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Remember how I said in a previous post that we figured out how to quell Elise's cries of, "I HUNGY"? Well, we didn't . I mean we did for a few weeks. But now they're back. And with a vengeance.
I don't get it. I look at the amount of food she's eating, and it looks like enough. But not 30 minutes after she eats, the cries begin. She's even waking up at 2:00 in the morning and saying she's hungry.
I don't know who to ask for help on this. We have zero relationship with the dietitians at our endo's office, and the few times I have talked to them, we don't really see eye-to-eye. They have a very cookie-cutter way of approaching things. They don't know Elise and they don't know me.
Plus, this might not be diabetes related. I wonder if there could be another issue that's causing the extreme hunger (I know when I was dx hyperthyroid, I was STARVING all the time). Could it be the mother-of-all growth spurts? I even wonder if she's doing it for attention.
We were at a party last night, and after getting her in range after a low BG of 62, we gave her a bedtime snack. Even as she was eating, she was moaning that she was hungry. And after she ate. So we gave her some chicken, and after she was done that, she was STILL asking for food.
It continued during the car ride home, and even as we were putting her to bed. Throughout all of this, her BG was around 145.
Has anybody experienced this with their kiddos? I just don't know what to do for her anymore, and I feel like I'm punishing her by withholding food. Any advice you have is welcome...
It was snack time for Elise, and we were sitting together at her little table. She was finishing off the last of her grapes, and I was next to her; just enjoying being still.
I had been cleaning, and as I usually do when I get up to such shenanigans, I had my Ipod on. And it was as I was sitting next to my daughter, resting and listening to some tunes, that I got walloped by a busload of grief that had run a stop sign.
Five for Fighting's Superman song came on. And as soon as the lyrics started, so did my sobs. The words rang so poignantly true about Elise and her diabetes. She's only a little girl; little more than a baby, tasked with a superhero's job of fighting one tough villain of a disease. I couldn't stop my tears.
I usually don't let that happen in front of Elise, but of course she noticed right away and asked, "Momma, you feelin' sick?" Which goes to tell you what my battle cry has been lately.
I told her, "no Beans, Momma's just a little sad right now." And she looked at me, with her beautiful green eyes, wise beyond her two years. She laid her tiny hand on my shoulder, and said,
"It's okay Momma, don't be sad. It's okay." And then to my total shock she added, "I okay too." She then leaned over and kissed me, got up from her chair and ran off to play.
And you know what? She IS okay.
I often wonder what kind of child she would have been if she wasn't diagnosed with diabetes. Would she be as mature as she is; having to grow up way too quickly? Would she be as in-tune to others who are suffering around her, and as quick to try and comfort anyone she thinks is upset? I have never seen such compassion in one so young.
Would she roll with the punches better than most adults I know? We are getting precariously close to the "terrible threes" age, but most times when she doesn't get her way she just shrugs her shoulders and deals with it. That's not to say we don't have meltdowns from time to time, but she is an unnaturally easy-going child.
Would it be any different had Elise not been diagnosed? What about if she was diagnosed later in life?
I know diabetes does not define who my daughter is, but I cannot deny that it is an integral part of her. To ignore it would be like turning a blind eye to her mischievous grin, her silly personality, or her adorable curls. She has diabetes and she's okay.
And I need to learn to be okay like she is.In case you're curious, here are the lyrics to Five for Fighting's Superman:I can’t stand to fly
I’m not that naive
I’m just out to find
The better part of me
I’m more than a bird...I’m more than a plane
More than some pretty face beside a train
It’s not easy to be me
I Wish that I could cry
Fall upon my knees
Find a way to lie
About a home I’ll never see
It may sound absurd...but don’t be naive
Even Heroes have the right to bleed
I may be disturbed...but won’t you concede
Even Heroes have the right to dream
It’s not easy to be me
Up, up and away...away from me
It’s all right...You can all sleep sound tonight
I’m not crazy...or anything…
I can’t stand to fly
I’m not that naive
Men weren’t meant to ride
With clouds between their knees
I’m only a man in a silly red sheet
Digging for kryptonite on this one way street
Only a man in a funny red sheet
Looking for special things inside of me
It’s not easy to be me.
Since Elise was dx so young, she never got in the habit of drinking juice, something I am sort of very grateful for. We don't really even treat lows with juice (I do keep it in my diaper bag in case of an emergency and we have used it in times when her BG was dangerously low).
But we were at a pancake dinner at a friend's house on Tuesday, and Elise noticed everybody else drinking OJ, and asked for some. We were actually having a hard time getting enough carbs for her usual 40g (I brought a special low carb, high protein pancake recipe for Elise from home - yes, control freak much?), so I decided, why not?
