Soccer

Kortnie is playing soccer this year.  The first and only other time she played soccer was in 2009, the year she was diagnosed, soccer season is Sep/Oct here.  In 2009 about halfway through the season she started not feeling well.  We'd go to the soccer game and she'd end up laying in my lap on the sidelines while we watched her sister and the rest of the team play.  We'd go to practices and she'd run down the field once and get so tired that she just had to sit.  At first I thought to myself, that she just wasn't a sporty girl.  Then I started noticing that everything was making her tired and not only tired, but drained!  Her face would go white, she'd cry because she was so tired, she'd just flop down on my lap and fall asleep.  Soccer season ended and 1 week later we were in the hospital getting diagnosed with T1D. 

When soccer season 2010 rolled around she didn't want to play.  Her older sister wanted to play, so I signed her up.  I didn't push it with Kortnie.

Soccer 2011 came around, I asked the girls if they wanted to sign up, neither one of them did.

Sign ups for this year's season came around, I asked again if they wanted to play and asked my son too since he is finally old enough to play.  Surpisingly both Kortnie and Graham wanted to play.  Our oldest didn't.  Fine with me.  I signed up Kortnie and Graham and they really are having a great time. 

Kortnie is a go getter, she runs fast, she has okay ball handling skills and most times plays forward.  That means she is running up and down the field the whole game pretty much.  Her blood sugars are definitly affected, but they are different at every game and practice, so I haven't figured out what to do to manage them better.

Today we only had 10 kids to show up to play her game, this meant all 10 of them had to play the whole game, no sitting out.  Her coaches were out of town, so I was sub-coaching for them. 

Here is how her blood sugars went Her in-range # should be between 80 and 120

Her game was at 11am, around 9am we started thinking about breakfast

9:14am  she was 362...I should have known this would happen, we always have late morning highs on Saturday, I think because our sheduale is different, I really need to get her to eat earlier, or change her basals on the weekend.  She ate a muffin, I had her bolus for 35 carbs (instead of 50) and the correction. 

10:56am - game starts at 11, her BG is 182 no correction

11:32am - halftime, we always check at halftime but I knew she was gonna be low, I could tell she was getting tired, been running nonstop pretty much for 30 minutes.  She was 81, gave her about 1/2 a package of Smarties and she was off.  I would have given her the whole package of Smarties, but it must have been in her kit for a long time, because when we opened it about 1/2 of them fell into a powdery mess and the other 1/2 of them that she ate, she said tasted yucky!  Around  11:38 I ran out on the field and put a glucose tab in her mouth.  The other coach is a friend of ours and she just laughed and yelled out "Such a devoted mom!"  She knew I was shoving sugar down Kork's throat.  I was running off the field and kind of yelled out "Sorry she needs some sugar, I can tell!" A couple other parents, were like WTF was that all about? I could hear them murmuring, then another girl who knows us-she's friends with my older daughter-on the sidelines says, "she's diabetic, she needs candy and stuff sometimes".  Then I hear this older kid talking about how he's hypoglycemic.  Then I just tuned out and kept my eye on Kortnie.  I realize now that I should have had her take her pump off, or reduced her basal, I'm still getting this sports thing figured out, and it didn't occur to me that I should have done something like that until after the game was over.

11:44 - end of 3rd period, she was 67, she sucked down a Capri-Sun, and she went in as goalie, less running-that was my thinking-I should have made her sit out, but she wasn't having that and sitting out would have left us with one less man on the field, no one to sub in for her.   I went and stood by the goal to keep my eye on her, gluc tabs and juice in hand.  She did fine, I could see the life coming back into her face.  I also at this point thought to myself that it was pretty stupid of me to leave my glucagon in the car, way across the street at the fire station.  Had to park there because the parking lot at the park was full, well because there are 3 games going on all day 9am-5pm.  Next weekend I will be bringing the Glucagon with me to the field, and I'm going to remind myself to think about temp basals too!

11:59 - end of game, she was 123, she had a cupcake as an after game treat, had her bolus for 23 carbs

1:09 - back home, time for some lunch (stopped at a yardsale on the way home), she was 85, we had mini pizzas, she bolused for 32 grams of carbs, after they ate, the girls had to clean their room

4:11 - 63, she ate a mini chicken sandwich 12gCarbs - no bolus and a dum dum sucker unbolused, at 4:30 she went out to play at the neighbors house, with a roll of Smarties in one pocket and cell phone in the other, told her to come back at 5, it's 4:43 now.

