Pacifiers and Insulin

Some nights are just harder…. Thursday night was site change night.  For those that don’t know how the pump works I will briefly explain a bit: There is a cartridge that is filled with insulin.  This is inserted into the pump.  A small tube leading from the cartridge/pump is then connected to a part of Cole’s body (we mainly use his thighs).  This is inserted using an infusion set.  Infusion sets have removable introducer needle that comes out once the flexible tube is left under his skin.  This tube is how Cole gets his insulin.  It is stuck on his leg with an adhesive and needs to be replaced about every 3 days (sometimes more often if the insulin doesn’t appear to be working as well or if the adhesive is coming off).  This is what we call Cole’s site.  So anyway, site change nights are not fun.  Cole is now almost 2 ½ years old.  He’s expressing his feelings a lot better now which is great in most ways but not when it comes to site changes.  It takes 2 people to do a si

Recap of my night: 5:00pm - Came home from work with Cole, whose blood sugar was in the low 200s. 6:00pm - Went for pizza (that’s right I fed my diabetic child pizza – which his loves) – we were supposed to meet for a diabetic club meeting but we were the only ones there.   Blood sugar of 189 – started correction and dosed for 15 carbs Cole wanted a brownie – so I gave him one Cole wanted a cinnamon stick so I gave him a small one Cole wanted another brownie – I said no Cole wanted another cinnamon stick – I said “I don’t think so” so he grabbed one off my plate and looked at me like “please mom can I eat it” so I gave in and said go ahead (hey don’t judge – he’s diabetic that doesn’t mean he can’t eat this stuff it just means he needs insulin for it- plus as if I feel I need to justify myself, he had a rough time in the past month , 2 ear infections, hand foot and mouth virus, and whatever the new thing is he

I sit here at 11:15pm on the day before mother’s day staring at my only child’s blood sugar monitor while I should be sleeping.   The reading is 110.   I have watched it slowly go up in the past 20 minutes from 107.   I don’t want to wake him to give him juice, as there is hope that I do not need to disrupt his sleep in order to jack his blood sugar up enough to make me feel comfortable to sleep.   So I will sit here a little while longer watching to make sure he’s trending upwards and does not start dropping again.   111 is the new reading… seems to be promising. This is my life now.   Watching, waiting and making sure he is ok.   Yes I know every parent watches their child to make sure they are ok, but I watch to make sure his numbers don’t drop significantly in his sleep causing him to die.   I watch to make sure his numbers don’t stay so high for so long that it causes significant organ damage when he gets older.   Just recently a 15 year old type 1 diabetic passed away in her

My need for planning is starting to consume me :   ) Our Disney World trip is coming up soon (FYI to any crazies reading this, soon could mean 5 days or 3 months so don’t go trying to figure out my schedule-also no point breaking into our home, we are now broke after this trip).   Anyhow, I am a bit obsessive when it comes to planning.   I have made several excel spreadsheets, including all rides at Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, Epcot and Animal Kingdom (you know just a basic spreadsheet of what the rides are and if Cole would like them).   I have also done one with our dinning reservation times and our fastpass times for rides.   I have started a list of things needed for the trip including all of Cole’s medical supplies.   We have an appointment with Cole’s endo doctor so I can get any suggestions from her with dealing with heat and Cole’s pump for the trip. I have started ordering extra pump bands for Cole to wear on the trip.   I have ordered extra frio bags (cooling bags

So yesterday Cole was crying uncontrollably in daycare… this is very unlike Cole.  Even when Cole is sick he’s normally smiling and laughing.  So I brought him home and made a doctor’s appointment.  The doctor advised that Cole had a really bad ear infection and was wheezing.  Cole had been grabbing at his chest a lot and crying so we asked about that.  Doctor stated that it may be hard for Cole to breath and that might be why he was doing that.  So she gave him an antibiotic for his ear and told us to do breathing treatments every 4 hours.   Cole seemed to be doing much better after the antibiotic got in his system.  Cole has not been eating very well or drinking much in the past couple of days.  I guess normal behavior when one doesn’t feel well.  But what does that mean for a diabetic…. Now we  are checking his blood sugars every 3 hours and his ketones.  Yesterday afternoon he had large ketones.  Not good.  Cole’s body (along with everyone else’s) needs  glucose  for energy.  If th

