When you should listen to those little voices in your head

We interrupt Diabetes Week to bring you the following post that can only be filed under "what the CRAP?" So today was gym day. That's when I take Elise to the local rec centre where she can run, jump, and play with all the other free-range children. There's a bounce house, tricycles, gymnastics mats, and all sorts of goodies to play with. Then I get to sit on my butt for 90 minutes while she is having fun. It's a win-win. I test her BG at snack time... 10:30. She's 129. Wonderful, especially considering she woke up at 268 this morning. She gets her 15g snack and off she goes. I keep a very watchful eye, for reasons you will read about tomorrow. I start getting ready to leave around 11:30. I wanted to check her to make sure the NPH hasn't peaked. I clean her finger, shunk (thanks Karen!), 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... aaaaaand 377. WHAT THE CRAP??? I look at the meter. Shake it. Turn it upside down even. And still the 377 mocks me. "There's no way" I tell myself, "did I miss a low?" One of the many voices in my head (let's call him Harold) tells me to check her again. But I'm in a hurry to leave, so I don't. During the 5 minute drive home, I pass a McDonald's. Their fries are calling to me, so I make a quick detour (yes, yes... I know. Leave me alone, I'm pregnant). As soon as I get the bag, Elise starts whining, "fries? Fries? Hungry!" She's actually starting to have a meltdown, so I quickly drive home. When I get there, one of the many other voices (let's call him Lenny) tells me I should really re-check her. This time I listen (Lenny has more pull than Harold). I clean her finger, shunk. 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... aaaaaand 57! WHAT THE CRAP??? How does she drop 320 in less than 30 minutes? Wha' happened? Why didn't I listen to Harold? Her finger was clean... what did I do wrong? As you can probably tell, this is the first time I've ever experienced something like this. And the worst thing of all, I ignored my daughter's pleas for food because I thought her BG was high. UGH... Worst. Mom. Ever. The only thing I could have done worse, is gone by that 377 and given her a correction. That would have been most excellent (please read that last sentence with a large helping of sarcasm). I will never ignore Harold or Lenny again.

Food glorious Food

Thursday - To carb or not to carb

One thing I vowed to myself when Elise was diagnosed, was that she would be allowed to eat what we eat, and there would be no "forbidden foods".

Having said that, I do know that there are some foods that Elise should avoid. But we tend to eat healthy, natural, non-processed foods; so most of what we eats fit into her "diet".

There are some foods that we try not to eat anymore (as a family) because of what they do to Elise's BG; pizza, mac & cheese, ice cream... anything that is high in fat and will cause lows and then horrible, horrible highs later on.

I know there are many people who believe in the low/no-carb diet, but bread and pasta remain some of Elise's favourite foods. With a lot of trial and error, we have learned how these foods will affect her BG, although thankfully, pasta does not seem to have any adverse affects.

Some of Elise's Favourite Meals:
Breakfast:
Granola with fresh strawberries, plus toast (whole wheat) and almond butter. Lately I've been putting cinnamon on her toast instead and she LOVES it.

Lunch:
Grilled cheese sandwich (ugh), yogurt or a homemade smoothie w/yogurt and some fruit (usually cantaloupe).

Dinner:
I make this pepper and sausage pasta dish that Elise LOVES. She would eat it every night if I would make it for her. I serve it with garlic toast, and she also drinks milk (actually it's a 70% white milk/30% chocolate milk mix... she's not a fan of plain milk). For dessert it's usually some sort of fruit.

Snacks:
Bread with almond butter
Banana
Grapes
Bagel with cream cheese
Goldfish crackers
yogurt (homemade or Yobaby)
Smoothie

Elise is also really good about eating veggies; broccoli, squash, carrots, celery, asparagus, peppers... I am so thankful that she's pretty easy-going when it comes to food.

I haven't been good about it lately, but I have posted recipes on my blog complete with carb counts, in the past. When Elise was first diagnosed, I was practically pulling my hair out trying to figure out what to feed her. This post has been the kick in the pants I needed to start posting those recipes again!

When a good bra just won't cut it.

Wednesday - Who is your biggest supporter?

And when I'm talking about bras, of course I'm using another word for support.

While my husband is amazing, I wouldn't consider him my greatest supporter... because he is 100% as involved with Elise's care as I am. He is the best partner-in-crime at battling this disease I could ever ask for.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again; I would climb to the highest speedbump in north Texas (there aren't any mountains or even hills around here) to proclaim the on-line D community as THE best support system I could ever ask for. Especially the D-Mom and Dads. Without them, I would be curled up into a ball; a quivering mass of jelly and most likely certifiable by now.