I figured out the carb factor, and was surprised that it was a lot lower than I expected... only about .11. Since she has never had OJ in her life, I decided to dilute it. A lot. I think it ended up being 1 part OJ to 4 parts water. And she loooooooooved it.
So my question is this... do you include juice as a regular (by regular, I mean maybe once a day) part of your kid's diet? I'm not big on sugar-free, so I mean the real stuff. I just feel bad that all Elise ever drinks is water or milk. And I didn't really notice it spike her sugar up or anything.
What is your two cents on juice?
I'm so behind, I guess I'm the last one to jump on board with this... so Shamae, here goes:
*Although I live in Texas right now, I am from Canada. Je suis née à Montréal, dans la belle province du Québec (I was born in Montreal in the beautiful province of Quebec). And that, I'm ashamed to say is what is left of my french. I moved to Vancouver when I was a year old and consider myself to be a left-coastie.
*I have had 8 surgeries... a c-section, 3 on my femurs, 1 knee, and 2 on my jaw. I had quite a hardware collection inside of me at one point (including 2 titanium plates and 8 screws in my legs, as well as 2 pins in my face and a screw in my chin). Now all that's left is one pin in my face and the screw in my chin. No, I don't set off airport alarms.
*Like many who posted this, I have issues with symmetry. I cannot wear a shirt with only one pocket. There are many more examples, but I am loathe to come off sounding crazy (or crazier).
*Yes my hair is naturally this colour red. I get asked this... a lot. I like to answer by saying, "why yes it is... I grew it myself and it's ALL organic!"
*I cannot sleep with socks on.
*Or the closet door open.
*I don't wear make-up. Not because I don't think I need to, but because it's just not important to me. I prefer the natural look and thankfully, so does Fred.
*I so do not care about fashion trends... I think most of them look stupid (hello, skinny jeans and ugg boots). I'd rather spend my money on clothes I'm comfortable in, can wear with anything, and can still be worn years down the road.
*I once got my hand caught in a cigarette machine at a restaurant when I was 8 years old. They had to call the fire department to get me unstuck. All I wanted were some matches, I swear.
*I looooove to save money. One time at a grocery store I got over $120 worth of groceries and paid under $2 for it. Last year I saved over $1500 at CVS. I have about 50 toothbrushes under my sink to prove it.
*I can speed read. It takes me about two hours to read a 400 page book.
*I am afraid of heights, but jumped off a 30 foot waterfall in Hawaii. Three times. It just seemed like the thing to do.
*I really, really want to be on a game show. Something like "Millionaire", you know... where there's a wee bit of skill involved. Shows like "Deal or No Deal", where people basically get money for showing up are stupid.
*I know a lot of people like to have the cash in their wallet have all the bills facing the same way; smallest to largest, and while I agree with them on 50% of this, my bills have to be stacked largest to smallest. I don't even understand why you would do it the other way. It's just plain weird.
*I don't drink anything with caffeine in it... I gave up pop when Elise was born, and I don't drink coffee.
*Out of the 3 cars I've ever owned, 2 have been manuals. If given the choice between manual and automatic, I would chose manual every time.
*I love to people watch. People can be so fascinating when they are not aware that they are being observed. Fred often has to tell me to stop staring.
*I would probably be considered a loner, with few close friends. I don't open myself up to many people because I hate how hurtful people can be to one another. I am very okay with being by myself and can sit lost in my own thoughts for a long time.
*I used to work in radio... mostly doing production. But I did some voice work on a morning show, my character was the "Leather Weather Girl". All I'm going to say about it was I did the weather reports. Anything more than that and my blog will start showing up in some pretty weird searches on Google.
Aaaaaaand done. Don't you wish you had that 5 minutes of your day back?
I have a new friend in the blogging world that I want to introduce you to... Her name is Jessica and her 3 year old son Liam was diagnosed with D in September. She just started a blog, so I think we need to head over and show her some D-Mom love!
Even better? She lives in the Dallas area! Click here to get to her blogP.S. (shameless plug alert) I have more cute snow pictures up on my other blog.
If you haven't heard... we're having a bit of a snow storm in Texas. I posted some pics on my other blog if you want to take a peek. Click here to see my little snow bunny, Elise!
Translation: "FEED ME NOW!"
This is what Elise has been saying, nay... bellowing at me for the past three weeks or so. I know it's must be partly because she's going through (yet another) growth spurt because friends that haven't seen her for about a week, a relatively short period of time, are commenting how much taller she is than the last time they saw her.
But it could also be because I am a bad Mom. I realized the other day that we really haven't upped her breakfast or lunchtime carb amounts in about a year. And I feel horribly neglectful about it.
