hadn't dealt with the low BG + puking + ketones thing in awhile, and every time it happens, a shiver of fear runs down my spine at the beginning. I run through our sick day plans in my head, wondering if I've forgotten something. I do a mental inventory of our pantry and fridge, hoping I have something with carbs that Elise can keep down. I start to debate about when I should take Elise to the ER.

I'm about to go on a tangent here... but stay with me. I'll bring it all back.

Fred and I used to be avid white water rafters. Since we started dating, we had done a river every year; some of the hardest (commercially run) in North America. Every time we'd do a trip, they'd have a safety briefing at the beginning of the trip. I always paid close attention because frankly... rafting scared the poop out of me. I am not a strong swimmer and I wanted to know EXACTLY what to do if I fell out.

On one of our last trips, it wasn't me falling out, but another guy on our raft. It was in the middle of a class 4 (pretty big rapid), and he popped up right beside me. I didn't have to think, I just acted. Took my paddle, stuck the t-grip out to him so I could drag him closer to the boat. All the while our guide is yelling, but I couldn't hear him. I was locked into the task at hand. When he got close enough, I grabbed him by the shoulders of his life vest, braced my feet against the side of the boat, and fell backwards, using the weight of my body to pull him into the boat.

After it was over, I was amazed at how I didn't have to think. I just acted. I just knew what I had to do.

And I hope one day, when dealing with low BG + puking + ketones (which I am now dubbing lowpuketonefests) I won't have to worry... it will come as easily as hauling a guy into a boat that outweighs me by 100 pounds.

Rafting pics!

Sniffles equals... low?

Once again, diabetes has managed to confound me. In my experience, illness has almost always led to higher than normal blood sugars. Except, of course, when Elise is riding the vomit comet.

But over the last few days, Elise has had a cough and the sniffles. Nothing terrible. A few nights she did cough so hard that she threw up, but otherwise she's acting fine. The only other thing she's been complaining of is a tummy ache. No ketones, thank goodness.

And I haven't been able to keep her BG above 100. She hovers in the 80s. And when I bolus her for her meals, she's usually in the 50s at about 2 hours post-meal. Last night we did a temp basal of -50% for almost 4 hours. And she woke up at 96.

Have her insulin needs plummeted across the board all of a sudden?

Is the illness causing the low?

Is the tummy ache trying to tell us that there's something else going on that I can't even bring myself to think about?

I just did a pod change and I'm very curious to see if that affects her BG at all. Plus I under-bolused her for her snack. It's times like these that I really miss the dexcom!

If anyone has any thoughts, I'd love to hear them!

Hurling the night away

It all started, as good stories do, at 3:00 on a Friday afternoon. The morning was spent running around and playing silly games with her brother. Meals and snacks were consumed without an issue, and numbers were running a tad high, but nothing earth shattering.

But then the clock struck three and it was like a switch had been flipped. I had just finished nursing Mattias, and Elise was sitting at the table eating her goldfish when she started to scream.

And I mean SCREAM. Tears were streaming down her face and I was trying to figure out what had happened. Until I touched her forehead. A quick forehead scan showed a temp of 102.6. Crap-on-a-STICK!

Did I mention that is was 3:00?

On a Friday?

Thankfully, I have THE best pedi in the world, and she agreed to fit us in.

Two hours, a garbage can full of puke and a strep and flu test later; it's confirmed that she has a raging case of strep.

Blurgh.

Thank goodness for sugar-free antibiotics, ketone meters, and CGMs. And for my awesome super-quick reflexes that enabled me to catch Elise's puke in my hands, pour it into her garbage, and reposition my hands for the next deluge. I am proud to say that nothing got on her bed, and there was just the tiniest splotch on her pajamas. Boo-to-the-ya!

I think this has been the roughest illness by far for us. Her BGs are yo-yoing all over the place. When she's high, it's like we're injecting her with water. When her BG finally does come down and is on the low side, that's when she starts puking and will not even drink juice. And the advil seems to have no effect on her fever. At least we're keeping the ketones at bay.

