Christmas Eve



No! Don't take a picture. And don't think I like this food.

We tried to come up with a New Tradition for Christmas Eve this year. It's the first time we were spending Christmas at our home, just the four of us.
Hibachi Japenese food! Riley tried the yummy salad with the ginger dressing, he tried the soup, he ate some vegetables, he devoured the steak. He did not eat the rice.

He tested before dinner 86. We calculated the carbs = 0 CHO. No insulin! Are you kidding me? We'll eat this once a week or more.

*Side Note: New Year's Resolution #1 - Riley start eating cooked vegetables #2 and rice

After finishing the steak, he tested again - he felt low - 71.

Come on...This was our Christmas Eve Miracle. It started out when he was not happy on arrival of the Japanese restaurant choice. The entertaining griller with his canned tricks softened the head -on -the- table misery. Then he loved it! The steak and the ginger sauce. Typical teen aged mood swing. And now I was searching for a carb. In an attempt to keep the food theme, I asked the waitress for those crunchy noodly things sometimes garnished on the top of Asian food. She informed me that those noodly things are Chinese, not Japanese. Slightly embarrassing.

Riley found some thin peppermint sticks with a chocolate coating normally used to stir in your hot chocolate or coffee in the bottom of his bag. He ate two.  Still shaky.  I tried again. Please Miss Waitress, any crackers? Anything??  "You want peanut butter kind?"

Yes Please.

 

Thanksgiving 2012- not exactly a new tradition but close

 Our schedule was set.
 WED:
7 am Make stuffing and refrigerate for travel tomorrow
8 am Parent Teacher Conferences with 6 teachers
11 am Make & roll pie dough
12 pm Make apple pie and bake
1 pm Go see Wreck It Ralph (technical difficulties = Rise of the Guardians)
3 pm Work in Hershey, cancels, drive home in TRAFFIC
5 pm Make pumpkin pie and bake
6 pm Visit children's great grandmother
7 pm Go to church for Thanksgiving Eve service
9 pm Pack car

THURS:
6 am Drive to Delaware
2 pm Enjoy Ennis Thanksgiving Dinner
Actual schedule:

WED:
7 am through 5 pm See Above
6:45 pm Visit great grandmother/grandparents
8:30 pm Visit so long...miss church
9:30 pm Pack food and clothes for early morning departure
11:30 pm Reid pukes
1 am Reid pukes
2 am Reid pukes
3 am Reid pukes
5 am Reid pukes
7 am Reid pukes
8 am Tim goes to store for Ginger Ale and Oyster Crackers and a turkey
9 am Reid pukes
11 am Reid pukes
2 pm Reid pukes
3 pm Tim makes mashed potatoes and sauteed purple cauliflower-items we have in the kitchen. Puts stuffing in the oven-prepared this morning, picks up gravy & cranberry relish from his parents' Thanksgiving meal.
4 pm EAT-just the two of us at the kitchen island

Riley had turkey and pumpkin pie for dinner. Then apple pie for dessert. Hey, it's Thanksgiving. Diabetically speaking, I was very concerned that Riley would get the same stomach bug Reid had. I wanted to check ketones for the first six hours, but Reid doesn't need to have her ketones checked. I did not want this to be our first ketone-related hospitalization. And it wasn't!

 The rest of the eveing we watched The Secret Garden, Mr. Belevedere, & Cheaper by the Dozen all on AMC. 

With all day Friday, Saturday and Sunday unscheduled - we ventured out for a Christmas tree this afternoon when we were sure Reid felt well enough to do it. While we were there, might as well get some Christmas pictures. That's why Riley is wearing a tie and Reid a plaid scarf to match her cute red sweater. We don't normally look this cute when we go on family outings.

Tea Party

Riley has tea cup in his lap, you just can't see it

We're having some fun in the midst everything else. We had a totally random tea party on Saturday morning. It had to be that way. It's the only way I can get anyone to drink hot tea with me in the little tiny tea cups that require you to hold your pinky up. The tea was delicious - loose leaf Masala Chai but the company was the best. Even Riley enjoyed some with a little cream and Truvia. This is exactly what the tea I bought in bulk at Wegman's looks like, but I can't find it on their website. It maybe sold in sachets.

