Odds and bits, ends and pieces

I have really been bad about posting over here... it's not for lack of things to say, I've just been posting quite a bit on my other blog and have developed a very bad case of carpel tunnel (edited to add: it's not carpel tunnel after all... sounds more like Ulnar Nerve Entrapment. Oh internet, is there anything you don't know?) . It's gotten so bad my pinkie finger on my right hand goes numb whenever I start typing.

Anyway, here are my various thoughts in short form before this gets too painful:

• We seem to have steadied Elise's overnight BG by lowering her night time N from 3.5 units to 2.5. That's a pretty big decrease, but it seems to be working. We're still having some issues with her BG dropping after her bedtime snack (going from an okay bedtime number to a not-so-great one).
  
• The endo thinks this may be because of a delayed response to her dinner time DH. No idea why she's having this response all of a sudden. Anyone else ever experience this?
  
• We had GREAT Christmas day numbers. In fact they were the best they've been in awhile.


• I wasn't going to do any Christmas baking because the thought of it made me very sad. But after I kicked myself in the butt (a very difficult maneuver by the way), I decided to try a somewhat healthier version of gingerbread cookies using a recipe I came up with. And by that I mean I used whole wheat flour. They still came out tasting AMAZING, and Elise and I even decorated them using a touch of royal icing and one M&M.
  
• Even though we've been getting by with fewer night checks, I'm still very, very tired. I was so spoiled over the holidays... Fred took over the morning duties and I got to sleep in every day until about 10:00 am. So sad that it's over.
  
• Still having issues with her going low during her nap, even with a snack right before nap time. Since Elise has moved to her big-girl bed (you can read about that on my other blog), she's started taking longer to fall asleep. Today I used this to my advantage to figure out what was happening:

1:00 pm - BG is 130. I give her about 6g, which should nudge her up by 30 -50.
1:40 pm - BG is now 108. I giver her another 6g.
2:45 pm - BG upon waking up is 164. That's more like it.

• Yesterday She was 146 going into nap time, and I gave her about 4g. When she woke up she was in the 300s. At dinner, mid-300s. After today, I definitely know she's going low sometime during her nap. We're trying a combo of less NPH in the morning and more carbs at lunch.

So this turned out to be quite long and now my whole arm is numb. I hope I can fix this soon... what will I do without my therapy?

Thank you Secret Santa!

Sorry this post is so late, but I just wanted to give a BIG thank you to my Secret Santas, Hallie and Avery! They picked out a Baby Alive doll for Elise (the one with medical supplies), and Elise LOVES doting on her new baby. She even named her Avery after I told her that the doll was a present from a very special little girl named Avery.

I also received some nice presents; chocolate covered potato chips (a local treat from Hallie's neck of the woods), mini M&Ms, some Burt's Bees chapstick (my fav!), two pairs of cute socks, and some slipper/socks. Yay for warm feet!

Elise was so excited to open her present (note the cute mouse ornament attached to the gift)

The tearing of the wrapping paper commences!



So excited about her present!

Elise told us right away that the baby needed water

Cute slipper/socks that say Merry Christmas on the bottom


I love my penguin socks

Many thanks to Jill for organizing the Secret Santa exchange. Can't wait until next year

Merry Christmas everybody!

I just wanted to thank EVERYONE for their kind words, encouragement and support during these past rough weeks. We're still in the midst of it, but that's not what this post is about.

I also wanted to say thank you for all the wonderful cards we've been receiving. I'm sorry I was not "with it" enough to reciprocate, but I loved seeing the pictures of all my D-buddies I've made over the past year. You guys have made a very tough journey a little easier and Fred, Elise and I are blessed by every one of you.

If you want to see some fun pics of how we celebrated our Christmas Eve, you can click over to my other blog, here.

Here's our Christmas picture that sure would have looked cute sent out in the mail, but looks just as cute on my blog.

Merry Christmas, I wish God's richest blessings upon you!

Pancreas, we have a problem

It's official. My brain is fried. I can no longer think, reason, talk, remember my name, walk and chew gum at the same time (although that one was always a little dicey), or figure out the BG numbers.

I am flummoxed, stumped, puzzled, bewildered, confused, befuddled, discombobulated, and just plain at a loss.

And yes, this is yet another post where I bore you with the breakdown of Elise's numbers.

