Beating diabetes at its own game

Le sigh.


You know how everything old is new again? Well, we are back to almost having to use wrestling holds to give Elise her shots. That might fly with a 12 month old, but a freaked-out 4 year old is proving to be way, way stronger than me.

Crap-on-a-stick it's ba-a-a-a-ad. And if her BG is high? Freaking near IMPOSSIBLE.

I've tried all the old tricks, but it's almost impossible to reason with her. I even promised her that if she didn't resist her shots, she could give me a shot. In the bum.

Oh yes I did.

And yes she did. I let a 4 year old stick a needle in my arse (with Fred's supervision, of course). I'm a little taken aback at how gleeful she was about the whole thing.

And she did pretty well for awhile after that. Now she's back to her freaking out ways again. And there is no way I'm going to implement a shot-for-a-shot philosophy around here.

So yesterday morning over breakfast, I laid it all out for her. Maybe it was too harsh, I don't know. But diabetes is a harsh disease. And the sooner she gets that, the better. It went something like this:

(P.S. - please don't judge me for the way I choose to talk to my kid about diabetes. I am a realist... I don't believe in sugar-coating things or making things pretty when they're not. M'kay?)

I let her know that we love her very much. And we are so sorry that she has diabetes. In fact, I told her I would give her my pancreas in a heartbeat if I could. But it doesn't work that way. I told her that we don't like to give her shots, and we don't do it for chuckles, but the plain truth is; she will DIE if she doesn't have insulin.

I explained how heartbroken we would be if she wasn't with us anymore. How we would miss her. And that's why we have to take such good care of her. Then I went into the whole "everybody-has-something" bit. It's what you DO with your something that makes you who you are.

Then I appealed to her competitive side (and ohmygosh, don't ever try to beat her at anything). I told her that it's okay to be sad about diabetes sometimes, but when it makes us sad, mad or scared ALL the time, we're letting diabetes win.

When we show diabetes that we're not scared of it; the shots, the finger pokes, the dr. visits... then we are the ones who are winning (damn you Charlie Sheen for forever tainting that term).

Now, this girl LOVES to win. At everything. If you want to motivate her to do something, turn it into a race or a competition. Elise totally perked up when I started talking about beating diabetes.

"So if I don't cry at my shots, I'm beating diabetes? I win?" She asked.

I told her yes. That when diabetes isn't the boss of us, then we win. She liked that. In fact, she was ALL OVER that.

And you know what? It's working. With each shot, instead of crying, she now yells, "I WIN!"

So stick THAT in your pipe and smoke it, diabetes. You loose.

You're a loo-hoo-ser, diabetes!
(Elise at 15 months)

She did it!

40 shots (she gets 3 shots/day) without making a fuss. Her prize???

A brand new princess bike (still wondering how MY daughter likes princesses)

Hopped on it like she's been riding a bike all her life

So proud of herself

Watch me go!

C'mon Seven, let's get outta here!

The first time she rode her bike, we checked her BG right before. She was 71. So we tried to get her to eat some banana before she went for her ride. The problem was, she had already gotten on the bike and was trying to pedal away. Have you ever tried to feed your child food while they're riding their bike? Not easy, my friends... not easy.

Thankfully, she stopped long enough to get some carbs into her, and then she was gone again.

Crazy kid.

Tip O' the week: the trouble with shots

When I first started this blog, I wanted it to be a voice of comfort to others out there who were dealing with the same issues as I was. When I stumbled onto the D on-line community after Elise was diagnosed, it was via some message boards. But most of the people on there were Moms (and some Dads) of older kids. Even if their kids had been diagnosed at an early age, I couldn't find any that were as young as Elise.

It was the same with blogs... in the beginning I couldn't find any babies with D out there (I now know I just wasn't looking hard enough). So I started to write. About my experiences, the trials, the troubles, but I also wanted to offer tips, recipes with carb counts, and any advice I thought could be useful. My, my, I think rather a lot of myself, don't I?

I have sort of gotten away from my original purpose of this blog and have been on a rather long pity-party as of late. So I thought I'd channel some of that feeling-sorry-for-me energy into something good... a (hopefully) helpful post!