If I ever have a question; they are there. A rant; they are all ears. They cheer on our triumphs and cry with us when we despair. Best of all, they get it. I love these people like family, and most of them I've never even met in real life.

My only complaint is that they are scattered all over North America.

People, we need to start work on that commune!

This low is bananas, B-A-N-A-N-A-S

Tuesday - treating a low

As the title of this post suggests, bananas are our favourite way to treat a low. Because Elise was diagnosed so young, she had never had juice before, and I was leery of introducing it to her.

Our problem with finding something to treat a low with was two-fold; it had to be something she would eat, and it had to be something she could eat. You see, Elise didn't get her first tooth until she was 16 months old.

When I did some investigating, I found that bananas have one of the highest sugar content when it comes to fruit, so I thought it would be a good food to use to treat a low.

Bananas worked for us for many reasons. When Elise was smaller, we only had to use a small carb amount to get her BG up. We found that 5g would raise her BG by over 100. The few times we tried juice, she'd get such a small amount, and then scream for more. The banana seemed to satisfy her better, and took a bit longer to eat.

Plus, Elise had never said no to a banana... it remains her go-to food, even today.

And yes, we even use it at night! There is something so (bitter) sweet watching your baby eat a banana at 2:00 am while fast asleep.

Since bananas aren't the easiest thing to bring with me when we're out, I also carry several packages of Annie's Organic Fruit Bunnies. They have 18g of carbs per package, and Elise LOVES them.

Sometimes it feels like Groundhog Day

Monday - a day in the life

You know that movie with Bill Murry, where he wakes up, and everyday is the same?

That's sort of how it feels when you have a toddler with D. The numbers may differ every day - there are highs and there are lows. But the basic ebb and flow to your day is pretty much the same. Every. Single. Day.

After one particularly bad day, someone once said to me, "well at least tomorrow is another day. You can start all over". And since I was attending my very own pity party, I wanted to snap back,

"But it's not a new day. You don't get it. I have to get up and do it all again tomorrow. It never stops. It never ends. Every day, the same crap."

Thank goodness I don't throw those parties often.

A day with Elise starts around 7:30 am. I can hear her sweet voice calling me over the monitor, "Momma, I wake up!" That is, if her number is okay. If she's low, I'll hear crying or moaning. So meters in hand (sugar and ketone, because you never know if you'll need both), I go in and check her.

Because Elise is on NPH, she has breakfast around 8:30 every day. I like to give her her shot about 20 minutes before she eats (depending on her number, of course) to avoid a mid-morning spike. Elise usually helps me prepare the syringe with both the diluted Humalog and NPH. Then she picks which colour M&M she wants and it's shot time.

While Elise will eat anything I give her, it takes a lot of coaxing sometimes, and she still likes to be fed. Or wants me to sit with her while she eats, which can be frustrating because I'm trying to get things done. I chalk it up to the fact that she was dx at 12 months, so we've almost ALWAYS had to hover over her to make sure she's eating.

If it's an activity day (gymnastics, music class etc.), I grab her pre-packed backpack with all emergency supplies, throw in her meters and pre-measured snack, and we're off. If we're going to be out for lunch, I also pack her cooler bag with some food and her insulin. Most other days, I stay at home until snack time is over.

10:30 - BG check and 15g snack.

Due to the NPH, she needs to eat her lunch around noon (no lunch time shot - YAY!). I usually check her at about 11:40, because sometimes it peaks early. Elise loves to help me prepare her meals, and even though it can be frustrating and S-L-O-W, I let her. It is adorable (and sad), how she knows to grab the scale and weigh her food.

After lunch I'll either run errands with her, or we'll go to the park or for a walk. Of course, anytime I'm out with her, I carry my Bag-O'-Stuff. I swear I feel like a pack mule.

Around 1:45, I check her BG and have to figure out how much of a snack to give her. She naps from around 2:30 - 4:30, and ALWAYS drops during her nap. But how much I give her depends on what her BG is:

80 - 110, she gets 15 - 20g
110 - 160, she gets 15g
160 - 200, she gets 10g
200 - 270, she gets 5g

It has taken many, many months of figuring out the above "formula", but it works. And yes, she gets carbs even if she's almost 300. Because there have been a number of times I put her down at 275 or so, only to have her wake p in the 60s, two hours later. Her BG just takes a nose dive in the afternoons for some reason.