And all this comes the day after her endo appointment in which we got an A1C of 6.9.

You take the good, you take the bad...

One more lesson learned

I should have kept my mouth shut. Or at least omitted one line from my last post ... "Everything seems to be back to normal."

Because you know what that means. The universe will do everything in it's power to make sure that, in fact, everything is NOT back to normal. I found this out the hard way Thursday night.

I had just come back from my weekly water volleyball game that is put together by some women from my neighbourhood (have I mentioned how much this 'hood rocks?), and was feeling rather... off.

I found out why in the shower... in a scene that would rival the one from The Exorcist. I know I sometimes share a little too much when it comes to this sort of stuff, so I'm going to stop now.

But what followed was 7 hours of the spew train pulling into the station every 30 minutes. When Mattias woke up to be nursed, I had to wait until I had just stopped throwing up, so I could feed him before I started up again.

I am so glad Elise didn't get it this bad... when she wasn't throwing up, she was running around the house like her usual crazy self. I guess the credit goes to the Zofran (which I tried taking, but it wouldn't stay down). I could barely get out of bed.

A huge shout out to my wonderful husband who held down the fort, cared for the kids, wrangled diabetes (which has NOT been playing nice since Elise was sick), and rinsed out my barf bucket... over and over again.

This is one ugly tummy bug people, I lost 2 pounds in less than a day. I hope if you live in the North Texas area, you manage to escape it. Apparently, it's making the rounds.

Now... time to gain back those two pounds. I'm hungry (I never thought I'd say that again)!

This is what it sounds like when chunks fly

"My tummy hurts!"

"Blurk"

Two things you never want to hear from your child at 1:30 in the morning.

Your child with diabetes.

Your child with diabetes, a blood sugar of 67 and a CGM screaming LOW with a downwards arrow.

Welcome to our Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. The story actually started a good 4 hours earlier, when Elise's BG was 91, which was curiously low given that she had eaten ice cream for dessert, and had her 15g uncovered snack around 8:30.

In other words, she should have been much, much higher. We gave her 9g and toddled off to bed. We checked every 30 minutes, noting with some alarm that her BG is not going anywhere. A little after midnight, we gave her 5g more.

That's when Elise started complaining of a tummy ache. When her BG is low (or falling), this is usually what she tells us, so I attributed it to that. Somewhere in the back of my mind an alarm was going off, saying, "danger, Will Robinson!"

At 1:30 in the morning, all spew broke loose. Elise had stated crying again, so Fred went in to see her. I hear the, "my tummy hurts!", then the unmistakable sound of a technicolour yawn coming from the baby monitor.

Awesome. Just so very awesome.

I ran into Elise's room to find a huge puddle of vomit in Elise's bed, her pjs covered in hurl, and puke hanging from her hair. A quick BG check shows her at 67. Ketones are .3. I got her to drink some juice, praying we would avoid further regurgitation.

I took her sheets and comforter down for washing, while Fred bathed and washed her hair (Yay teamwork!). Did I mention that during all of this Mattias is awake and yelling for food? While I'm nursing him, I heard Elise throw-up again as she got out of the bath. Her BG is only 105 and ketones are now .8.

After Mattias was fed and back in bed, Fred and I talked over our options. Because of the wealth of knowledge of the DOC, I knew the best thing would be to get some Zofran into her. And I also knew the only way we'd get it would be if by some festivus miracle, Elise's pediatrician was on call that night.

Thankfully, she was and she agreed that Zofran was the way to go. One hour later, Fred was back with the prescription. Elise's BG was still hovering around 100, and ketones were now 1.1. She had thrown-up again, and didn't want to eat or drink anything.

It's a good thing we had the Zofran , because a few hours later, her BG was 88 and ketones 1.6. I was able to get her to drink some juice and water.