Figuring out the insulin to carb ratio for breakfast and dinner is relatively easy. We know pretty much how much a unit of the diluted Humalog will affect her BG. Lunch is a whole 'nutha story. Elise is on NPH (her morning shot is NPH and DH combined), which takes care of her lunch coverage without needing a shot.
Except that it's full strength, and a half unit is a pretty huge jump for her. So for the past few days we've been tinkering and I think we may have figured it out!
Breakfast
3.5 units NPH
12.5 units DH
25g of carbs
Lunch
25 - 30g of carbs
Dinner
13 units DH
40g of carbs
We had a few days of really high numbers while we tried to find the right dosage, but I'm happy to say things have been steady for the last three days. Steady as in numbers in the 85 to 190 range... gotta love it!
And best of all... Elise had stopped yelling, "I HUNGY" only 30 minutes after meals!
My husband was talking to a D-Mom the other day who, when she found out we use Elise's toes to check her BG sometimes, was quite taken aback. She told him that her daughter's endo said that the foot was "sacred" and you should never test on the toes.
They are actually Elise's preferred testing site, and much easier to access for night time checks, since Elise likes to sleep on her hands (I think a trait only D-kiddos have). Plus I like to give her little fingers a break because there is just not a lot of real estate there.
I'm curious, what do YOU do?
When Elise was diagnosed with diabetes at the age of 12 months, I had nowhere to turn. There seemed to be no place for a Mom with a diabetic baby to go for information. I remember feeling so alone, and that nobody out there understood what I was going through.
That's why I think a blog like The D-Mom Blog is so important. Think of it as a one-stop shop for diabetes information that creator Leighanne Calentine has taken hours and hours of her own time compiling. It is a wonderful resource for both the newly diagnosed, and for those of us who have been dealing with D for awhile.
And I am proud to announce that I am a featured D-Mom! You can check the post out here. Then make sure you stay awhile to see the many other things that the D-Mom Blog has to offer.
Thanks Leighanne, for helping to make this disease a bit more manageable for the other D-Mom and D-Dads out there!
Let me start this post by saying I am not a fan of Oprah. I don't dislike her, I just don't buy into the "gospel according to Oprah". But when I heard she was going to be doing a show on diabetes, of course I had to see it for myself.
I lasted about 20 minutes. I think the tears started about 5 seconds in, the gritting of teeth about 10 seconds in, and since the exploding of my head seemed imminent, I turned off the TV. I think I need to fly up to Chicago for a good ol' fashioned groin kicking.
I don't have much to say, since I didn't see that much, but here are a few observations:
-Where does Oprah get the figure that we are spending on diabetes (the one that will "bankrupt" the American health care system). Is this just type 2, or all types combined?
- I did note that they differentiated between types 1 and 2, but I don't think enough was said about it. Also, Dr. Oz said that a type 1 does "not make enough insulin". Ummmmm, how about ANY insulin? What about saying that it's an auto-immune disease? It would have been nice to touch on the fact that type 1 is not from a bad diet or lack of exercise. Grrrr.
- Why on earth did they use a woman with type 1 as an example of what can happen if the are mostly addressing type 2s? I think this did nothing but muddy the waters between the two types. Granted, I didn't see much of the interview with her because Elise's kept wandering into the room and I thought it a little too graphic for her to watch, but did they say why she ended up that way?
Well, that's my two cents... like I said, I didn't watch a lot of the show. I'm very interested to see what everyone else has to say.
-As D-Moms (and D-Dads), we all have something in us that helps us to keep putting one foot in front of the other. Even when we feel like there is nothing left to give, we keep going. Diabetes does not take holidays. It doesn't sleep. It is a 24/7, 365 day, forever and ever, amen kind of disease.
-I don't think there is a word in the english language to describe how tired I am. Maybe in sanskrit, but not english.
-Diabetes is just a part of every day life for Elise. The other day we went over to our friend's house for dinner. When we arrived, their little girl said to Elise, "let's go play!" To which she replied, "I have to check my blood sugar, 'kay?" Elise accepts her diabetes, why can't I?
-Nap time will never be very enjoyable for me. Elise's nap falls during a time when her BG starts to head south. I always test her pre-nap and give her a snack if I feel her BG warrants it (approx. 180 and below). But yesterday, her BG was 274 before her nap. She ended up sleeping for almost two hours, and I started to get nervous, so I went in to check her (which will always wake her up). She was 55. She fell over 200 points at a time when the NPH should all be out of her system (and should not be causing a dip like that). It's for this reason I never let Elise nap for longer than two hours.
I managed to write a little update on what's been happening with me on my other blog. You can read it here.
I've missed you guys sooooooooo much.