Dinner time at our house is at 5:15 or so, and it's not because we're in our 70s. Unless we want Elise to go to bed at 11:00 pm every night, we have to eat early, so there is enough space between her dinner time shot and bed time shot. Thankfully, my husband gets home from work at 5:00, so he can help me out. In the beginning, I was going insane trying to check Elise's BG, give her her shot, make her dinner, feed her, and make our dinner all by myself. Now that she's old enough to eat what we do, it's a little better, but I love the extra help!

After dinner we try to do something fun as a family, go to the park, a walk... or we finish off the errands I didn't get to during the day. Then at 8:00 it's bath time (some nights), then shot of her bed time NPH and a 15g snack. Or if her BG is on the low side, we do snack first, then shot.

By 9:00 she's usually tucked into bed after her nightly allotment of stories (one in english and one in portuguese). We check her around midnight, and then again at 3:00 am.

The hardest part for me is that I feel like my brain never gets to rest. Upon wake up, I'm wondering about her number and thinking about breakfast. By the end of breakfast, my mind is on her snack. After snack, I begin to ponder lunch... you get the idea.

I'm always thinking about 10 steps ahead, and it's exhausting.

Diabetes Week

I've never taken part in anything like this, but when I saw it on Lora's blog, I decided to give it a whirl.

To get all the nitty-gritty on what Diabetes Week is about, head on over to Karen's Bitter-Sweet Diabetes Blog and leave her a comment if you want to take part.

I'm looking forward to reading what everyone has to say on the various topics!

See ya tomorrow!

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!

Having her cake and eating it too

Pictured to the right is THE best cake in the world. We get it for every birthday, nay... every celebration worth celebrating. It comes from a bakery which is about 40 minutes from our house and it is so worth the drive.

The problem with the best cake in the world is that it is unlike any cake you've ever had. It is made up of two types of layers. One is meringue-like (but not entirely... it's like a really crispy meringue. And that doesn't even describe it well), and the other is a whipped cream/ice cream hybrid. It is then covered in this whipped cream/ice cream hybrid, which in turn, it covered in chocolate shavings.

All that to say, guessing the carbs in this thing is like trying to guess how many stars are in the sky. Or how many ellipsis Meri has used on her blog. At best, it's a total crap shoot. I once asked if the bakery had any nutritional info on this cake and the lady gave me her best wise-ass smirk.

Because of how the timing worked out on Fred's birthday, we were going to give Elise some cake as part of her bed time snack. Fred and I put our heads together and came up with our best WAG (wild ass guess) at a carb factor. We chose .70. No, I don't know how we arrived at that number.

About 2 hours later, her BG was in the high 300s. Oops. But four hours later, she was back down in the mid 100s with no correction, and she woke up at 89. Nice.

The next two times she ate it, we used the same carb factor, and tweaked the amount of other carbs she ate, as well as giving her a bit of extra insulin. By the third time she had the cake, her BG was in the low 100s about 2 1/2 hours after eating it. Success!

I hate when we run across foods that are hard to figure out carbs for, but we have decided it won't stop us from letting Elise enjoy it.

Letting your child have cake... it's such a small thing to other people, but for us, it's a triumph.


And I love the smile it brought to her face.

***note: the above picture is not an actual picture of said smile (nor is it really a smile), but a rather adorable picture (in this mother's opinion), that I wanted to share. I'm shameless... I know.

Things I learned about Diabetes this month... April edition

Wow... look at me! Getting this post done on the first day of the month instead of halfway through. This surely is a Dear Diary moment...

-When you are having a run of great numbers, you (meaning I), will freak out when one little BG number comes back weird. You (I) will then obsess over it, wondering where you went wrong, and what you could have done to avoid said weird number. Three days later you (I) will still not have let it go, and find yourself (myself) mumbling out loud in public, earning all sorts of looks from people. By about day four you (I) will have forgotten all about it when something newer and weirder happens.

-If you get up to do a night check and you have to pee, make sure you pee first, then check. Because something will always happen, and you won't be able to make it to the toilet for another 20 minutes. Pee first, then check. Especially if you're pregnant.

-The D monster will always strike when your back-up (spouse) is out of town. You will get sick, your child will get sick, and diabetes will rear it's U-G-L-Y head. You will start to fantasize about getting hit by a car, just so you can can go to the hospital and get some rest. And really good drugs.

-When testing your child at night (and you have been dealing with a terrible cough throughout your illness), you will cough just at the very moment you are closest to their ear. Stifling the cough will only make you cough even more, and you will run from their room in what would be a hilarious fashion in any other situation, without even completing the check.