Thirty Seven

   It has been a rocky 2 weeks blood sugar wise since M started on the Omnipod.  In retrospect the week before Christmas was probably not the best time to start on a pump, but I thought it would be good that she would be off school to get adjusted to it. 
  
     The first three days were beautiful. In range blood sugar numbers.  Then it was pod change day.  I don't know if it was something I did wrong or if there is just a learning curve but M had two pod fails within three days.   She was not a happy girl. (Since then we have had no more pod fails -- knock on wood)
  
    We were seeing numbers near 400.  Those kind of numbers scare me.  M's doctor had us make some changes to her settings on Christmas Eve.  Then the day after Christmas, M had a blood sugar number that scares me even more than the 400's.

     We were having a " 'Jammie day".  Just staying at home staying in our PJ's all day and were watching movies and playing with her new toys from Christmas.  She had just eaten a snack and we were snuggled on the couch watching a movie when she fell asleep.  In the back of my mind I thought maybe she is low, but I also knew she was tired from Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  About an hour and a half later I finally woke her up.  She seemed confused.  She wanted to eat the snack that she had just eaten before she fell asleep.  She also didn't know what I was talking about when I asked her what she wanted for dinner.  She wasn't making sense with questions she was asking me.   Before diabetes I would have thought she is just still tired, but not anymore.  I checked her blood sugar 37.  This is the lowest she has been.  Physically she was functioning fine, but not mentally.  I have seen her fingers shake when she is in the upper 60's.  But there was no shaking this time.  Just the confusion.  What would have happened if I had let her sleep longer.  I hate to even think about it.  What caused her to go low?  I will probably never know.  Since the low none of her pump setting have been changed and she has had no other lows (knock on wood again!)

Early Christmas Present

     Look what M got the week before Christmas!

    So far she has mixed feelings about the pump.  She likes not having to get shots and the freedom it gives her with what and when  she eats.  She does not like changing the pod.  She also had a pod fail on her first pod change day so I had to change it twice in one day.  She said next time she wants to try to do everything herself.  Hey, whatever makes her feel more comfortable with it.
    We even made a small Omnipod and PDM for her build a bear!

Still waiting for a pump

   We started the process of getting M on a pump on September 26.   At the class they told us she would be on a pump in between 2-4 weeks.  Two months later and still no pump.  We have run into several roadblocks.  The first was waiting for Omnipod to call us back.  Not sure why that took almost 2 weeks.  Then it was waiting to see if the DME company that our insurance covers was going to carry the Omnipod.  another 3 weeks to find out that yes they will.   Then the problem was getting the paperwork from M's endocrinologist.   In those 5 weeks M's Dr had left the practice.   The Dr that she will be seeing from now on would not sign the paperwork.  She stated that M was not her patient.  We don't follow up again until December 10th. It took another 2 weeks to get this straightened out. 

     Finally with all the paperwork we need comes the insurance authorization.  I know our insurance and I know this will take a long time.  Then on Saturday I get a call from Omnipod.  Seems our insurance needs more information.  They want the notes from M's last 2 endo visits, her last two A1C labs, and a month of BG logs.  Really????  They are going to take the time to look at all of that!  Anyway, being a Saturday there was not much I could do to get the notes from the Dr.  So that is what I will be doing today.  I just hope we don't get a hard time from the Dr.s office again.  The lady I spoke with from Omnipod said if I get her the information on Monday,  we could possibly have the pump by the end of the week.  Fingers crossed that this is true and M can be on her pump before Christmas!

The Fall...(and I don't mean Autumn)

     It all started with making a gingerbread house.    There is a Christmas light display at a park near us that has a building full of gingerbread houses that kids in local elementary schools make.  This year M has decided to make a gingerbread house for this.  (She chose to make her house into a beach house with the ocean and fish).  Anyway as we have to have this done by November 14th we started on it yesterday afternoon.  As we were working on it I noticed M kept licking her fingers that had icing on them.  She was having too much fun and I decided to just give her a correction at dinner.   I knew she would be high  but I didn't expect the 355.  Just how much of that icing did she lick?  Just to be sure I had her wash her hands and recheck.  Yep it was right.  I gave her 5 units to cover her dinner and for the correction. 