5:16 - called her on the phone, told her to come home and check, 71, cupcake time, 23gCarb, she got a bolus of .85 and is now un-hooking from the pump for a shower and site change, which will probably take her 30-45 minutes, she loves to be un-tethered so she stretches it out.  Being un-hooked, that ought to bring her BG back up, probably too much.

Her team ended up losing 3-1, kind of sucks because it was a great game, going into the 4th period (when I put Kortnie as goalie), the score was 1-0, her team scored bringing us up to 1-1, then the other team got 2 kicks past Kortnie, which I'm sure the low had something to do with her letting at least one of those get by.  Oh well, though, it's just city league 8 and 9 year olds and they had fun, so that's the main thing.  Right?  Maye next time the real coaches are going to be gone, they won't ask me to sub-coach.

Phew, here's hoping the post game lows stop now and give us a break. 

Diabetes-never ending-always making me think-my brain is tired-but Kortnie is having fun and enjoying a typical Saturday for an 8 year old girl.

The Stuff Kids Say

A week or so ago I posted over on our family blog about some of the funny things my little boy had been saying recently.  Yesterday my girls were sitting at the kitchen counter and they had a kind of funny-silly-sad conversation.  Something like this.

Me:  Kork, check your blood sugar.  it was time for dinner

Kork:  UGH!  gets out her stuff and starts checking
Stasia:  I'm sad that you have diabetes
Kork:  Yeah it sucks, I hate it! pokes her finger, does her thing, she's thinking, I can tell
Kork:  But I guess it's all right.  It's fun too, sometimes.  Like the Diabetes walk and Diabetes Camp.  That is FUN!  Yeah, I guess it's okay
Stasia:  Yeah, the Diabetes Walk is fun!  I like to go to that.  It still sucks you have to have diabetes though.

That being said....Our Diabetes Walk this year is November 3, 2012.  Tempe Town Lake.  On Friday the 2nd,  Kortnie had her Endocrinologist appointment, we'll be going down to The Valley (Phoenix Area) for that, staying the night and doing the JDRF Walk on Saturday.  Kork's 3 year D-Aversary is on November 7, so we'll be celebrating the weekend of the walk.  We'll probably hit up the mall and get everyone a new outfit, maybe a Christmas dress, and we'll go out to eat somewhere that Kortnie picks.  She and her sister are already planning on the carb-tastic, carb-o-licous Golden Corral.  Should be a fun weekend. 

Painting pumpkins last year at the 2011 JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes.

Kork on the left, Stasia on the right.

And here is where you have the oppurtunity to donate to our Walk Team and help support research in finding a cure for Type 1 Diabetes.  If you'd like to help us out with a donation or even join our walk team click here.  $1, $5, $10, anything helps!  If you have already donated, we are thankful and appreciative. 

Diabetes Art Day 2012

Today, September 24th is Diabetes Art Day. 

A brief description of the movement from the website says...

Diabetes Art Day is a web-based initiative for the Diabetes Online Community to “tell a story” about life with diabetes though creative visual expression. It’s a way for us to tell our stories so we can connect and share with each other and with our loved ones. It’s a way to generate diabetes awareness outside of the DOC by sharing artwork on Facebook, Twitter, blogs and community websites. Diabetes Art Day is for people young and old with any type of diabetes and their families, so children, spouses, parents, siblings, or anyone who is affected by diabetes can participate. For this one day, you’re encouraged to break out of your linguistic comfort zone, bust out some art materials, and make a piece of artwork – painting, drawing, collage, sculpture, an installation piece, a mixed media something or other, or whatever you can imagine. Whether you have lots of experience making art or none at all, Diabetes Art Day is for you to show the world what it’s like to live with diabetes in that “a picture is worth 1000 words” kind of way.

Yesterday morning, I told Kortnie all about Diabetes Art Day, I told her that you take some of your diabetes stuff trash, and make something out of it, then take a picture of it and put it on the internet.   When we got home from church, Kortnie asked me if she could make something.  She gathered her supplies, I showed her some photos of previous years Diabetes Art, and she and her sister went to town.  This is our first year participating.  I have to say I'm pretty pleased with what that girls came up with, and I had fun taking pictures of their art.  While I was taking pictures of their art, I took some photos of some of their supplies.  I made a few collages to upload to the website.

 

 

Here are a few more pictures we took.

 

 A bunch of test strips, some insets, cartridges, and insulin vials.  Some lego guys and little brother's ambulances.  This was definitly inspired by some of the Diabetes Art we looked at online.