Wednesday morning, she woke up perky with a BG of 246 and 1.6 ketones, but said she felt fine. Until the Zofran wore off, and the up-chucking started anew around lunchtime.

Thankfully, today (Thursday) is a new day. Everything seems to be back to normal. And we survived our first sick day (night) in almost two years. I had forgotten how scary it can be.

And there is so much to be learned when you're going through these situations; putting ketone meters back in the right place so you don't have to tear the house apart looking for it.

The importance of having spare ketone meters.

How great it is to have a pediatrician that will listen to you and what YOU think is best for your child.

And just how amazing the DOC is; for teaching you about Zofran, mini-gluc, and ketone meters.

Itchy and scratchy

This describes how poor Elise has been feeling for the last four days.

It started off with what looked like bug bites. Weird because nobody else in the family has them and it's not mosquitoes because we have started the summer hibernation due to the 100+ degree weather here in Texas.

Then, on Sunday, it turned into an all over body rash. It looks awful. And she is so itchy that she cries. As if she doesn't deal with enough.

I took her to the pedi, and she said it could be a rash due to a virus, or an allergic reaction. She recommended Benadryl, oatmeal baths, calamine lotion, and using hydrocortisone cream very sparingly (and only on the most itchy spots). She didn't want to prescribe steroids because of what it would do to Elise's BG.

But today the Benadryl isn't really working, and the rash is worse than ever. The pedi prescribed some stuff, but wanted the endo's okay first. Of course the office hasn't gotten back to me yet, so Elise has to suffer for another night. Meanwhile, her BGs are all over the place. I just wish I could figure out what is causing this rash.

It's been a seriously pissy week... we found out that there are some issues with the house - some small, one that will cost us $1500 to fix - that the previous owners did not disclose (not sure if we have any recourse). Then this weird rash, and then last night we had a nasty storm that caused a limb from our tree to fall on both of our cars, doing about $3500 worth of damage to Fred's car, and the wind tore down a section of our fence.

Seriously universe? Can we get a break? Please?

Telling you why I don't like Mondays

Actually, this story begins on a Sunday, but let's not focus on such trivial matters.

I should have known something was off when Elise fell asleep Sunday afternoon. She hasn't napped in almost 6 months, but both she and Mattias were in snoozeville, so I counted my blessings and settled down on the sofa to play a game of Angry Birds.

Dinnertime and she was still asleep, so wandered into her room to check her BG. High 200s and .5 ketones. I gave her her insulin and about 5 minutes later she woke up. And she didn't look good. And she felt like she was on fire. Temperature was 102.3.

Oh oh. Did I mention I gave her some insulin? How completely sucktacular.

Upon being questioned, she said that she would eat, but nothing sounded good to her. Except for maybe McDonalds fries. I debated if that would be a good choice of food if there were going to ensuing tummy troubles. I managed to track Fred down (who was at a hospital visiting a neighbour and did not have his phone on him), and asked him to pick up some fries. Elise's dinner that night was diluted OJ, and french fries.

Her BG remained high all night, but the fever came down with some advil (which I think had a hand in making her BG soar). A correction was given, but I was afraid to give too much insulin because of all the horror stories I've been hearing lately about sickness and lows. Her ketones were always below .5, so I wasn't that worried.

So onto to Monday... luckily, Mattias had his 6 month well child visit scheduled, and the doc said it was okay to bring Elise in too. After a two hour visit, Elise's nose and throat swabs were all negative, as was her urine sample. Thank goodness (?) her temperature was 101.8, or nobody would have believed me that she was sick for all the singing and dancing around the office she was doing. The only thing the doc noticed is that Elise throat was a little red. Mattias also did great, making him a shoo-in for the Best Baby Ever award.

At lunch on Monday, we were going to debut Mattias's first ever solids. I was sure he was going to love it. Except that he didn't. In fact, he was rather insulted by the whole thing. At one point, he pounded his tiny fist into the bowl, sending it flying up into the air and emptying the contents on him, me, the dog, and pretty much anything in a three foot radius.

