It's true what they say about Monday's

My poor Kortnie, I feel so bad for her sometimes.  Ever since she was a little baby she's always been my sickest kid.  Once she was diagnosed with T1D, she actually didn't get quite as sick anymore, we figured it was beacause we finally knew what was wrong with her and we were working hard to treat her and give her a healthy life.  Well, we are coming up on 3 years since diagnosis and while we've dealt with a few colds and one or two stomach bugs, we've not had to deal with anything too awful. 

Saturday morning she had a soccer game, Saturday evening we went to the fair.  Blood sugars were good, we had a fun day, at the fair we ate some junk food, funnel cake, french fries, lemonade, and hot dogs.  I bolused, the BG's stayed good.  From 10:30pm Saturday night to 8am Sunday morning she was kind of high but 230-280.  I figured it was residual from that dang funnel cake and lemonade.  By 10am Sunday she was back at 112, we had breakfast and went to church at noon she was 81 and still had Insulin On Board (IOB), I gave her 3 smarties and sent her to her Sunday School class while I stayed in my class.  We got home from church around 2:30 and she went to the bathroom, then came out and started telling her dad stomach hurt and she went to the bathroom during church and just now at home and there was blood in her pee.  He called me upstairs and told me, she hadn't flushed the toilet so I went and looked.  Not gonna lie, I freaked out.  Jumped on the computer and started googling.  I figured that she probably had a UTI (uterine tract infection), but there was also stuff about Kidney Stones and Kidney Disease and how people with Diabetes have Kidney problems.  So I started asking her questions and figured that yeah, it probably was a UTI.  Next I went into some of the D-Mom and PWD groups on Facebook and posted a question about it.  I got lots of advice and encouragement, here.  I am so grateful for the DOC (Diabetes Online Community)!  I called her Endocrinologist and they said it sounded like a UTI as well, and that I could give her tylenol and push fluids and keep her at home and take her to Urgent Care in the morning or ER that night if she was really in pain.  She did go to the bathroom several times that evening, we monitored ketones and they stayed around the trace-moderate range, her BG's were pretty good too so I wan't too worried, just feeling bad for her that she was in pain.  I have never had a UTI myself, but some of my friends told me that they pretty much suck and are painful.   A friend of mine and a fellow Diabetic brought her an AZO pill that is supposed to help with the pain and also turns the urine kind of bright orange or yellow.  That little pill seemed to help her and get her through the night. 

Monday morning I was supposed to go to the hosptial and give a talk to a group of Nurse's doing a training session and all the different types of diabetes.  I've done this training class before.   I was supposed to be there at 9am, Kortnie had wanted to go with me, but I told her she had to go to school.  Well, plans changed, I was at the Urgent Care with her by 8am, we were still there at 9am and I called the hospital and told them that I was at Urgent Care and was going to be late, they of course were okay with that, my talk is about being the parent of  a T1D, and well, this little trip to the Urgent Care and messing up my plans for the day fits right in with that doesn't it? 

I told the docs at Urgent Care that I prefered the Walmart pharmacy, but they must have written down Walgreen's instead, because they sent our prescription to Walgreens.  Oh well, I can run over there and pick it up, not a huge deal, even though I already had to go to Walmart to pick up test strips and a few other things. 

After we were done at Urgent Care we headed over to the hospital, I gave my talk, the Nurse's asked me some questions.  One of the questions they asked me was "Do you ever get a break?"  I smiled and told them not really.  One of the nurses asked Kortnie "How do you feel about having diabetes?", she thought about it for a minute and then said "it sucks!" but she was smiling when she said it and they all laughed and there was of a chorus, of empathy and "I bet's".

Next we went to Walmart, stopped by the Pharmacy and they were still out of test strips, I had called in the prescription the previous Monday, it had been exactly a week and they were still out.  What's up with that, the pharmacy tech decided to just pull them off the OTC shelf for me.  I'm not sure what the dang difference is between the prescription and OTC strips is.  Well, actually there is no difference in the strips, I'm sure the difference is all in the paperwork and behind the scenes stuff.  They told me to go shop while they got it all ready for me.  So I went and shopped, got the stuff on my list, headed back to the pharmacy to pick up the strips.  We are standing in line and Kork says she feels low, she checks her BG and she's 43!  Yikes.  Good thing I had juice boxes in my cart!  I popped open a box of Capri Sun's and she sucked one down and sat on the bench by the Pharm counter while I waited in line.  Had to laugh, here she is low, while waiting in line to pick up a new batch of test strips.  I mean it's one of those moments where you either laugh or cry.  I got the strips and she said she was feeling okay so we went over and got in line to pay for our other stuff.  Hopped in the car and went across the street to Walgreens for her UTI meds.  She was feeling better and her BG was up to 112, so we stopped at Subway for lunch.  I gave her the first dose of antibiotics and she said it was yucky. 

Then we headed home, she was so tired, I could see it in her face, we got back to town around 12:30, I was going to let her come home and have a nap, but she wanted to go to school.  So, I dropped her off at school.  Let her teacher know about the UTI and she would need to go to the bathroom.  She has access to the bathroom already according to her IEP, but it also says in the IEP that if she's going to the bathroom a lot, she's probably high and needs to check, so I just figured I'd clue her in on the UTI.  Her awesome teacher told Kortnie, "oh those are no fun, I've had them before, I'm sorry you don't feel good, don't worry, if you have to go to the bathroom, just get up and go, even if I'm busy you just go, you are definitly not supposed to try to hold it in okay, I won't collect a stick from you".  Awesome!  (the kids get popsicle sticks at the beginning of the week and then as rewards for various things throughout the week, usually if someone has to use the bathroom she makes them "pay" a stick to go, she doesn't make Kortnie "pay" with a stick though)

I picked her up at 2:30 and she told me she had fun at school and that she only had to go to the bathroom twice, and that she was feeling better.  She went to Soccer practice yesterday afternoon too, even though I wanted her to stay home and rest, but nope, she wanted to go to Soccer and play and have fun with her friends.  This girl, she doesn't let anything keep her down for too long.  She's my Hero.  I look at her and she looks so tired, I know that Diabetes wears her out sometimes, and I know this UTI has her beatdown and probably the combination of Diabetes and UTI is even worse, but she just keeps on keeping on.  I don't even know if she knows what it feels like to feel good, I think she probably feels crappy so much of the time, that feeling crappy is just her version of normal.  I wish I could take all of it away from her, it makes me sad, but I don't want her to see how sad it makes me, because even though she says having diabetes "sucks" she seems okay with it most of the time.  The fact of the matter is that even though I want to take it from her, I can't, so I have to let her be okay with it and not make her think it's such an awful, terrible, sad thing...even though it is!  When she wants to rant and rave and be mad, I'll let her, by golly, but for now, she's okay with it all, so I guess I will be too.