 

A peace sign made out of One Touch and Accu-Check test strips bottles. 

 

 Kortnie has been saving test strips all year, this is a bottle of some that they didn't use.

 



 Leftover supplies.  Alchol wipes, smarties, syringes, pump tubing, syringe caps, test strips, gluc tabs.

 



Kortnie and Stasia with their masterpiece.  

A crap week

Monday was long, Tuesday was tiring, and today has not been great either.   This morning, I forgot to put a carb count in Kortnie's lunchbox.  Every afternoon after school she makes herself a lunch for the next day, in the morning before school I am supposed to put a carb count in her lunch and make sure she has her checker (her test kit) before she leaves.  This morning, I forgot.  I also forgot to give her the medicine she is taking for her UTI.  Around 10am I realized I had forgotten the medicine, I go pick up her brother from Kindergarten at 10:45, so I just took the medicine with me then.  She came to the office and took her "yucky" medicine, I picked up Graham and came home.  My phone was beeping at me, telling me that it wanted to be charged.  I put it on the charger, I got the little girl I babysit on the bus, I made lunch for Graham and I, then I came into the living room to fold laundry and watch Grey's Anatomy on Netflix.  I finshed the laundry and laid down on the couch, the next thing I know, Kortnie was walking in the door with her Nurse from school.  I jumped up and yelled "what are you guys doing here", they had startled me, I thought something must be wrong.  They told me that they tried calling but I didn't answer the phone, so they drove over here to find me. They told me there was no carb count in her lunch.  Kortnie was crying.  Oh brother!  Miss Sharon said she had to get back to school and asked me if  I would bring Kortnie back.  I told her thanks for bringing her and yes I'd bring her back to school, went into the kitchen where my phone was plugged in and it had turned itself off.  Stupid Smart Phone!

Kortnie checked her BG, she was 102, I looked through her lunch box and counted up 33 carbs.  She'd packed 7 strawberries-10gC, a 2gC juice pouch, peanut butter for dipping the strawberries in-5gC, and 2 cookies-9gC.  Yeah, a real healthy lunch, right?  I told her to go get a cheese stick and piece of salami out of the fridge too.  We got her bolus and I told her I'd take her back to school, she started crying again and told me she only had 1 minute to get back to class!  She was upset with me that my phone was off and she wasted all of her eating and recess time with her friends trying to call me.  So, she stayed home and ate, she got calmed down and I took her back to school about 20 minutes after lunch ended. 

She's had a rough week, the UTI stuff, she's tired from the infection and the medicine, I think today kind of pushed her over the edge for a minute. 

I am tired.  It's not just Diabetes, there are other things dragging me down too, it all just gets to be a lot sometimes. 

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. 

Back to School

It's that time of year when the kids go back to school.  For Kortnie, that means a little something different.  A few days before school starts I have a meeting with her new teacher and the school nurse to talk about the care I expect for her Type 1 Diabetes. 

We do not have a 504 plan, this is a K-3 school, she was diagnosed 3 months into her Kindergarten year.  When we took her back to school after diagnosis, we didn't know anything about 504 plans.  By the time 1st grade rolled around we still didn't know enough about 504 plans to know that we really should push the issue.  By the time we got to second grade I did know a lot more about the 504 plans, but I felt that we'd done so well with IEP's that we'd just stick with what we know, and we're doing that this year with 3rd Grade as well.  Next year when she goes to a new school, with new staff I will definitly be putting a 504 in place and will be making changes as she gets older. 

The staff at this school all know about Kortnie and Type 1 Diabetes, she is the only kid at the school who is diabetic.  No one has ever made her feel bad about her disease, no one has ever denied us anything that we've asked for, I've never felt like she was under cared for, and when we have issues come up, we've always been able to come to an agreement with our treatment options.  Eveyone has basically always given us everything we've asked for. 

This year things are a little different, Kortnie's teacher is facing some serious health issues and is kind of in limbo right now, not knowing if she'll be able to teach full time or not.  So, this morning I met with Kortnie's teacher, the School Nurse, and the Permanant Substitute teacher.   I am sad and concerned for the teacher's health issues, but am so glad to know that the teacher and school seems to be well prepared and they've nailed down a permanant sub and had her at our meeting this morning.  This sub has had Kortnie in previous years, so she already knows about her as well, but it was good to really sit down with her this morning and go over my plan with her. 

