Sometimes it feels like Groundhog Day

Monday - a day in the life

You know that movie with Bill Murry, where he wakes up, and everyday is the same?

That's sort of how it feels when you have a toddler with D. The numbers may differ every day - there are highs and there are lows. But the basic ebb and flow to your day is pretty much the same. Every. Single. Day.

After one particularly bad day, someone once said to me, "well at least tomorrow is another day. You can start all over". And since I was attending my very own pity party, I wanted to snap back,

"But it's not a new day. You don't get it. I have to get up and do it all again tomorrow. It never stops. It never ends. Every day, the same crap."

Thank goodness I don't throw those parties often.

A day with Elise starts around 7:30 am. I can hear her sweet voice calling me over the monitor, "Momma, I wake up!" That is, if her number is okay. If she's low, I'll hear crying or moaning. So meters in hand (sugar and ketone, because you never know if you'll need both), I go in and check her.

Because Elise is on NPH, she has breakfast around 8:30 every day. I like to give her her shot about 20 minutes before she eats (depending on her number, of course) to avoid a mid-morning spike. Elise usually helps me prepare the syringe with both the diluted Humalog and NPH. Then she picks which colour M&M she wants and it's shot time.

While Elise will eat anything I give her, it takes a lot of coaxing sometimes, and she still likes to be fed. Or wants me to sit with her while she eats, which can be frustrating because I'm trying to get things done. I chalk it up to the fact that she was dx at 12 months, so we've almost ALWAYS had to hover over her to make sure she's eating.

If it's an activity day (gymnastics, music class etc.), I grab her pre-packed backpack with all emergency supplies, throw in her meters and pre-measured snack, and we're off. If we're going to be out for lunch, I also pack her cooler bag with some food and her insulin. Most other days, I stay at home until snack time is over.

10:30 - BG check and 15g snack.

Due to the NPH, she needs to eat her lunch around noon (no lunch time shot - YAY!). I usually check her at about 11:40, because sometimes it peaks early. Elise loves to help me prepare her meals, and even though it can be frustrating and S-L-O-W, I let her. It is adorable (and sad), how she knows to grab the scale and weigh her food.

After lunch I'll either run errands with her, or we'll go to the park or for a walk. Of course, anytime I'm out with her, I carry my Bag-O'-Stuff. I swear I feel like a pack mule.

Around 1:45, I check her BG and have to figure out how much of a snack to give her. She naps from around 2:30 - 4:30, and ALWAYS drops during her nap. But how much I give her depends on what her BG is:

80 - 110, she gets 15 - 20g
110 - 160, she gets 15g
160 - 200, she gets 10g
200 - 270, she gets 5g

It has taken many, many months of figuring out the above "formula", but it works. And yes, she gets carbs even if she's almost 300. Because there have been a number of times I put her down at 275 or so, only to have her wake p in the 60s, two hours later. Her BG just takes a nose dive in the afternoons for some reason.

Dinner time at our house is at 5:15 or so, and it's not because we're in our 70s. Unless we want Elise to go to bed at 11:00 pm every night, we have to eat early, so there is enough space between her dinner time shot and bed time shot. Thankfully, my husband gets home from work at 5:00, so he can help me out. In the beginning, I was going insane trying to check Elise's BG, give her her shot, make her dinner, feed her, and make our dinner all by myself. Now that she's old enough to eat what we do, it's a little better, but I love the extra help!

After dinner we try to do something fun as a family, go to the park, a walk... or we finish off the errands I didn't get to during the day. Then at 8:00 it's bath time (some nights), then shot of her bed time NPH and a 15g snack. Or if her BG is on the low side, we do snack first, then shot.

By 9:00 she's usually tucked into bed after her nightly allotment of stories (one in english and one in portuguese). We check her around midnight, and then again at 3:00 am.

The hardest part for me is that I feel like my brain never gets to rest. Upon wake up, I'm wondering about her number and thinking about breakfast. By the end of breakfast, my mind is on her snack. After snack, I begin to ponder lunch... you get the idea.

I'm always thinking about 10 steps ahead, and it's exhausting.