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First of all, I would like to give a huge thank you to everyone who offered to send test strips and insulin to Olivia.  The support that the diabetes community gives is just amazing to me sometimes and I find myself overwhelmed and a bit teary-eyed at all the kindness.  Heidi, over at The D-Log Cabin sent us some Novolog and Scott sent a box full of test strips.  I also bought the Reli-On meter and strips at Wal-Mart and so far, we've had no issues with them.  I think we're going to be OK for now.  We get health insurance in another 60 days and I have an application in for MassHealth - if Olivia is approved for that, she'll be able to continue going to Joslin.  If she's not approved, well, we'll have to switch endo groups - unless I can convince the insurance comapny to allow her to keep going, something I'm told they never do.  But I'll try. I'm a persistent pain in the arse when I need to be.

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Oh, hi.  It's been a while, hasn't it?  Yeah.  Slacker central over here.  I read and I think about things to write but the motivation just disappeared last month (and the month before that, if I'm being honest).  I'm hoping the new year will kick my butt into action a little bit and have me posting here more often.

On to the latest: 

Olivia has been going to the nurse too frequently to treat low blood sugars.  She usually has stuff in her bag to treat, but the nurse has been insisting that Olivia go down there for every low.  In O's IEP it states that she can treat in class and there's a doctor's note in place, so I don't quite get what the deal is with the nurse.

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So my kids started school on Monday. Yep, super duper extra early. We have a modified year round school district. So we get seven to eight weeks off in the summer and two weeks off in the fall, winter and spring. I’m not sure I like it. I like the shorter summers because my kids get bored even with lots of activities to keep them busy. But the two weeks in fall and spring can be torturous. I’d rather have, say, a four day weekend in the fall and a regular one-week spring break. Again, the kids are bored, and finding camps or classes for them is expensive. I’m lucky to have my parents in town and they watch the kids, but I have to find something to keep them busy or they’ll drive my parents nuts. Of course, this also means finding something for all three that doesn’t involve my mom running all over town all day.

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Olivia handed out her information sheet to her teachers yesterday.  I just typed up something short, informing them that she has diabetes and what to do if she's running high or low. I stressed that she can treat in class and that she only needs to go to the nurse if she's under 60. 

I also stressed that she needs to be accompanied to said nurse.  I found out at the end of the year last year that one of Olivia's teachers wouldn't let anyone go with her.  Fortunately, Olivia's never passed out from a low, but that's not a chance I want to take.  Olivia informed me of this towards the end of the year and I talked to the teacher and the nurse about it, but according to Olivia, it didn't do any good.  

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These changes I wrote about recentlyare going pretty well. I'm choosing better foods to eat, only having human sized portions, and even cutting back on the soda.

I cannot believe I just typed that.

Soda. Diet soda is a vice I am not ready to give up entirely. I love soda in almost any flavor as long as it's diet odds are I'll like it.

But I drink a lot of soda. Way too much to be honest. And although diet soda doesn't seem to affect my blood glucose levels, the salt in it is not good.

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Diabetes has always entailed a lot of paraphernalia. Back in the day, meters were three times the size they are now. Bottles of strips weighed a ton. And syringes came with much longer needles. Plus there were juice boxes, snack packs, and rolls of candy. But even now, with all the advances in this modern day and age, diabetes comes with baggage (and I'm not talking the emotional kind).

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Sunday, 10:30 p.m.: I'd just finished eating some cottage cheese and fresh pineapple thinking I was too low to go to bed. I had been 116 mg/dL after dinner and was around 110 mg/dL at bedtime. I had taken off Dexcom Saturday morning because the edges of the tape were getting frayed and the internal sensor was actually poking me funny. I decided to have a weekend without the extra equipment. But as I went to bed, I was really wishing I could see a trend line, especially since my finger sticks all weekend had been mostly lower than I expected.

Monday, 5 a.m.: I tested prior to getting out of bed and was not happy to see 322 mg/dL. It's kind of hard at 5 a.m. to figure out why you're that high, but I tried. The only thing I could come up with was that I was too aggressive with my bedtime snack. Also, I had momentarily gone back to using my lower abdomen for an infusion site and I thought it was possible that my site had gone bad.

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"I don't put the pillow over my head because it's so loud," my daughter Maeve clarifies.

"It's because I get so scared for Charlie and I feel so bad for him."

That's Maeve talking about site changes.

Watching your sibling experience that type on anguish every few days can't be easy. For almost every child out there with diabetes, there's a little brother or a big sister (or vice versa) witnessing some pretty horrendous stuff. Sure, repetition dilutes the ugliness and my non-diabetic kids have certainly been desensitized. For example, they'll often continue watching television – getting up only to increase the volume - while in the background their brother is begging and screaming for mercy. It's a bit surreal when you step back and think about it.

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