I went into school armed with a new updated plan to be kept in the classroom, the nurses office, and also 2 other copies for me and the sub to look through.  We went through my plan page by page, we discussed everything, they asked questions, Kortnie was there and she put in her 2cents and asked and answered questions as well.  I took an expired glucagon and showed them how to use it.  We discussed issues that had come up in previous years, I gave them permission to talk with Kortnie's previous teachers and to let Kortnie's classmates and their parents know about Kortnie's diagnosis.  I also took 2 kits with extra supplies, juice, candy, and snacks.  One to be kept in Kortnie's classroom, and one to be kept in the Health Office.  I signed the necessary paperwork giving everyone permission to give Kortnie her insulin, glucagon, and Tylenol. 

Her classroom kit -Juice, Smarties, Gel Icing, Alcohol Wipes, Batteries, extra Test Strips, Glucose Tabs, Glucagon, Diet Rootbeer, Sugar Free Jello, Low Sugar Gum, Crystal Light packets, (also after I took the picture I put in some PB Crackers) **The diet soda, low sugar gum, CL packets, and sf jello are in the case of treat days, most of the time they'll call me and she'll have the same treats as the other classmates, but for these few things I prefer she have the no or low sugar substitute.**

Health Office kit - Extra Meter, Smarties, Alcohol Wipes, Batteries, PB Crackers, Lancets, Juice, Pump Supplies, Glucose Tabs, Glucagon

I left feeling confident and we agreed to meet up again in January or sooner if need be to re-discuss our plan.  This year, we are giving Kortnie a little more independance than previous years, hoping to transition her to do a lot of her own care by the time she moves up to the Intermediate school for 4th grade next year.  The main thing we are doing is that for the first semester Aug-Dec she'll still go to the Health Office for her lunchtime check and bolus, but instead of the Nurse doing the bolus, Kortnie will do it herself and the Nurse will watch to make sure she's inputting everything correctly.  After Christmas break we'll probably let her start doing her lunchtime check and bolus in the classroom.  Most of her other care is done in the classroom already.

When I read about how other's struggle to get what they want at school, I always feel so lucky that we have never had any problems with our teachers and school staff. 

To see our IEP plan we have a tab at the top of the blog  where you can look through it.  I would love suggestions or questions as they will help me  when I make up the 504 plan next year.

**A 504 plan is a document that the Parents, Child, School and Doctors make together and file with the school, in the case of a school 504 plan, it protects the rights of the child under section 504 of the American With Disablities Act which states that Noone with a disablity can be excluded from participating in Federally funded programs including school.   You can read more about section 504 in the ADA here.

A chance to Advocate and Educate

A few weeks ago the Diabetes Educator at my local hospital called and asked me to come in and give a talk at a training session she was doing for some of the Nurses. The training session was going to be about the Different Types of Diabetes. The focus was mainly going to be about Type 2 vs Type 1, but she touched on Gestational and LADA as well. Anyways, she asked me to come in and give a 5-10 minute talk about what it's like to be the mother of a Diabetic and a kind of "day in the life" of managing diabetes. She also asked my permission to use a picture of Kortnie. I agreed to both. We live in a Large Community made up of Small Towns. Our local hospital is not very big and usually sends the more intricate cases down to Phoenix which is a 35 minute helicopter flight or 3 1/2 hour ambulance ride. We also do not have a Pediatric Endocrinologist anywhere on the mountain at this time.

So, this was my first opportunity to really be an advocate for my daughter in a professional setting other than school. I had been thinking about what I wanted to say for the 6 weeks prior to my talk and finally the day before I was to go in I sat down and wrote something up. I was so nervous!

Here is what I wrote up.

Good Morning, my name is Amanda, my daughter Kortnie is 8, she's had T1D for 2 1/2 years and has been pumping just over 2 years. Miss J asked me to talk a little about what it's like being a parent of a T1D. First of all, I'll tell you about a typical day for us regarding Diabetes Management.