When we first brought Elise home from the hospital, giving her the shots was somewhat difficult. Since she was a baby, I could easily over-power her, but there was something very distasteful to me about holding my screaming daughter down while poking her with a needle. At that age, I found that toys that had buttons and lit up while playing music was a great distraction for her.

But soon we were on the brink of spending her college money on a rotation of toys that would hold her interest, so we moved onto something cheaper. I discovered my daughter coveted stickers and stamps, and loved sporting them on her hand. You can read more about it here.

Those made her happy for quite awhile, and she was such a rock-star, we could even give her the shots without any form of bribery. Life was good! Needle fear over and done with!

Except, not so much. About a month ago, the trouble started anew, and twice as bad. Maybe because she is stronger. Maybe because she is more vocal and can tell you exactly what is on her mind. Whatever the reason, it was bad. And it was getting to the point that I almost couldn't give her the shot by myself.

When I was lamenting about my troubles, Wendy told me that she used to use mini-marshmallows when her daughter was younger. Because I cannot have any form of marshmallow in the house since I discovered you can roast them campfire-style over your oven burners, I tried to think of something similar that Elise would go for.

And then it hit me. M&Ms! Ever since Hallowe'en, Elise had been addicted to M&Ms. We'd let her have a few after her dinner every once in awhile, and she got to where she would ask for them, giving us the cutest look ever and saying, "how 'bout ONE M&M?" She would then hold up one finger and reiterate in case we'd missed it, "ONE".

So the deal became, she would get one M&M after her shot if she did not put up a fuss or cry. If she was difficult, then her Poppa or I would get to eat the M&M. In front of her. Oh, yes we did. That happened ONCE, and she's been great with it ever since. The girl loves her some M&Ms.

We also found another solution when we were in SF. Elise LOVES other kids and thinks most of them have hung the moon. If we were around some of our friend's kids when Elise was getting her shot, we'd call them over (after checking with the parents to see if it was okay), and ask them if they wanted to see how brave Elise was. Elise would then very PROUDLY show them how she gets her shot, and exclaim, "I Brave!" She loved it.

It also was a neat experience for the other kids too. The older ones would even ask questions about Elise's diabetes.

This post has gotten rather long-winded (not surprising, if you know me at all). I hope some of the tips were helpful to someone out there!

Momma knows best

I can remember all too well the first fight I ever had with one of our CDEs. It was about a month after Elise's dx, and we were fighting blood sugar numbers is the 300-400 range and moderate ketones. She wasn't ill; we were just having a hard time figuring out her insulin dosage.

One morning I was either in or near tears and the educator kept asking me if I was giving Elise water (it helps to flush the ketones out of her system). I had been trying, the problem was Elise would scream at the sight of her sippy cup because I was trying to force water on her at the insistence of the educator. She even thought that I should go out and buy some Crystal Light or sugar-free Kool-Aid. As if my daughter who had never drank anything but breast milk or extremely watered-down apple juice would enjoy such a chemical-laced concoction. As she lectured me on the importance of making sure Elise was drinking, I snapped.

"Look, I 'm not sure if you've ever had any experience with a 12-month old, but if she doesn't want to drink, SHE WON'T DRINK. Since you think it's so easy, please come on over to my house and try it. Hear the screaming? It's not because she's HAPPY!"

I know it was a bit rude, but I was a parent of a newly diagnosed baby, and this woman didn't seem to understand my situation at all. In fact, now that I have a few more months under my belt, it sometimes seems "the experts" are just as clueless as I am sometimes. I think you can chalk it up to the fact that they don't really have much experience with babies who have diabetes.

So I have learned my own little tricks; we own about 10 different sippy cups, I've gone out and bought some fun straws for Elise to sip water from, and I've taught her from very early on to drink from a cup like a big girl because it's one of her favourite ways to drink water. I also have some bottles with the sports top on them because that's another way she loves to drink her water. Another trick I use is to let her suck on some ice, which also helps when she's teething.

I've found that variation works best for Elise, and I learned this through my own trial and error. Because, although the educators and doctors have Elise's interests at heart, they don't live it everyday (unless they have diabetes, or a child with diabetes) like I do. I've learned to trust my gut and my own instincts and use what I've been taught when it works for us.