I decided that it was time to put away the solids. I took his tray off of his high chair, turned around and then heard a thump, then shriek. It seems somewhere along the line, I had forgotten to strap in him into his chair and he fell three feet onto our hardwood floor. I really am the Worst Mother Ever. I can't even explain how terribly CRAPPY I'm STILL feeling about it.

So there I was holding a screaming, sticky baby. I'm covered in rice cereal and having a heart attack thinking that I had broken him. Fred comes rushing into the kitchen and I start screaming about taking Mattias to the ER and that Fred had to cancel the showing.

Wait... did I forget to mention that we had a house showing that afternoon and only 4 hours to clean the house?

So I called a friend (thanks Liz!!!) who lives nearby (because I needed someone to sit in the backseat and watch Mattias for me), and drive about 90 miles an hour to take Mattias to the Children's ER. Leaving poor Fred to clean up the house (because we really can't afford to say no to anyone who wants to see it), and care for Elise, on top of having to deal with his work stuff.

A nearly 3 hour ER visit, 2 head x-rays, and a hefty co-pay later confirmed two things; Mattias is going to be okay (I didn't break him after all), and that I have the cutest, happiest baby in the world (as per the hospital staff).

I returned home to find that Fred had indeed cleaned the house... to the extent that it looked like nobody lived there anymore. Everything had been moved to the garage. One day later, I'm still looking for stuff I use on a daily basis... like my thyroid meds. Thankfully, I was able to combine two doses from some old prescriptions to make the dose I usually take.

And to round off this craptacular day, Elise's dex read HIGH pretty much all evening. Even for two hours after I rage-corrected her. Stupid unknown illness.

I don’t like Mondays.
I wanna shoo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oot the whole day down.

The spoon was a hit. The food... not so much

May you live in interesting times

Apparently, I have a flair for the dramatic when I'm pregnant. With Elise, I fell in the bathtub at 32 weeks and went into labour. I had to say in the hospital for a weekend, but they managed to stop the labour and send me home.

This time around, I caught a nasty little stomach bug that, despite my best efforts, dehydrated me severely. When I called my OB's office on Wednesday, they became concerned when they heard I hadn't been able to keep anything in me since Saturday, and told me to go to L&D (labour and delivery) to make sure everything was okay.

Upon checking in and being hooked up to various and sundry machines, they discovered my contractions were about 2-3 minutes apart, and I could definitely feel them getting stronger. I was also dilated to a 3, and at 70% effaced.

It took 3 shots of Terbutaline, and 3 bags of saline; but they finally stopped the contractions about 7 hours later. As an added bonus, I was also diagnosed with a UTI and reflux.

But, I'm at home, taking it easy, and little Mattias gets to cook for a little while longer. One thing I have to mention is that my husband is a complete and total ROCK STAR. He has done an amazing job of looking after both Elise and I. While working from home this morning, he wrangled Elise, managed all her diabetes care, and even cleaned the whole downstairs.

All while I slept blissfully upstairs (at least one of the drugs I'm taking knocks me out). What can I say, I married well!

What's going on?

It's been a weird, wild and wacky couple of days. Starting with the night my husband fell down the stairs and Elise puked.

The next day (Thursday) she woke up at 179. We did everything as we normally would, except about an hour after Elise ate her breakfast, she said she didn't feel so good. Eileen says everything is A-okay in the mid-100s, but a quick finger poke says 132.

Did you catch the part where this is one hour post-meal? Yeah, she should be MUCH higher than that. Except she wasn't.

I calibrate Eileen and head off to open gym. When we get there, Eileen starts beeping her head off. Quick poke... 48! Crap-on-a-stick! To make a long story short, it takes 33g EXTRA (on top of her 15g snack and 25g lunch) to get her above 80. Her post-lunch number is 108. I give her a pre-nap snack, thank God for Eileen and put Elise down for her nap. Everything is great until right at 3:00, when BAM, her BG shoots up to 310. I guess all those extra carbs caught up to her.