    She was fine most of the night.  I checked her before her bedtime snack 127.  Ahh, that's better.  
  
    Ten minutes later

   M:   Mom, I feel low.
   Me:  I just checked you, you were fine.
   M:   I feel really bad.
   Me:  Ok.

   I check her.  65.  What!?!?!  No wonder she feel bad.  That fast of a drop in 10 minutes.  Out comes the Halloween candy.  15 grams of sour patch kids and 15 minutes later.  55!!!.    Now she was feeling really bad,  she didn't even want Halloween candy.  "just give me juice" she said.  Finally after the juice 89.
She had her bedtime snack and at 1 am was 200.   Still she woke up this morning at 64.  Back to the Halloween candy!

   I'm not sure why she dropped so fast.  Did she not wash all the icing off her fingers?  Did I over correct? Next time we work on the gingerbread house I will be sure to scrub those little fingers of hers!

Flu shot

   Since we have made some insulin adjustments after M's last endo visit her blood sugars have been great.  Pretty much nothing over 150.  Unless ironically you count the day of the JDRF walk when she was in the low 200's, but I chalk that up to excitement. 

   Then on Friday M got her Flu shot.  Went to bed with a reading of 134.  Woke up Saturday morning at 198.  What!  She is consistently under 100 in the morning.  Then at lunch somewhere in the mid 200's. (She has her meter with her at dance tonight so I can't check the actual number.)  We corrected and went on.  At dinner time a whopping 372!  She ran in the upper 200's the rest of the night.  Sunday morning she woke up with a low of 66.  What was up with Saturday?  The only thing I can think of is the Flu shot.  I researched it and most of what I found said the the flu shot will not affect blood sugars.  But then again YDMV (your diabetes may vary.)

Getting ready for a pump!

      During M's last endo visit she said she felt we were ready to start a pump.  We attended pre-pump class this week.  It was a class that went over the basics of pumping and gave an overview of the pumps M's Dr prefers.  I was worried because I had already done my research and M and I have looked at some pumps, so we were already fairly certain that the Omnipod is the right choice for her.  I have read that some pediatric endos don't use the Omnipod and when I asked at our appointment our endo said, you will see all the pumps we recommend at your pre pump class.

   When we walked into the room all the pumps were on a table.  There it was and Omnipod.  I could tell M was happy because we had been thinking about a second choice (animis ping was her second choice).  But she really wanted the Omnipod because of it being tubeless.

    After the class I had to take a test on carb counting and on pump basics.  Then the next day I called the rep at Omnipod to order M's pump.  Now to wait to see what our insurance will pay.  Our insurance is usually very slow to give authorization.  I think M thought she would get her pump the next day.  I told her lets hope to have it by Christmas.  Wouldn't that be a great Christmas gift!.

   Today was also of JDRF walk day.  We raised $1,102.  It was a beautiful day for the walk.  M enjoyed getting her face painted and picking up all the free stuff from the various vendors.  I participated in the Tial Net Study, and we even scored two sample vials of Humalog!   We had a great time.  I will post pictures later!

Endo visit...The good, the bad, and the ugly

   This morning M had her second visit with her endocrinologist.  I have been concerned because her numbers have been creeping up this summer.  I also wanted to talk about getting her started on the pump before the end of the year.  There is rumor or our insurance at work changing and I am worried about what our coverage will be next year.

   I'll start with the bad.  M's A1C was up.  I knew it would be.  It was not up as bad as I thought it would be though.  Basically my suspicion that her "honeymoon" is over was confirmed.  Some adjustments were made to her breakfast ratio's to see if that helps and she is mainly high before lunch.  Will have to see if that helps tomorrow.

  The good.  We are signed up for pre-pump class on September 26.  This does not guarantee that M will be pumping by the end of the year but it is a step in the right direction.

  Now the ugly.  M's endo was concerned about her scoliosis.  She wasn't sure if it was getting worse.  As this is not her area of expertise she referred us to  pediatric ortho.  Isn't diabetes enough for M to deal with.  Of course I have been up looking at scoliosis treatment.  It is basically bracing or surgery if the curve is bad enough.  Hopefully her's isn't bad enough for this and we will just have to have it checked every 6 months.  If she needs a brace I hope she will handle it as well as she's handling diabetes.