Pacifiers and Insulin

You know those contest where they put items like gumballs into a container and they see who can guess how many gumballs are in the container.... well here is the Syringe Contest-- Guess how many shots Cole has received in the past 4 months   I am of course kidding... Too depressing to count how many shots the poor guy has received in the past few months.  I seriously need to learn the proper way to dispose of these suckers!

I am pretty sure Robert and Cole have come up with an evil plan that every time Robert goes out of town Cole will get sick.   I would have liked to think that Cole would not play along with what I am sure is Robert’s evil plan, but the past few times it appears that Cole likes his dad’s plan.   I can picture then both doing the evil laugh together. So Thursday, Robert left for Dallas and Friday Cole came down with a high fever.   I was checking him every 3 hours and giving him corrections.   Somehow even though Cole was in the 300s with his blood glucose level we managed to keep the ketones levels to trace or small.   Thank GOD!   That is until tonight.   Of course they go up to large amounts.   I was trying to pass them off as moderate but I walked around showing my mom and dad the pee strip and they both said it looked more like large.   UGH!!   I texted Robert to let him know again how happy I was that he was out of town. ...

We had Robert’s lovely trip to Rockport, TX the other week, so this past weekend was my trip to Galveston, TX.   Thursday the 11 th was Cole’s visit with his endo doctor.   The doctor decided it was best to change Cole’s long lasting insulin from a night shot of Lantus to a day shot of Levemir.   Friday the 12 th was our first day to try this .   We knew his numbers were going to be all over the place so I was second guessing whether or not we should go on our trip.   We decided to go to Galveston anyway and left Friday afternoon.   We arrived in time to go to bed.   At 2:00am we checked Cole’s bg level.   I don’t recall now what it was but it must have been normal because we did not give a correction shot.   At about 3:30 Cole began to cough.   Cole sleeps on his stomach and was coughing from that position.   I jumped up and sat him up (we were all sleeping in the same bed on this trip).   I sat him up and he began to ...

  Our first trip with the big D… and I don’t mean divorce or Dallas :   ) We recently took our first trip since Cole has been diagnosed with diabetes.   It went pretty well, besides the packing.   Not only did I have to make sure I packed everyone’s clothes, towels, sheets, blankets, pillows , water toys, life jacket, etc…. I had to make sure I packed the insulin bottles, the syringes, alcohol wipes, lancets, glucose meter, his frio bags to keep the insulin cool, test strips, cotton balls, ketones strips (as I type that I realize I forgot the ketone strips, thankfully we did not need them).   Oh the joys of packing.   Oh and not to mention his carb free snacks.   A trip isn’t complete without lunch meat and cheese.   I was so concerned with making sure I brought all his diabetes stuff, I forgot his swim diapers and his toothbrush and toothpaste… but I guess that’s what Walmart is for.   So we make our first stop on our road trip...

So when we found out Cole was diabetic we called his current daycare and asked if they would be able to accommodate his special needs.   They told us they would not.   Well I guess that is not exactly what they said… What they said was that if we could get a doctor to come to daycare and train them then they would.   We asked our doctors which of course said they cannot do that.   So the search began for a new daycare.   Luckily (and I can say that now), I had lost my job so I was at home when Cole was diagnosed… anyway, luckily I was at home so we had some time to find a new daycare.   We checked several places and they were either willing to do the shots and glucose checks and were really dirty daycares or they were nice daycares but had A LOT of hesitation about doing the shots. After talking with Robert, we decided we did not want to go to a place that had hesitations about giving the injections.   It’s already worrisome enough relying on so...

I was typing this to add to our facebook page for Operation DAD but didn't really have a place to add it. Facebook kept saying it was too long... guess I typed too much info. So here is what I typed up: A bit more about Type 1 diabetes: Type 1 is not the typical diabetes you hear about. It cannot be controlled with pills, diet or exercise. Cole is now going to be dependent on insulin injections for the rest of his life (unless they come up with a cure). Cole has to check his glucose levels at least 5 times a day and that is the very minimum. He will also get a minimum of 4 injections a day. With Type 1 Diabetes it is best to maintain your glucose level. If you become too high or too low this can cause complication with your organs later in life. Also, there is a risk if you drop to low that you can have seizures, go into a coma or possibly die. We are in the process of obtaining a DAD (diabetic alert dog) for Cole. This is a very expensive process. The cost fo...

So our long week continued through the weekend and on to Monday and Tuesday. Cole went back to the doctor Tuesday as he decided over the weekend that he would no longer eat or drink water. We were afraid he was getting dehydrated. Monday night we even got his medicine syringe out and forced fluids into his mouth. Cole was not very happy about this. One ounce and 15 minutes later we gave up. Of course we checked his urine (when he would actually pee) and he had moderate ketones again. Great kiddo, that’s why he needs to drink. Tuesday I told Robert he should probably take him back to the doctor as he also developed a lovely case of diarrhea and had a rash all over his back, stomach and face. Well doctor said that along with the herpangina he had enterovirus which was causing the rash and the upset stomach. Plus side was the sores in his mouth were gone!! Wednesday we took him back to daycare… you know the germ fest of a place where he got sick to begin with. I told the dire...