The Past
Looking back on 2008 from a "Charlie's diabetes" perspective, it was a pretty good year. His A1c took downward baby steps from 8.1 to 7.9 and then to 7.8 at our last endo visit in November.
In 2008, he began identifying total carbs in the snacks he ate (and soon his whole class was doing it at snack time - sorry Mrs. R), but still showed no desire to begin testing his own blood sugar. We began having him bolus himself on occasion under our supervision. He seemed to like the idea of giving himself insulin; being the one to press the buttons.
I've mentioned before that changing Charlie's infusion set is like wrestling an alligator. I wish I could say that the thrashing and fighting became a thing of the past in 2008. I even had the perfect title all set for that particular blog post: See You Later, Alligator. Nope. He remains an alligator on every third day.
The Present
Diabetes currently has us up against the ropes and unbalanced. We're seeing highs at all different times of the day and nothing makes sense. With so many adjustments needed and very few patterns nailed down, we're sort of doing nothing at the moment. Our legs are stuck in cement. We're not sure where to begin. I feel as if Susanne and I are way out at sea, adrift on a leaky rowboat without oars. Each time we press down with our fingers to stop a leak, a new leak springs.
The Future
CGMS must be in Charlie's not-too-distant future. We can't go on like this. We need to know what is going on behind the scenes in order to properly care for him. It would be an amazing thing to get a glimpse of the mystery that is Charlie's blood sugar. We're targeting the summer as we'd like to begin this when he's not in school. If anyone out there has a child "going continuous," I'd love to hear from you.
On to much more important matters.
Our Diabetes Match Game 2009 winner will be announced tomorrow. Thanks to all contestants who have submitted answers. I've received some very clever and creative ones so far. If you haven't participated yet, there's still time. Send your three selections to acehotspray@aol.com. Please send to email address and not in the comments field …
Penny!!!!
Just kidding, Penny.