So waking up in the middle of the night, sometimes several times a night, to check on your son that maybe having high blood sugar or low blood sugar that needs correcting can get exhausting (just like reading that run on sentence was exhausting).   I know that sounds crazy right.   Who would get exhausted from that???   Well normally we do a 2:00am check but sometimes his alarm goes off in the middle of the night saying he’s either high or low.   Or sometimes we stay up late to check him if his blood sugar was borderline low before going to sleep.   We don’t want to wake him and give him a juice prematurely because sometimes if you just give it a bit of time it starts shooting up high again without any correction from us.   So anyways the point of my story: 2 nights ago… hell it could have been 3 nights ago, they are all blurring together at this point, Cole’s alarm goes off at 12:30am.   I jump out of bed to go check him.   I grab his finger poker, meter, test strips and an al

Last night we made changes to Cole’s basal rate on his pump.   This is the amount of insulin his pump gives him continuously throughout the day and night.   For example we bumped Cole’s basal rate at 10pm to .275, 12am is now .175 and 5am is now .2.   Cole normally runs high from dinner until lunch so we are trying to up his insulin slowly until we are able to get him in a better range.   Of course bumping up insulin over the night time hours can be a scary thing.   This is when you worry that he will drop to low in his sleep and have a seizure or die.   Cole’s numbers have actually been really good the previous 2 nights so we were extra worried last night with the new addition of insulin.   Cole has had a cough for the past few nights and actually woke up about midnight and came to bed with us.   I checked his reading which was 250.   I did not want to correct then because I knew at midnight and at 5am he would be getting more insulin than normal.   I decided to wait until the 2

Oh family trips, what good times to be had by all J   Normally you have the general stress of planning your family vacation but throw a T1d kid into the mix.   So currently I have been planning our family vacation to the lovely Walt Disneyworld.   While we planned on waiting till Cole was older, I decided that his love for Mickey Mouse and all Disney characters he might enjoy seeing them in real life (well real costumes) now. So normally one would think about the following things when planning their family vacation: 1. when to go 2. where to stay 3. what to pack 4.   snacks 5. how far can we drive with kiddo 6. money 7. etc…   You know the normal family vacation stuff, but this is what is on my mind:   1.   Call doctor to get extra insulin just in case a bottle breaks or goes bad 2. make sure we have enough test strips, infusion sets for his pump, sensors, sensor charger, sensor inserter, meter, spare meter, meter charger, ketone strips, syringes incas

An update on Lexi: We regret to inform everyone that we will not be getting Lexi.   After 10 months of waiting several red flags presented themselves to us in the last couple weeks before our scheduled pick up of March 12.   There were several people from the previous group that picked up their dogs and stated that their dogs were sick (coronavirus, circovirus, giardia and coccida).   These dogs were so sick that they weren’t able to perform the way they should be performing.   Of course we immediately became concerned that Lexi might be sick as well.   We then asked (or maybe I should say demanded) that Lexi be tested for all above issues before we picked her up.   This was back on February 24.   We were told Lexi would be tested.   Post were made on the Drey’s FB site stating the dogs had all been tested and all were negative.   I knew this post to be false because I had just spoken with Roann (the owner) and she informed me that Lexi had not been tested and that they were ju

A year ago on March 18, 2013, our lives changed forever.   We took Cole to the doctor thinking that he was going to be treated for some common illness; little did we know what was happening.   Cole’s blood sugar at the doctor’s office was 483.   The doctor informed my mother and I that Cole needed to go to the ER and she was calling for an ambulance.   I still had no idea what was going on.   I called my husband and told him and then my dad to have him bring extra clothes since mine and Cole’s had throw up on them.   On the ambulance ride, the paramedic asked me “you know what is happening right” to which my response was “no”.   I don’t know if I was totally clueless or if the shock value hadn’t worn off yet, I mean I was riding in an ambulance with my 13 month old son.   The paramedic then said “well I can't officially diagnose him but they are going to tell you he is diabetic."   “Oh” was the only response I could give.   Now I will just claim ignorance.   I had no ide

Falling down on my blogging duties: Let’s see what has happened lately…. Well we started Cole on the pump. He now sports the Medtronic 530G with the Enlite CGM.   What does this all mean you ask… well Cole no longer needs 5-7 injections a day for his insulin. His pump is worn around his waist in an ever so stylish fanny pack and his pump site (the part that is attached to Cole) is usually on his upper thigh.   Cole has to get a site change every 3 days.   The pump site is changed when a small needle aids a catheter into the skin which is then taped into place and attached to his pump.   This is how Cole’s insulin will enter his body.   Cole also has a CGM on his booty.   A CGM is a continuous glucose monitor that does exactly what it says, monitors Cole’s glucose.   This monitor sends a reading to Cole’s pump every 7 minutes of what his glucose is.   While this is a great tool to help monitor Cole, it is not always accurate.   We still have to check Cole’s finger to get the mos