One Year Anniversary :(

Today is our one year anniversary. The day before Thanksgiving dinner we spent ALL day at the endocrines office in GR for intense training on how to care for, and keep our child alive. We left in a dizzy haze wondering what the heck happened. The crash course contained counting carbs, checking Ketones, types of insulin, giving shots (when where and how), and a checklist of when to call the doctor or go to the hospital.

We started that day with a fasting glucose of 257 and an A1C at 11.2.
Today we are doing better with the BG control but we are still VERY tired! We have graduated from shots to using infusion sets and the pump. Love the Pump! The CGM system is flawed but does help up maintain the BG. This past week the wonderful (stupid) CGM set the pump a chimmin' all night long. :) Mom can not hear the wonderful (stupid) CGM pump at night while sleeping so dad who very much can hear the thing go off every 15 minutes doesn't get much sleep. Even when the thing doesn't go off we "think" we hear it and therefore no sleep... Our little prince however snores through everything :)

Yes, it is still a wonderful rollarcoaster ride with diabetes. As we would do anything for our kids, I'm getting to old for the all nighters and no sleep on a regular basis. My body wouldn't know what to do with actual sleep.

We are thankful for modern medicine and praying for a cure for type 1 diabetes on this one year anniversary and every day.

Been awhile...

So its been a month since our last post. We have been dealing with a lot. He just finished his second round of antibiotics for a sinus infection that doesn't want to go away. And of-course, I have one too. We've had many nights of checking at 2am. He seems to have the night phenomenom which he climbs rapidly when he first falls asleep.

When he first was diagnosed he did everything in opposites. They said he would drop after exercise. He actually climbed rapidly. Now on the other hand he did a switcheroo. He now rapidly drops. It is amazing when you think you get things figured out they switch again.

We are approaching his one year anniversary. Man, where did the year go? This anniversary is kind of sad that we have to celebrate it, but glad for modern medicines in which makes celebrating possible.

Long week!

Its been a long week! He's been sick with a cold. We decided to restart the sensor and its going better. Little more accurate than the last one which tells me that maybe the last sensor wasn't in properly since it came out so easily.
We had two bad sites in a row this week which put him into ketoacidosis. Almost had to make a hospital trip. We went back to injections and checking his BG every hour all night long (no sleep for mama). We went through four site changes in two days because he also pulled one off. Silly boy, doesn't he know that hurts?

That didn't last very long....

Will was playing "hockey" and pulled out his CGM sensor. It only lasted 2days. :( each sensor= $30.00
silly boy, doesn't he know those are expensive?
We weren't really impressed because of the huge margin of error. He went really low 56 and his CGM was reading 100??? what's with that? But we did like being woke up at night when he went really Hi.
We are going to try again soon.

Started CGMS

We started his CGMS yesterday. They have very LARGE needle but we used the numbing cream and it made it a little easier. It was kinda nice to be woken up at 4am for HI limits and alarms. Helps me sleep a little easier to know alarms will sound if he goes hi or low... The CGMS have a very wide margin for error (20-30%) so not reliable for dosing but handy at night and for graphing trends.

We enjoyed some Art prize yesterday too. First time that he was soooo very tired he fell asleep in my arms while eating lunch. Very cute!

Great A1C!

We had a great 3 mo check today!
A1C down from 8.2 to 7.7.... YEAH!
Starting the CGM's this Friday....

CRANKY!

Wills numbers were generally good, but we were having lots of severe lows. Upped his carb ratio and now he is running rather high. UGGG! can't seem to level out!

He has another 3mo check tomorrow. Can't wait to see his A1C #.....

sick again

First week of school for older siblings..... = sick this weekend.
Mom and dad were up most of the night because Will woke up at midnight at 508BG and throwing up. no ketones= atleast no hospital trip. Gave correction and lots of fluids with 100 degree temp = BG tank. lots of gummy bears and very little sleep, he is up at 7:30 am wanting to watch Mickey..... Ugg very tired, but atleast its a Saturday!

going crazy again....

We were doing pretty good number wise. But isn't that the way it goes? Get a routine figured out and a few days later it changes again. Kind of like Michigan weather...

Yesterday at Daycare his BG meter read a 26, so care-worker retested which resulted in 68. She followed routine, gave candy and snack, but failed to call or tell us when we picked him up. Mom freaked out and called when dad mentioned what he saw on his meter. She apologized for not calling and said he was acting fine.... so, just when you think things settle down, a 26 shows up on the BG meter! What!

He is fine, but scary situation.

We are tired from the first week of momma going back to school with the teenagers (yes, she's feeling old :) )

Next week big bro and sisters start back to school. Should be FUN :(

William is being very stubborn lately. He sure thinks he is 15 years old already. I'm not really looking forward to that age bracket and Diabetes management.