Finding fun without the iphone, xbox, kindle, phone, or television is my focus. I want to spend time with my kids with their attention. Chatting about various topics..the kind that are so easy with a 10 year old, but not so much with a 14 year old even with his full attention.

Tomorrow after parent-teacher conferences, we're going to the movies or bowling. Riley doesn't want to bowl but might be willing if a friend can come. Reid will go along with anything. Also, Reid is a good bowler which explains why she likes to go and Riley doesn't.

pretty little tea cup, and
Reid loving having her picture taken

When we're at Gramma's house in Delaware where we are all gathering for Thanksgiving, the ladies will make Christmas cookies (can we make them in November, freeze, then have delicious cookies in December?) and the boys will head to the Par 3 golf place in Rehoboth.
Ladies = my mom, Reid, Aunt Denise (mom's brother's wife), Natalie (brother's wife) and Lily (2 year old neice)
Boys = Tim (husband), Billy (brother), Dannyboy (Uncle -childhood name given by his mom), Riley and Liam (4 year old nephew)

For Thanksgiving we all have food assignments. Does your family do this too?
Our Family - regular stuffing, apple pie, pumpkin pie, cranberry relish
Brother's Family - fancy stuffing, vegetable dish probably broccoli with cheese sauce, maybe a ham
Uncle & Aunt - mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes and collards
Mom - the turkey and green beans cooked all day long

We will not be getting together with Tim's family for Thanksgiving this year (they live nearby and we see them all the time). Even though my mom lives in our house right now and my brother comes every week for 2 or 3 days to help with her care read: keep her company because she gets tired of me. Christmas will be special time with the Brennan family to include the traditional Italian Christmas dinner which I will tell you all about later, Christmas program at church, and school program for Grandparents. We tend to do Thanksgiving with the Ennis family and Christmas with the Brennan Family. But it's flexible enough to have Christmas Eve festivities with one and Christmas day with the other. We will have Christmas Day laying around the house this year, which I believe is the first time ever! I'm planning a breakfast all day menu. I cannot wait!

How do you work out sharing extended family time as well as time with your immediate family?

Honeymoon Over

this was not a set up prop

I didn't think I was ever gonna type here again. I still clicked back here in the past two months just to look at my pictures. But nothing to say. Too much to say. But maybe day by day is the best way to do this. Blogging and life, both.

Diabetically speaking, Riley is doing pretty well. He's had an Endo appointment during my blog vacation. His A1c is up one whole point to 7. That surprises me. I can't imagine that seeing so many 300's on his glucometer could still produce an A1c of 7. On Memorial Day, I thought the Honeymoon was Over, but it was not. Another great step toward a completely disfunctioning pancreas was taken this past September. Right when Riley was benched for not keeping his grades above passing, his blood glucose numbers skyrocketed. Tricky Diabetes. Perhaps the lack of daily exercise is causing high numbers or maybe it's the stress of not being able to play with the team/pressure to improve his grades PDQ. His carb ratio went from 1:25 to 1:15 to 1:7 in days. So for the last four weeks he has been using two units of insulin for every 15 CHO. His evening insulin, Lantus, is up to 9 units. But as the endo explained, for a kid his size it will probably triple. So indeed, he still has a partially functioning pancreas.

Our own perfect storm is not Hurricane Sandy, but Just Riley. Starving -fourteen -year -old - TD1 -teenager. See it there. All of those converging. 'I'm just so hungry', 'I'll dose for it', 'I'll run around to burn it off', 'No I didn't eat anything', 'I have no idea why it's 321'. These are real quotes happening real (ly) often.

My mom is the other part of the Life of Riley here at our house. She's moved back in with us. We're glad to have her. I don't have to worry about her being alone at her house at the beach in Delware where she would prefer to stay. She's had a recurrence of uterine cancer. It is not really a recurrence. She had it removed last year with a full hysterectomy. But this time, it is a completely different cell, a different type of uterine cancer - which is weird.  She began chemotherapy treatments two weeks ago and will continue a three week cycle here in Pennsylvania next week. I'm specifically praying for no side effects from the therapy and a reduction in the discomfort she has been experiencing in the last month since her diagnosis.