Last (Monday) night:
7:40 pm - 93. She gets her new lowered dose of 3N, and 17g (2 more than usual) of carbs
12:11 am - 74. She gets 8g of carbs
12:47 am - 102
1:16 am (crying) - 138
2:19 am (crying) - 125
3:54 am (crying) - 63. She gets 8g of carbs.
6:45 am - 91. We realized we never re-checked her after her last low. We're not too worried about this number as all her N should be out of her system by now.
7:54 am - 152

Today we had a pretty good day, numbers-wise. Then as then sun sets, Elise's pancreas starts at it again.

Tonight:
5:05 pm (dinner) - 234. High, but we give her a normal dose of 10DH and her usual 30g of carbs. We're eating a Chick-fil-a, so she plays in the play area for about 30 minutes afterwards.
7:42 pm - 196 - Still give her the lowered dose of 3N, and her usual 15g of carbs. We figure she's on the high side, so this should be okay.
9:15 pm (crying) - 44. What the FREAKIN' WHAT? How do you go down by 150 AFTER eating 15g of uncovered snack??? We give her 15g of carbs, plus almost a block of cheese (I may be exaggerating a wee bit). She also drank a sippy cup and a half of water. Ugh, can you say midnight diaper change (and no, I don't mean mine)?
9:32 pm - 69. Going up slowly. Gonna be a looooong night.

One thing I'm wondering is how much is exercise affecting her? I have noticed a pattern on nights where she's more active, she tends to go low.

But we also have these night time lows even when she's not active. Like last night for instance. Another thing I can't help but wonder is how long the DH stays in her body. I know they told us it peaks at about the 2 hour mark, then is pretty much gone by hour 4. But this does not seem to be the case with Elise, especially at night. It seems to peak a bit later and last longer. But how can that be?

Tomorrow we are going to be contacting the endo. Not the CDE, but the actual endo. Fred and I can't take much more of these night time issues. We have been testing her 6 - 8 times through the night almost every night. And it's not leaving much time to sleep. Even lowing her dose isn't having much effect. Last night when we lowered it, she had more lows that night than she did the night before on the higher dose.

If you didn't understand that last sentance, don't worry. Neither did I and I'm the one who typed it.

Bah, this post has already gotten too long and I need to go check Elise.

Rest in peace, Grammy Ann

I am very sad to say that my lovely Grammy Ann passed away today. I posted on my other blog about it; you can read it here. If you would, please pray for my family.

Thank you.

A close call

Although our room is only about 20 feet down the hall from Elise's room, I still use a baby monitor so I can hear her if she needs me during the night. We keep her door open only a crack, and ours is closed completely so that when Fred's alarm goes off at 5:15 am, it doesn't wake her up. This makes it almost impossible to hear her if I don't have the monitor on.

On Sunday morning, Fred got up with Elise so that I could sleep in, and he turned off the monitor so that they wouldn't disturb me while he was getting her dressed. And last night, I forgot to turn it back on. You see where this is going, right?

I was having one of my bizarre dreams around 4:30 am, when something jolted me from my sleep. I mean, JOLTED. I jumped out of bed and told my husband, "something's wrong!" I immediately thought of Elise, but couldn't hear anything. Then I realized the monitor was still off.

"Crap-on-a-stick!" Says I (yes, that's my go-to bad word), turning on the monitor. And that''s when I hear Elise moaning and saying she wants some food. My stomach dropped.

When we checked her at midnight, she was 190, a number we thought was good enough to get her to morning. Obviously not, since she was 59. We got some food into her, and put her back to bed. About 30 minutes later, she was 105.

I don't know how long she cried for us, but it kills me that she waited any amount of time for us to come. She probably felt so scared, lying there in the dark; calling for us and nobody answered her. It hurts, but I'm glad my "Mommy-sense" was working well enough to know that something was wrong; even in the depths of a dream.

Checking to see if the baby monitor is on; just one more thing to add to the bedtime routine.

Recipes: So Very Yummy Pumpkin Pie made with Agave

I should have posted this closer to Thanksgiving, but what the heck... better late than never. Ours was a hit at the Thanksgiving dinner we were invited to, and we'll be taking another one to the Christmas lunch we managed to finagle an invite to. Oh the lengths you have to go to when you don't have family around... bribing people with food!

