WDD Speech

Awhile back, Elise wrote a speech and delivered it on her school's TV announcement system for World Diabetes Day.  I kept meaning to post her practicing it (we didn't get the video of the actual announcement), and now a month a a half later, here it is!



BTW, she's amazing.

Guess the carbs

Growing up, my mom would always make gingerbread houses from scratch and my brother and I would go crazy decorating them.  It was my main goal in life to try and fit as much candy on my house without it collapsing.

I'm proud to say my kids are carrying on the tradition.

front of house

I tried to make a nice pattern on the roof, but was thwarted by my 3 year old

Fred's contribution.  Obviously Mattias was nowhere near this part of the house

Towards the end it was total chaos

Anyone care to guess the carb count of this bad boy?  

About one miiiiiiiiillion grams?

Double the basal, double the fun. Not.

It was a lovely Thanksgiving afternoon.  Turkey et al had been consumed, insulin bolused, and the kiddos were outside playing a rousing game of soccer.

The adults were still gathered around the table, digesting our meal when it happened; the long, continuous screech of death which tells you diabetes has decided to screw with your holiday.

As I jumped to my feet, I realized that it was not possible for me to be hearing Elise's pod, since she was outside.  Either I had developed the hearing of an owl or the PDM was the source.  Sure enough; PDM error.  Still sucky, just not as sucky as a pod failure.

For you non-podders (or podders who have never encountered this), when you get a PDM error, the pod will continue to deliver the basal, even though the PDM (once reset) won't recognize the pod that is being worn.  This was great because we were a ways off from dessert, and I didn't want to interupt Elise's soccer game.

I reset the PDM, and when Elise came inside, we changed her pod.  As per our usual routine, she left the old pod on until we could put baby oil on the adhesive to get it off.

The rest of the evening, Elise hovered on the low side.  I ran negative temp basals, bolused for half of more pie, and still she remained stayed low-ish (80s - according to the CGM).

When we got home, I turned off her basal entirely; since we had been free-basing smarties the whole ride home.  I think her basal stayed off for almost three hours.  She came up to about 100.  I was worried about ketones developing (since she wasn't receiving any insulin), so I turned on her basal at 50%.  She went low again.

That night, Fred and I were up checking her almost every 30 minutes.  We alternated between turning off/down her basal and giving her carbs. I was flummoxed... how could she be receiving no insulin, eating smarties and her BG still go DOWN?

Any pod people care to chime in here?

Finally at 6:00 am, I sat bolt upright in bed after just laying down from a BG check and subsequent smartie-feeding.  I yelled, "THE OLD POD!  IT'S THE OLD POD!  IT'S STILL DELIVERING BASAL INSULIN!!!"  I ran to Elise's room, turned the basal off completely on the new pod and gave Elise 12g of yogurt.  Finally, she rose above 100 and stayed there.

Remember this picture from this post a few days ago?  That was this night.

The funny thing is, right before I woke up to check her at 6:00 am, I had a dream that Fred and I were driving down a highway and passed two factories right next to each other.  The factories were somewhat dome-like and both had chimneys with smoke rising from each one.  I remarked to Fred how strange it was to see smoke from both chimneys, because usually there was smoke from one or the other; not both at the same time.

Looks like Lenny and Harold are alive and well. Maybe next time guys, help me figure out my mistake a little earlier, mmmkay?

She wins

 I'm trying to learn to embrace this independence thing that Elise has going on.  It is so weird when your child, who has always HAD to be with you, starts doing stuff on her own.

Like going to school.

Riding her bike up the street without you right behind her.

Taking the bus (gaaaaaasp) to and from school.

Playdates.

Et cetera, et cetera.

Yesterday, just as Elise's bus was due to drop her off, I heard wailing from Mattias's room.  He had just woken up from his nap.  Fred (who was home to watch the boys while I went to the dentist) went up to get him and promptly yelled, "He's THROWING UP!"

Awesome.

I ran out to get Elise and started talking to my neighbour who, upon hearing of the vomiting, offered to take Elise for a few hours (awesome neighbour had her own three, plus another little girl she was watching).

Before I could think up an excuse as to why I couldn't, Elise was off and running, yelling, "YES!  AWESOME! BYE MOM!"

Okay then.  I handed over the CGM and diabetes bag and went home.

Fast forward a few hours.  I'm picking Elise up and awesome neighbour tells me that she went out of the room for five minutes and came back to find the girls eating cuties (Mandarin oranges).  Elise promptly told her that she thought it was around 10g of carbs and had bolused herself for it (10g is pretty close).

And while she *may* not have checked her BG before bolusing (she forgot and just went by the CGM), I do love that she's paying attention, and she's confident enough to do it on her own. We still need to have a little chat about the not checking, though.

It is so unbelievable how far we've come.

Nothing to do with the post, just an adorable picture

I win

For the most interesting call to Dexcom yesterday, that is.

The reason for the call was the out of range icon on her reciever for over an hour, even though the receiver was right next to her.

As I was following the CSR's instructions, I could hear a howling from the family room.  I looked over, and although I could hear Lucas, I couldn't see him.

"Mom!  Mom!  Lucas is stuck under the sofa!"

Elise was telling the truth, so the poor CSR had to listen in on the chaos as I told her to, "hold on, my baby is stuck under the sofa".  He was very, very stuck; so I had to lift up the sofa while Elise dragged him out.

Here is my reenactment:

***no actual babies were harmed in the taking of this picture

I wonder if they'll use the recording for training purposes... how not to bust out laughing at a customer.

Things Diabetes taught me this month... October/November Edition

Because last month I did a post a day (well, almost every day), I figured I'd wait to post October's "Things" with November.  Here goes...

-Did you know it's possible to get speared by an omnipod needle while the cannula is being deployed? It happened to me as I was starting a new pod and pinching up, as per the instructions.  I guess I was pinching a little to close and the needle grazed my thumb.  Hurt like you wouldn't believe, too.

-As thankful as I am for the Dexcom, it kind of hurt when I got Elise's school pictures back and what my eyes immediately went to was not her cute smile, or the special outfit she was wearing; but the sensor on her arm.  When she picked her outfit for that day, I tried to steer her towards long sleeves.  But she wouldn't hear of it.  Her sensor had been on her arm for a few weeks and was looking very ragged, but I couldn't bear to change a perfectly food sensor for vanity reasons.  I feel awful that it bothers me, but it does.

-When you receive your D-supplies, look at the boxes to make sure you were sent the right ones.  One morning as I was frantically trying to change Elise's sensor due to ???, I opened the new box we had been sent.  I was trying to get everything done before she had to get to school, and wasn't paying much attention.  I put the sensor on, and as i tried to snap the transmitter in, it wouldn't fit.  That's because they sent me Dexcom 7 sensors.  we had been using the G4 for almost a year, and hadn't ordered the 7 sensors for over two years.  Man I was ticked.

-Growth spurts suck.  We haven't been through one in awhile, but it freaked me out the amount of insulin we we're pumping into Elise and we still couldn't get her below 200.

-Medical supply companies are run by the devil.  Of this I am convinced.  I have had so many problems with the company we deal with, I fly into a rage just thinking about having to call them.  From not wanting me to re-order when I'm allowed, to flat-out not sending me my supplies; it's a nightmare.  Between our pods, sensors, and strips/lancets; I have three different re-order dates.  Even though they're all supposed to be on auto-ship, if I don't call every three months, I won't get my supplies.  I'm tired of it.  I'm tired of them.  Yet I can't do anything about it.