Numbers looking better

As a diabetics mother the BG is the king of the house. Our lives are circling around them. Thankfully his numbers are finally starting to level out again and we've narrowed down the significant problem causing him to "tank." That of which I speak of is his sensitivity level or the sliding scale in which to do a "correction" dose. He's been on one unit for 100 points over his 150 target range. We are finding it more like one unit for every 150-180 points over.

And yes, I may have been cranky leaving the house last week going to work for a new job on three hours of split sleep but dad is finally helping out at night even though he has to work so I'm getting a little more sleep (so yes, even a little less cranky) :)

Blood Sugar Very Sentive Lately

It seems that Will's blood sugar is very sensitive lately. Yesterday for instance he did not eat many carbs for dinner. He was at 67 so we let him go without a correction dose. He went outside and played with the neighbor for about an hour or hour and a half then when he can in (about two hours after dinner ) he was at 311. I gave him a correction dose and checked him an hour later to see he was at 70. I gave him half of a banana and checked him before bed and he was at 300 again. It seems that small amounts of change are making big differences in his blood sugar.

Mama was up at two to check his blood sugar again. then had to get up at 6:00am to go to work. That make for a long and grumpy day.

teaching Daycare how to give Bolus through the pump :)

We are looking forward to the day when daycare will be able to finger test, count carbs and bolus independently. Started teaching his normal care provider today :) He loved being able to feel more normal and eat what everyone else was for snack time since we would normally have to send in a 5 carb snack in. Made our day:)

Love the pump!

We love the poke free mealtimes! Well for insulin anyways.... still have to do fingerpokes but still doing a lot less pokes.

Food time feel a lot more "normal" now. Want a snack, sure... :)

Long night for mama

First night on the pump went well for Will because he slept all night. Mom on the other hand had to get up and do a mid-night BG check. He was over 400 so I had to give him plenty of insulin to bring him back down. Rechecked two hours later and yep, coming down. Finally able to go back to restful sleep (for hour and half). Yep that means 5 hours of split sleep for mom over night and have to keep up with the very energetic Will the next day. I hear a nap calling my name!

what a week!

Will's third site was infected and started antibiotics to get rid of it. Well, yesterday we spent an hour waiting in the doctors office because he is now allergic to that antibiotic. Poor kid. He is now on benadryl for the hives/ rash/ and itching.

Today, Thursday July 28, 2011 we are going active with the insulin pump. Wish us luck and send your prayers that this will go smoothly!

first pump hicup

Yesterday when we went to change his site, the one he was wearing was very infected. Puss started ozzing out and yes he was screaming...  We had no indication that it was infected as the infection was completly under his site and couldn't see a thing. Poor baby....
With the pharmacy close until Monday, we had to watch and make do for the night. Still angry red and hot to touch and waiting for Drs office to call in some antibiotics.
Since we are only in the start process and on saline solution we are giving him a little pump break for now....

Pump starts Friday (just one more day)

We are excited to get Will started on the pump. We know it's not going to be a miracle worker but we are looking forward to giving less pokes just the same. 

Will really enjoys playing in the sand and water at Lake Michigan. He builds sand castles with daddy and then decides its "boat time." He has a floaty that he loves riding the waves in.. Very fun to watch the fun loving preschooler find enjoyment in the waves...

Decided on Pump...

Decided to go with the MiniMed Revel pump because of the CGM sensors and my friend has one and will be able to watch will with ease if we ever want to get out....

We are hoping that the pump will help us help will gain control over his BG levels. We had another 42 this last week with insulin still on board...UGGG I wish this would get easier....

Better A1c

Just had 3 month check up. Went good. A1c down to 8.9 from 9.5 3 months ago. This is good, but still needs to come down a little more for his age. Adjusted some ratios for carbohydrates and will adjust if needed again in a week.

Got to Eat chicken nuggets from McD's today because apt ran long and I was very hungry!

Weather is nice, and after my much needed nap we will go out and enjoy it :)

Long night...

We had a long night last night. For some reason His BG kept tanking and had to keep getting finger pokes and more snacks (bummer) well into the night. The Coke at midnight finally did the job... The 2 am check was 187 then back down to 108 at 7am. Wheww what a rollar coaster ride...

Having pump reps come to the house so we can get demos on two of the favorite pumps. Hopefully then we can decide what our pump will be for the next four years to come....

mom is new at this

Hi My mom is new at this and will do her best :)
Since diagnosis we have ridden the diabetes rollar coaster and brought his AIC down from 11.2 to 9.2 last check up. He is due soon for another check up. He has been sick a lot over the past few months with ear infections, sinus infections, pink eye and plain old colds.....
We are managing diabetes with injections only at this point but we are looking into and trying to decide which insulin pump we should go with. We have it narrowed down to two, but both have very unique qualities that we wish the one we go with had both options... like waterproof and Continuous Glucose monitoring.....