What you need:
16 oz can of pumpkin (CF = .09, or about 38g cho total per can)
1/2 agave nectar (CF = .76, or 95g cho total)
1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (CF = .69, or about 3g cho total)
or (but not both)
1 tsp cinnamon (CF = .80)
1/2 tsp ginger (CF = .71)
1/2 tsp nutmeg (CF = .49)
3 slightly beaten eggs
5 oz evaporated milk (CF = .09, or 15g cho total)
1/2 c milk (CF = .05, or 6g cho total)

I use store-bought crust because I'm lazy. For the Pillsbury crust, I find it's about 105g cho total.

To Make:
Combine pumpkin, agave, and spices. Mix.
Add eggs. Mix some more.
Gradually add both milks. And mix some more.
Pour into prepared crust in 9 inch pie plate (I always end up with more mix than the plate can hold).
Wrap crust of the pie with foil (very important or crust will burn).
Bake in 375 degree oven for 30 - 40 minutes.
Remove foil and cook for about 20 - 10 minutes more (total cooking time is 50 minutes).
Pie is done when a knife is inserted into the centre and comes out clean.

I've found that a whole peice of the pie (crust and filling) has a carb factor between .23 - .27. If you're only eating the filling (like Elise does), then the carb factor is around .16 - .18. Enjoy!

Flummoxed AND stumped

Although it's better than it was, Fred and I are still up two to three times a night checking Elise. We are seeing some seriously WEIRD numbers.

The one that has us stumped during the day is her post-nap number. She is waking up in the low to mid-300s. We can't tell if we're missing a low while she's asleep, or her morning N needs to be increased. For example, to day she was 184 right before her nap at 1:00pm. It took her awhile to go to sleep, and when she woke up at 3:30, she was 304.

I think the only way we'll be able to figure it out is with a CGM, but I don't know if insurance will cover it or how expensive they are (or even if Elise will tolerate such a thing).

We've also been giving her DH(only 1.5 - 2 units) with her bed time N shot because we're having trouble getting her down after dinner. She's high going into it, and no matter how much DH we give her for her dinner time shot, she ends up at almost the same number three hours later. So tonight she was 315 at dinner, we gave her 14 units of DH (4 units more than she usually gets), and exactly three hours later, she's at 335.

I HATE giving her DH at bed time, because it's so scary for us to let her go to sleep with rapid-acting in her system.

Can anyone offer any insight from their experiences? I know it's hard to tell just by what I've written out here, but I'd welcome any advice. I think an email directly to the endo is in order on Monday if we can't figure it out before then.

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!

Flummoxed

I like the word flummoxed. It looks cool when typed out, and it's just plain fun to say. It means; bewildered, puzzled, confused. As in; I am so flummoxed by Elise's BG numbers yesterday.

It all started around 4:30 yesterday afternoon. Elise had woken up from her nap about 2 hours earlier with a BG of 158. It's a nice number, usually guaranteed to get us through to dinner. But at 4:30, Elise complains that she's thirsty. She had been playing at an indoor playground at our church, and I thought it was from that, but my gut told me I should check her anyway.

She was 61. I gave her some yogurt, and her before dinner check came in at 95. She got her usual dose of DH, and about 5g more of carbs than usual, because we were eating dinner at the church, and Elise would be going back to play on the playground afterwards.

An hour after dinner, she was 63. All I had left for her were some goldfish crackers. I gave her about 8g worth and then we went home.

Bedtime check, she was 102. Good. She got her usual bedtime snack and dose. She actually got her shot late because we were decorating the tree. Only 2 hours after her shot (way to early for the N to be peaking), she was at 60. We give her 10g. She's 78 at next check.

At 1:00 am, she's 54. Crap! we give 10 more grams of carb. I don't remember what happened after that (I think we both passed out from sheer exhaustion), but when we checked her at 3:00 am, she was 69. She gets 7g more. Finally by 4:00 am, she's 144. But down to 119 at 6:00.

When I woke her up this morning, she was 242. This was only 2 hours after the last check, so I'm wondering if she went low again and we missed it. She's been running in the mid to high 200s all morning.

Right now she's been napping for almost two hours and I'm wondering if I should sneak in there to check on her. We contacted the CDE at our endo, but they weren't much help.

So yeah... life is crazy right now. Thank goodness for impromptu kitchen dance parties to make you feel good.