Hurricane Sandy came through slowly Sunday night and is still passing by. The kids' school closed for two days, which meant I didn't work on Monday at the school and the local military installation was also closed (unheard of), so I didn't work today either. Everybody wins, except my paycheck and Tim, because working from home does not have weather related cancellation perks. We experienced no flooding or downed trees or loss of electricity. I'm grateful, but a little disappointed. I really wanted to be warmed by the gas fire place and eat out of cans by candlelight.

Varsity Soccer

Tonight was the first home game for the Boys Varsity Soccer team. Riley got it in the game! I was flagged down while working in the concession stand. A sweet friend came in to relieve me of my duties so I could watch him. It was a great game. They won! That's all 3 games WON!

Then I realized that I had relaxed about his games. We didn't review the process before games like we do for practices. Practices are two full hours of running both short and long, constant drills and then scrimmaging. He is supposed to test his bg before he begins and make sure it is between 130 and 150, eating a 15 - 30 g carb snack and drinking Gatorade 2 throughout the practice.

There were no expectations of actually getting to see some game time, so when I got a call half way through the second half from Riley sitting on the bench on the other side of the field, I was concerned. Blood glucose was 119. Pretty good, but not if he went into the game again. I sent a Powerade (35 g of carbs) across the field. He drank it all and didn't get back in the game. When he tested at home around 7:30 pm, his bg was 110.  "It was all the nervous excitement", he said.

I must post a picture of him, but with the new phone/camera, I am having some difficulties. Same reason I didn't post pictures of First Day of School 2012-they're on my husband's phone and something about saving them from his phone to my computer disallows me to rotate clockwise!

First Day of School

It always comes way sooner than I plan. This year, we just arrived home from a week at the beach on Saturday, attended the annual church picnic on Sunday and started school on Monday, August 27.

Both kids were excited to see their friends again all back in one place. Meet their new teachers. Riley started high school, 9th grade, a freshman! Reid, 5th grade.

I began Monday morning at the high school office's front desk. Two days a week this year. It's fun because of all the students coming in and out and hectic because of all the students coming in and out. So, I'm near my kids in case of any emergencies, diabetic or otherwise.


Both kids are playing for the school's soccer team. Riley made the Varsity's reserve team-meaning he can practice with the team and attend the home games. He is in a position to learn so much from a great coach and be ready next year with full playing status! Reid is playing for the middle school team. This year they didn't have enough participation across 6th, 7th and 8th grades, so they opened it up to include the 5th graders. They got 5 interested girls! The schedule is jammed packed. I'm looking forward to a great season for both kids.


first day of school 2006

first day of school 2007

first day of school 2008
 

first day of school 2009

There's more since we are already in 2012. To be continued...

Vacation 2012

We're on vacation and have been since Saturday. And still have five
 more nights to go. I'm beside myself.

Sunday: swimming in the bay just after high tide. I'm not sure what that means though it was explained to me in depth. What I do know is that you have to swim pretty hard just to stay near our dock and it's chilly water = fast low. 154 at lunch with five units to cover at 12:41 pm. Swim for 12 minutes about and check bg at 1:19 pm = 74.


Sunday night: ice cream cone. Springer's delicious homemade ice cream. Worth standing in line for and paying a small fortune, too!  Since we're talking about it, I picked the Amaretto Almond- wooo weeee. Daughter's Vanilla Peanut Butter Brownie was close second.


Monday: Inspired by Kadima bg drop from Katy, purchased proKadima set at 5 and dime store here and headed to the beach. No
low go. Not even the jumping waves dropped Riley's bg. Tomorrow
we'll try harder. Surely when he plays against me. Granted I couldn't
get him to draw the lines in the sand to make a real court.

Slacker + Little G

I haven't kept Riley's food intake/insulin log since he returned home from camp - camp where he rocked it and kicked diabetes butt!

It might be time to get the log book out. Right before dinner last night he called down to say that he felt weird, tested and his number was some ridiculous number like 400. He corrected along with his dinner insulin (10 units) and was 168 within an hour and half. I believe he was 89 and dropping by 7 pm.

The day before had a very similar story line. Theme was exactly the same.  Granted - after testing for his dinner of Sweet Frog frozen yogurt with the kitchen sink on top, he did need a few extra units of insulin to cover the high and the yogurt.  Why frozen yogurt for dinner, you ask?  Well...Riley just had his annual physical, the kind at the pediatrician office where they check you out for mundane stuff like myopia. We hadn't been there in almost a year. Riley remembered the parking spot we were in that day, Septemeber 20, 2011. The day he was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes.