Fast forward to today. Elise and I are so, very excited because we're meeting Tracy and Matthew for lunch. Elise wakes up with a bg of 174, and again we do everything as we normally would. About one hour after breakfast, Eileen starts screaming LOW again. Finger poke... 48. Crap-on-a-stick and holy déjà vu!

I start stuffing Elise with carbs and head off to lunch after I get her BG up enough. Another long story short... today it takes 50g of extra carbs (on top of lunch and snack), and she never gets any higher than 99 (pre-nap number).

Because of what happened yesterday, I'm a bit leery about giving her a snack before her nap, but I do anyway. All is well until I walk into her room to check out her CGM. I notice a smell. A very bad smell. Elise has thrown up all over her bed, and is sleeping in it. Oh. Dear. Lord.

At this point she's only been asleep for about 30 minutes, so I do what will surely get me nominated for Worst Mother in the World... I let her continue to sleep in a puddle of her own vomit. My reasoning is this... better she be covered in vomit and well-rested, than covered in vomit and cranky. Right? Can I get a holla? Anyone?

All this to say, aside from meeting Tracy and Matthew, it's been a pretty sucktastic day. Elise has been amazing through all of this. The weird thing is, she's not acting sick. She's her usual sunny self. She has no fever, no ketones... just these crazy low blood sugars, throwing up, and just for fun; a few bouts of diarrhea. Thankfully, she has an appetite and will eat and drink, although we've drastically reduced her insulin amounts until whatever this is has run it's course.

I'd be remiss if I didn't add how much fun it was to meet Tracy and her AMAZING son Matthew. I was wondering how the dynamic of a 3 year old girl and 9 year old boy would work, but Matthew was so sweet with Elise, and she stuck to him like glue the entire time. I think her hero-worship started when she saw Matthew do his shot at lunch all by himself.

Tracy was so much fun to chat with, and I am so glad she made the long drive over my way to meet up. Thanks guys for bringing some fun into an otherwise Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day!

Chronicle of a long night

9:40 pm
As Fred is loading the dishwasher, he tells me we are out of dishwasher cleaner. Oh no, there is no way we're going to hand wash those puppies at this late at night. I tell him I'll run to Target to get some and he makes some joke about not making it back anytime soon. Since Target is closing in 20 minutes, I let him know that I will be in, out and home in 15 minutes. I win. Go me.

11:00-ish pm.
Eileen calls us. Elise is 270 with double arrows up. We scratch our heads and wonder how this can be when all evening she barely made it above 100. We decide to see where things go.

12:55 am
One of my many potty breaks of the night. I decide since I'm up to go see what Eileen has to say. Nothing but question marks, something that had happened frequently throughout the day. Gee, thanks Eileen. I check Elise and she's at 144.

2:22 am
Eileen still has many questions, so we check Elise again. Crap, 72. With no way of knowing if she's heading up, down or holding steady; we decide to give her some banana.

2:25 am
Fred falls down the stairs while going to get the banana. I almost go into labour upon hearing the multiple thuds and following crash. Poor guy, I think he hurt his neck. And I discover I can still move pretty quickly for someone who is 8 months pregnant.

2:49 am
Eileen still has nothing to say, but a finger poke shows Elise is coming up and is now at 102.

4:11 am
Hello? Eileen? Fine, another poke... 152. Back to sleep for the remaining 3 hours.

4:30-ish am
Heard over the baby monitor: Cough, cough... BLURK!
Out of bed and down the hall to discover Elise has thrown up. So we strip the bed, check her temp (normal), check ketones (0.1), BG is fine. She claims that she feels okay, not sick at all. Well that's ONE piece of good news. Thankfully I washed her other sheets, and have a spare to put on the bed. I do not, however, have a spare mattress protector. Fingers are crossed that this is a one time event. Downstairs to put her sheets in the laundry.