7:19am-We wake up, her BG is 124, 38 carb breakfast, we weigh and measure all of her food, this day she had cereal and milk, we calculated and dosed her insulin, we call it a bolus
11:32am-She wants to go to a friends house, her BG is 176, 36 carb lunch, we bolus and she goes to play
2:16pm-She's 269, that's high but she's been playing outside and it's hot, we do a correction bolus
6:21pm-We're going swimming , get to the pool and check, she's 421! Wow, that's high, what should we do, make her sit out while the other kids swim? Give her a full correction bolus? Pump on or off? She seems fine, she wasn't showing any indication that she was high, maybe she was just excited that her friends were gonna go swimming with her. My husband and I decide to give her 1/2 the amount of insulin we'd usually give, take her pump off and let her have fun.
7:27pm-We always check her one hour into swimming, she's 77 now, wow, she dropped fast, I gave her 1 glucose tab, left her pump off, swimming will be over at 8
7:55pm-Out of the pool, she's 55, I gave her a juice box and put her pump back on her, go home for showers
8:41pm-Dinner time, we made spaghetti, her BG is 87, that's a good number, gave her 1 cup of spaghetti and 1/4 cup of sauce, we bolus for 55 carbs, I used a Combo Bolus, that's when I give her 65% upfront and let the other 35% "drip in" over the next 4.5 hours
9:37pm-Kortnie says she's feeling low, she's 57, We give her a juice box, but keep the Combo Bolus active
10:34pm-Bedtime for everyone, she's 154 and feeling good, I'm happy with that number
2:32am- I wake up every night around 2:30 and check her, she's 348, Dang! Spaghetti and Juice Boxes have caught up to us. Correction Bolus and back to bed
8:03am-she's 116, Great Wake Up number

We check Kortnie's BG 10times a day, we change her cannula every 3 days at least, every 3 months we make the 3.5 hour drive to Phoenix where she sees a specialist and has an A1C done, once a year we do extensive blood work and an eye dilation.

On sick days we check every 2 hours and monitor ketones. When our kids are sick we try to manage them at home but sometimes it gets away from us and we have to bring them to the ER. I realize that the last thing you want is an overzealous parent acting like we know it all, but we live with this disease every day. We just want what's best for our kids and with Type 1 Diabetes every minute counts when they are sick.

I had a closing type of statement written up but at this point they started talking and asking questions. They said that they do like when a parent knows what they want and are informed that their big issue is getting doctors to listen to them after they've listened to parents. They asked a few questions....some they asked were....How has her diagnosis changed your family? Do you utilize the glycemeic index or just strictly count carbs? They were amazed how much she fluctuates throughout the day and how much the swimming affected her and they asked about other sports. They asked about how much care she does for herself and how I'm doing at teaching her how to take care of herself. They asked about school. They asked about how we handle sweets and we talked about letting kids be kids despite their diseases. They even asked about cooking, like how do I cook and do carb counting. They asked about her pump and she got up there and showed it to them, she was a little ham, which was nice because sometimes she doesn't want to talk about her Diabetes at all.

It was a great experience and I was honored to be asked to come talk and after I left I thought of a million other things I could have talked about. I hope that Miss J asks me to come talk again sometime.

Later on that evening I heard from a friend of mine who works at the hospital (not as a nurse but something else, I think she works with the heart monitoring machines or something), anyways she talked to a nurse who was at the training session and that nurse told her that I did a great job and it was one of the more interesting trainings that she'd been to. Yay! I wish I could've stuck around for the whole day of training but I had kids to take care of, next time I might get a babysitter and sit there all day!

The nurses and I were given a poem at the training as well, I'd like to share it here. It is exactly how I feel, there is no Author or otherwise I'd post the Author's name. Does anyone know who wrote it?

A Mother's Anthem

I am the mother of a diabetic child.

I don't know what it's like to go to sleep at night and know for certain my child will wake up in the morning.

I don't know what it's like to sleep the whole night through without waking up to do blood tests on my sleeping child.

I don't know what it's like to prepare a meal without a calculator, measuring cups, and a gram scale.

I don't know what it's like to drop my child off at school and know she will always be in the charge of someone who knows how to take care of her.

I do know what it's like to force feed sugar in the middle of the night knowing I am sacrificing my child's teeth to save her life.

I do know what it's like to draw up insulin at 2 A.M. and pray to God I'm not too sleepy to make a fatal error in judgment, technique, or calculation.

I do know what it's like to sit underneath the dining room table holding my sobbing child, explaining to her, "No we can't take a break just this one time," while I inject insulin into her already bruised arm.

I do know what it's like to walk away from the pharmacy counter with an armload of supplies and realize I've just gone through another box of 200 syringes.

I do know what it's like to help my child march bravely past the juice and cookies at the school reception that was supposed to be her reward for achieving Student of the Month.

I do know what it's like to look into my child's eyes and tell her she has an incurable disease and explain to her what that means, and then to be comforted by her when I'm the one who can't stop sobbing.

I do know what it's like to love and cherish my child every minute of every day, to know that I may someday donate a kidney to her, and that if she were in need of a heart, mine would be out of the question, because it broke a long time ago.

I am the mother of a diabetic child.