It all went well. Better than well. On the way to frozen yogurt paradise, Riley said that was the best doctor appointment he ever had. The doctor swore (without signing a promise note) that Riley would be at least 6 feet tall. After I picked up my jaw from the floor, I asked how he knew that. The dr. asked me how tall my husband was "6 feet right?" Uhhhh ... no, more like 5'9" on a good day. Then he asked about my family. All males are at least 6'4" or 6'5". Oh yeah...Riley is definitely going to be more than a mere 5'9" probably closer to 6 feet!


Riley is the shortest kid in his class except for Sam who is a little shorter but an amazing soccer player so Riley might as well be the shortest. So while all his classmates are possibly done growing or will be in the next year. Riley is just getting started at 5'3". This means the world to him. And he didn't need any booster shots, whew... He did suggest that he could do it himself were they required.

He's now being referred to as LG at our house, Little Giant.

Breakfast Cookie + Glucerna Shake

Is this a good healthy breakfast?

I found a breakfast cookie recipe in Martha Stewart Living magazine this month. The ingredients look a lot like my granola recipe except it calls for 1 cup of olive oil and 1.5 cups of maple syrup compared to the cookie recipe which has 4 sticks of butter  and 3 cups of brown sugar. ( I thought that was way too much sugar even though the recipe calls for 2 cups of whole wheat flour, 2 cups of white flour and 2 cups of rolled oats. So I used Coconut Crystals for the last cup of sugar when I realized after tasting the dough that just 2 cups of brown sugar wasn't enough)  The important thing is that Riley doesn't eat my granola even if I put chocolate chips in it, but he does eat the breakfast cookies.

The recipe calls for all kinds of dried fruits. I eliminated them and used cinnamon chips. I did however add handfulls of flax seeds and wheat germ.

This recipe makes a huge amount of cookies. I've gotten 30 so far and I'm a little more than half way through the dough. I haven't figured out the carbs yet. For now I am counting them as a regular cookie (15 gr).

Glucerna shake. 15 grams of carbs. He's been drinking these as his breakfast for the past few days. I think because he wakes up late (around 9 or 10 am), drinks the shake without covering with insulin, then eats lunch around 11:30 or noon. I've warned him that when school starts in a few weeks he will need to eat something with the shake like breakfast cookies and a banana.  This is what he did this morning and it seemed to work well with a couple units of insulin.

I Survived Camp and Riley Did Too

It is Saturday morning! We are leaving to pick up Riley in 25 minutes. His numbers looked great. His activity level got his nightime insulin (Lantus) down to 3 units-that was the only insulin change I needed to make all week.

He called me on Wednesday night from the health aide's phone because his bg was 250. I loved hearing his voice. He asked if he should increase his Lantus because it was around 10:30 pm. That was awesome, he saw a number and had an idea of how to adjust it.  I reminded him that his before breakfast number was 120 that morning, so it was not necessary. Because they had just finished Capture the Flag or such activity, his bg number would drop on it's own.

Also, the pictures the camp posts online during the week look like Riley was having an awesome time.

When I stopped by the camp to drop off some sugar-free drinks/Crystal Light drink packets AND did not talk to him, all the kids had just finished dinner and were heading to the pool for noodle sparing. Two kids from different teams stand atop inner tubes with some mesh across the hole and spar with noodles, basically trying to push the other off their inner tube. I was there standing 30 yards from the pool and was able to see Riley win - on a technicality - but win, nonetheless.  And then eat a few starbursts without testing.

I can't wait to hear all about the week, by asking a million questions in rapid fire style. To which he will put on his headphones and pretend not to hear me.

NOTE: I will not be bringing his headphones.

Just Don't Talk to Me

Dropped night time insulin by two units and
mealtime insulin by two units to compensate for the
heavy activity schedule as well as the heat.

Camp bg numbers so far:

dinner    bg 156
bedtime bg 217
bkfst      bg 145
lunch     bg 158


How did I get these figures from camp, you ask?

The health aide (no nurse or medical personnel on staff) texts them to me! I gave her four pages of information related to managing Riley's diabetes yesterday when I dropped him off.