8:00 am
Eileen STILL doesn't want to talk, but Elise's meter says 148. Yawn... did I sleep at all last night? Alright Thursday, let's do this...

Three cheers for sugar-free antibiotics!

We are now almost on day 3 of using the sugar-free Amoxicillin, and I have to report that I am very pleased! We did see a bit of a spike on the first day of using it, but we made some adjustments and only have to give her one unit extra of diluted Humalog, as opposed to the 3 extra units with the full sugar stuff.

And the pharmacy we got it at is wonderful... before they filled it, they saw the special order for sugar-free and called to ask if we wanted to do the flavouring or not, and if we did, did we want to add a sweetener. They said that without it, the antibiotic would taste pretty bad and they were worried she wouldn't take it. Thankfully, they offered stevia (which is a natural sweetener).

Then, after my husband brought it home, I had to call to ask some questions about the dosing instructions. The pharmacist double-checked everything, and even asked me questions about Elise's age and weight to make sure she was getting the right dose.

What a far cry from Dr. Surly (if you don't know who Dr. Surly is, I posted about him on my other blog... click on his name to read it).

And I'm also happy to report that Elise has been fever-free for 24 hours and seems to be feeling better. So yay for sugar-free antibiotics!

The return of strep throat

You know what is just a phenomenal way to start off your morning an hour earlier than usual?

A crying child who throws up, has a fever, and is complaining of a tummy ache.

A quick check of her BG and ketones shows she's at 118, and 0.2. By breakfast, she was down to 99, so I held off on her insulin until after breakfast. Thankfully, she eats everything and it stays down.

Back to the doc we go, and of course it's Thursday... which is the pedi's day off. So we had to see a whole new doc and set of nurses. I am so proud to say that Elise did so well at her appointment. She had a throat swab, and they did an ear wash because of impacted wax (they wanted to rule out an ear infection), and she never complained, cried, or flinched. The nurse said that Elise was one of the best patients she's ever dealt with and wish they could all be like her (awwwww, proud Momma moment!).

Diagnosis? Strep throat. Again. Blah.

This time we opted for the sugar-free Amoxicillin (tried to convince the doc to go for another antibiotic, but she said that Amoxicillin is the best for strep), so hopefully we won't see such crazy numbers. Even if we do, we have an inkling on how to deal with them.

I've heard from at least three other Moms in the D-Blog world whose kiddos are dealing with illness too. Praying that everybody feels much better soon!

Mr. Strep's Wild Ride

Whoa, this strep is driving me CRAZY! It has been sending Elise's numbers all over the map. Last night (at 9:00), she was almost 400. She'd had her first dose of the antibiotics at dinner earlier. She then came all the way down to 128 at 2:30 am (no correction other than her usual bedtime insulin).

I decided to wait and check her in an hour, but after 30 minutes had gone by, she was moaning and crying in her sleep; a sure sign she's going down fast. So I gave her some banana, and re-checked at 5:00 am. Now she's at 97. I gave her 5g more and she was 233 at wake up, I guess she didn't need that last 5g after all.

Then today, after breakfast and antibiotics, she was 437. Wow! I decided against giving her a snack (she wasn't hungry anyway), and she came down to 138 by lunch.

So it looks like the antibiotics are sky-rocketing her BG. She's on Amoxicillin, and I'm pretty sure it's the stuff with flavouring. Elise's pedi offered to phone it into a special compounding pharmacy, so we could get sugar-free, but I know from experience we don't have one close to us. So for convenience's sake (I wouldn't have been able to pick it up until the next day because Fred is out of town, and had I to deal with nap/dinner/bedtime schedules), I chose not to go that route. Next time, I definitely will.

So what is your experience with antibiotics? Does it cause your kiddo's BG to go high? How do you combat it? How many carbs do you figure is in 5 mL (1 tsp) of flavoured Amoxicillin anyway?

