Our first trip with D

   This weekend was our annual trip to Cook Forest in Pennsylvania with my husband's family.  We have been doing this trip for about 8 years now.  About 20 people go and we rent four cabins to stay in.  We usually enjoy horseback riding, canoeing, campfires, hiking and s'mores!  This is our first time going since M was diagnosed with D.  The hardest part of the trip (at least D wise) is that each cabin is responsible for a different meal.  This left me no control over what M would be eating or when she would be eating.  It was very difficulty timing her snacks.  I also really didn't know carb counts on foods even though I brought my scale and measuring cups.
   These were just a few of the numbers we saw this weekend, with several in range numbers in between
   
     M wasn't quite as active as I had anticipated.  It rained most of the weekend so we  were cooped up in the cabin for a while.  We didn't get to go canoeing as the river was too dangerous to let kids on. So she was getting numbers like this.

  So then I changed her insulin to carb ratio to offset inactivity and guess what...the rain stopped and she had numbers like this.

   M also has a string of a BG of 134 four time in a row.  2am check 134, wake up 134. snack 134, lunch 134.  At one point I thought the meter was broken.  Maybe I should play that number in the lottery.  This morning I  found her getting into my backpack.  I asked her what she was doing in there and she said "I feel low"  She was getting her meter and testing herself..sure enough she was low.

   \.  I will post more of my pictures from this weekend later, for now I just want to sleep in my own bed!

What can a 7 year old girl with type 1 diabetes do...(part 1)

   I've been meaning to write and post pictures about M's dance recital for a few weeks now.  Her dance recital was the Thursday before father's day with rehearsals earlier in the week.  M take ballet, jazz and hip hop.  She also does gymnastics one day a week too!
 
    So my title for this post is what can a 7 year old girl with T1D do?  Well she can be part of a three and a half hour dance show where she was in three dances, plus the finale. She can get through a 5 hour dress rehearsal and a two hour staging rehearsal.  By the way this is when she actually was able to feel a low for the first time-I guess trying to do a arabesque with a low blood sugar would be kind of difficulty.
 
    During the show she wanted to stay backstage with her friends instead of coming to the audience with me between her dance numbers.  I let her go.  We checked blood sugar when I dropped her off back stage.  She had her meter and some juice.  I felt better that one of the mom's backstage helping out was a nurse,but she still wouldn't be able to give M her full attention because she was in charge of so many little girls.  So I made sure M knew to check before they started to line up to go on stage.  I gave the mom my cell number and told her to text me with any issues.  I went backstage at intermission and tested her blood sugar and gave her her Lantus injection and her snack.  I was a little concerned that her blood sugar was high but figured it was the excitement.

   She did a great job with her dances and finally smiled on stage (she has been dancing for four years and would not smile on stage)

   After the show I found out why her blood sugars were high.  She said all of her friends were having a snack so she ate some of the candy I left her to treat a low, then she ate the snack I bought back at intermission.  Now I know next year to leave her snack backstage and just let her eat it when she wants.

  This is what a 7 year old with T1D can do.  Dance, stay with her friends and learn that the candy is her purse is just for lows!
 

A day with her BFF

   It has been really hot and humid here the past few day's.  Yesterday M's best friend KP wanted her to come over and play on her new blow up waterslide.   I didn't know whether to let her go on her own or to go with her.   She has gone there once on her own, but only for about an hour, and once with me for a end of school cookout.  I decided to let her go without me.  If she didn't have D, I would not be tagging along to friends houses and I don't want to tell her she can't do something because of D.
   M takes MDI so the plan was to drop her off right after lunch and pick her up before dinner.  She would only have to eat a 15 g carb snack and take no shots.  She did great.  She even called me because she decided she didn't want the snack we had planned but wanted watermelon instead and wanted to know how much she could have.  Surprisingly she had no lows, even with running around on the water slide and trampoline.  She is asking about a sleep over at this friend house, I told her I'd have to think about it and we would either have to teach KP's mom to giver her her shots or I would have to run over and give them to her. But I think this may be possible by the end of summer.

Conversations overheard

     This is a conversation I overheard between M and my husband tonight.

 Dad: M can I have a bite of your cookie?

 M: No daddy you can't because I'm type 1 and you're type 2.

 Dad: Why does that matter?

 M: I take insulin and you don't so I have to eat my cookie.

      The difference between type 1 and type 2 diabetes explained by a 7 year old.

I think my daughter has a built in CGM

   I have noticed a trend with M lately.  Let my start by saying that M has had a tic disorder since she was about 2 years old.  She has hereditary transient tic disorder.  Basically she has different tics she does and her tics will change every few months to maybe a year.  Some examples of her tics have been sighing (her first tic), nodding her head, rolling her eyes, squeaking, coughing and blowing on her fingers.  Sometimes I don't even realize what she is doing is a tic until one of my sister in laws (who's daughters also have tics) asks "is that her new tic?"  
   Right now she has two tics of choice (is it a choice?)  She blows on her fingers or she will cough.  Usually her tics increase when she is tired or anxious about something (for example the first day of school.)  I have noticed another trend with her tics.  They increase when her BG is over 200, especially as it approaches 250.    This probably is also why her tics where so bad January, right before her diagnosis.  I am going to have to keep track of this to see if it continues to correlate this way.  Now if only we could find something to alert me to lows!