All good things must come to an end

The good things in this case being Elise's numbers. During the past 2+ months, her numbers have been nothing short of phenomenal. Okay, her daytime numbers... I think I've given up on ever figuring out what the heck goes on in her little body at night.

Oh, but her numbers during the day were ever-so-wonderful. I was so in love with those numbers, that if it wasn't for Fred, I would have run off and married those numbers.

But I'm off chasing rabbits again.

Anyway, yesterday I noticed her numbers trending higher. Like high 200s. Very out-of-place for her. Plus, she did not want to eat. And at 11:00 last night she woke up inconsolable with a fever of 101, BG of 269, but no ketones. I tried to calm her down for almost an hour, then gave her some Tylenol because she seemed to be in some pain.

At the 3:30 check, she was 360 (YIKES), and .5 ketones. Hmmm, something definitely was going on. When she woke up this morning, her fever was gone, and she declared herself to be "feeling much better". Yeah, I hear sleeping will do that for ya. Her BG was still high at 269 and ketones were .4, not bad, considering.

But something was eating away at my gut, so I made an appointment for her anyway. Dx... strep throat. UGH, poor little girl! Between the illness and the antibiotics, I've resigned myself to the fact that our run of good numbers are over for now. But mark my words, I will get them back!

I'm too in love to give up that easily!

Why my husband rocks

I need to brag on Fred for a moment. If you read my other blog, you know that both of us came down with food poisoning on Monday night. I caught the brunt of it, since I ate most of the food, and became very, very sick. I actually was in bed for about 33 hours, only leaving to go to the bathroom and... well, you know.

But Fred was sick too, and through the whole thing he; worked from home, took care of me, wrangled Elise, and did an amazing job managing her diabetes. Just check out these numbers:

7:29 am - 104
10:35 am - 65 (okay, so that one was a little low)
12:04 pm - 76*
2:40 pm - 76*
4:46 pm - 137
6:34 pm - 90
8:17 pm - 136

*Those numbers are lower than we like to see, but they came at a time when her BG typically starts going down and he was just a bit late getting Elise her lunch and snack.

My husband is THE superstar of superstars, and I am so thankful to be married to such an amazing guy. I was so sick that there was no way I would have been able to take care of Elise, and it is so nice to know I have such great back-up.

MWAH! Love you, Freddie!

And how was YOUR week?

You may have noticed it's been a bit quiet around here. Not for a lack of anything to say, because if you know me at all, I'm rarely at a loss for words.

But I'm seriously trying to recover from one of the most craptastic weeks I've had in awhile.

If you read my other blog, then you know on Monday that I had a not-so-fun experience of my car breaking down in the middle of a busy road. Over $500 later, she's as good as 10 years old again.

Then I started feeling sick. But I was keeping my chin up because my Mom was coming to visit on Wednesday. On Thursday, she started feeling bad (although she didn't 'fess up until Saturday morning). I should have known something was wrong on Thursday because she was asking me for Advil or Tylenol. My mom NEVER takes anything. In fact, just for her to admit that she's not feeling well must mean she's close to dying.

I started getting a little worried because it was presenting like the flu; chills (so bad that she couldn't hold the cup of tea I made for her), headache, body aches and her fever started on Saturday (she'd been having the other symptoms since Thursday). I finally told her at 10:00 on Saturday night that she needed to go to the ER.

So away we went and two hours later (plus a shot of toradol in the bum, some hydrocodone and Ibuprofen), we had a dx of a bladder infection. I've never seen someone so happy to have a bladder infection in my life! She was so afraid she had the flu and had passed it onto Elise.

And speaking of Elise, we are having the craziest highs ever. With some lows thrown in every once in awhile to keep us on our toes. She's been waking up in the mornings with a BG in the mid to upper 300s, mostly because we've been having to give her extra carbs around 9:30 the night before to combat lows. Also, she's teething. I think it's her molars. Which could also be contributing to the highs.

And Fred? Well, poor Fred has been having to deal with three cranky females.

Here's to a much better week... starting NOW!