Pain in the Ass

   M has been very open about having diabetes.  She will tell anyone that she has diabetes.  With me it's more of a need to know basis.  Sure our friends and family know about her having T1D.  But I don't make a practice of telling people I don't really know about it like she does unless a need arises.  Today was one of those days.
 
We were at the park and she was playing with a  girl who was there with her grandparents.  The girl went to her grandma for a cookie so M came to me for her snack.  It was close enough to her snack time so I gave her her 15g carb afternoon snack that I had brought with us.  After they were done they went back to playing.  This is when Grandma brought out the fruit roll ups.  Gave two to the girl and said "give one to your friend."   I stopped her and said, "thank you, but she can't have that right now.  She has diabetes and already ate her snack."  

I was waiting for one of the usual comments

---but she's not fat
---she must have ate a lot of candy and pop
---she doesn't look sick
or my all time favorite
---my aunt lost her leg to diabetes

I was mama bear ready to defend my girl.  But instead the grandpa said "Diabetes, that must be a pain in the ass."  I was ready to contradict him but stopped because even though M can do everything that she did before D, yes sometimes diabetes is a pain in the ass.

Bad Pancreas

     Today I was a bad pancreas.  This morning M had staging rehearsal for her dance recital (dress rehearsal is on Tues and the show is Thurs.)  Anyway we had to be at the auditorium at 9 this morning.  M had her usual breakfast and we got her ready, rushed to there it time to find parking, as parking downtown is horrible.   I thought the fact that she left two small strawberries would be fine as her morning BG was fairly high for her.  I should have know better since she has been having a run of lows.  I really meant to check her again when we got there but in the rush of finding parking and getting her in on time just forgot.  
   
     I was watching her practice her ballet on stage and noticed she just seemed off, she wasn't lifting her arms the full way up and just didn't look right to me.  After she was done she came running to me, "Mom, I feel low."  She has never felt a low before (even when she had a 46).  As I was getting her meter out I asked "how do you feel?"  She said her legs felt "shaky"   I checked her and she was 60.   A juice box and granola bar later she was at 115.  She did her jazz and hip hop numbers just fine.  I guess 2 small strawberries really do make a difference.

Last day of school lows

   I don't know what's up with M's numbers today.  Maybe it was the dance party for the last day of school, or the fact that she told me she had a doughnut at school so we skipped her afternoon snack.  She also went to her friends house after school and was jumping on the trampoline. Make's me wonder what I did (and I realize it is probably nothing I did, it is just how D is behaving today)
    I know these are not bad lows, but right now she is not where I like her to be before bed.   Here are her numbers for today
     Before breakfast  103
     Before lunch 68
     Before dance party 68
     Before dinner 77
     Before s'mores 76
    After s'mores (which she received no insulin for) 79
    After a yogurt 74
 Along with several other checks that never went over 108

  Just fed her a granola bar and waiting to see where it brings her. Looks like it's going to be a long night.  Guess I'll get to catch up on reading blogs!

Last day of school

   Tomorrow is M's last day of school.  I don't know who's more excited, her or me!   Before her D diagnosis in February she had started to fall behind in school and we worked really hard to keep her up to speed.  I didn't know at the time that her blood sugars were probably in the 400-500 range and that was probably why she was having a hard time.  Since diagnosis her grades have come up and she is doing much better but she still works really hard at it.  I think we both need a break.
   
     The other reason I am happy that tomorrow is the last day of school is all of the end of school festivities that include treats.  Some we were able to plan for, others I did not know about.  She is very good a reading labels and will skip the juice at school parties.  But at the school carnival she kind of forgot about D.  She said "I didn't look at it, I just ate it"  I asked her what she had and she said just some popcorn and shaved ice.  Her numbers weren't that bad. I had told her to skip her snacks at school to be able to eat food at the carnival and I think that helped.

     With other treats she usually brings them home and has me check to see when she can have them  But it's the popsicles and ice cream that ruin this plan -- you just can't bring a popsicle home!  I think the kids have had popsicles or ice cream almost every day the past two weeks!  It's not that she can't have them but with her being on MDI we need to time when she eats and has her snacks.  At least next year I will know to leave a supply of sugar free popsicles at school at the end of the year.

Mehh...

     Last night while I was cleaning up after dinner M was watching the Disney Channel.  She came running into the kitchen very excited and said "there's a boy on TV with type 1 diabetes like me!"  I had to see what it was about and thanks to the powers of the DVR I was able to rewind and watch the segment.  It was called The Time I...   This one was about a 12 year old boy with T1D who participated in JDRF's walk to cure diabetes.
   
Needless to say I wasn't quite excited as M was.   The boy very briefly talked about what T1D was and stated that he had to take medicine (but did not say that how this medicine was given).  He did say that he can do anything his friends can do.  You could see him holding his pump for about 1 second, but you would have to know its an insulin pump to realize what you were seeing.  Most of the segment was about how he participated in the JDRF walk, where it was, and how much money he raised.

    I wish they would have talked more about what causes or doesn't cause T1D, or maybe shown his pump more or correct some diabetes myths.  Maybe I am expecting too much from a channel for kids, but we should educate kids at this age.   Anyway, M was very excited to see a kid like her on TV and will probably be just as excited every time she see's it