• Page 1 - their meal schedule for the week with my added carb counts from Calorie King and other sources
• Page 2 - log to keep track of each bg test, carb count per meal and insulin unit amount injected
• Page 3 - list of low symptoms and treatment procedure & list of the supplies and where they can be found in the dining hall. (ie back up insulins in the refrigerator, testing supplies/snacks/ketone strips/glucagon in the plastic bin and ice packs (one for each day) for bg meter in the freezer)
• Page 4 - our contact numbers and MUSTS for Riley: kit in his knapsack on his back with fast acting candy & lists of when to contact me - bg over 200 in the morning, bg over 300 anytime, a low under 65 and any insulin injection error

Also left a 1 cup measuring cup for cereal and pasta and a bottle of lite syprup for the breakfast goodies that will sky-rocket his blood sugar. And an old 33oz water bottle for sharps storage.

As I said goodbye, leaving him in the hands of a 19 yr old health aid, I tested the water by saying I would see him Wednesday just to check his numbers and make any insulin changes on my way to a job in a nearby town. I had to say it twice to really get his attention to which he replied, "OK, but just don't talk to me."

Bread Making Wars

Nutella, pb, pretzel loaf - yummm

The title is supposed to sound like some show popular on television today. I was able to hold off the Craft Wars session but gave into and possibly suggested having a bread making war.

assorted chocolate chip loaf

I made fresh dough - buttermilk recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day. Split it in 1/3s, and gave Reid and her two friends each a bowl with their 1/3 of the dough. They had at it. Reid went with Nutella, peanut butter and pretzels. The next child decided on white chocolate chips, mint chocolate chips, marshmallows and brown sugar and the the last girl put tomato sauce, pizza seasoning, mozzerella cheese and pepperoni.

pizza loaf

There was a 2 hour wait for the dough to rise. Then another 40 minutes after forming the dough into a ball. Then baked them all together for about 35 minutes. Fortunately, they were all at a softball game when the baking was done and I got
to dive into a little slice of each with a little slather
of butter. WOW! Fantastic all 3 of them!

I had to give each girl a prize for PRIZE 1: the
best ingredients, PRIZE 2: the best tasting,
PRIZE: 3 the best dessert loaf. I couldn't call
one a winner and the rest losers.

How We Did Kings Dominion Amusement Park

This is how I remember Kings Dominion 25 years
ago as a middle-schooler

Our youth group does an annual 3-day trip to Kings Dominion for Kings Fest. I am a youth leader so fortunately I was able to go and hang out with lots of teens and my own with T1D.

How we did it: Dropped Lantus by 1-2 units and Novolog by 2 units starting on the first night at the park for the Lantus and dinner time for the Novolog since we arrived at 3 pm.

There was at least one meal that Riley didn't use any Novolog.

His days were spent walking to/from the hotel to the park, in 100 degree heat, walking the park, riding rollercoasters, cooling off in the wave pool.

His bg never went above 150, the only low was on the bus ride down right before lunch.

Big relief knowing Amusement-Parking is totally in the realm of possibility. Will use these lessons learned for Camp next week.

Camp Checklist

• worry
• contacted camp via email outlining diabetes procedures-attempting to overwhelm without success
• contacted CDE to outline procedure for lowering evening Lantus, before meal Novolog, review the camp schedule for hot spots for lows
• worry
• purchased single serving snacks of 15 g carbs
• checked schedule for best time to covertly visit camp
• worry
• watched video of daughter's visit to camp and studied games intensely, very sure of low possibility

Going To Camp

Riley has been to the same summer camp for one week every year since he was 8. I should add right now that it took ten years off my life dropping him off that day 6 years ago. Now, even his little sister has put in her third summer camp experience. The camp is about 22 minutes from our house, has a great staff and tons of their school/church friends attend.


At camp, 2 yrs ago-before D

Riley decided he was bored with camp and didn't want to go this summer. I was shocked. But he does tend to say he doesn't want to participate in some activity and then when forced has a great time. 

This time I didn't want to force. This isn't diabetes camp. This is regular camp. There are no licensed medical people. No one hired to watch my kid and be sure his blood glucose is in range, checking bg regularly, calculating carbs properly, dosing mealtime and evening insulin, considering the extensive activity and preventing lows.

We had a talk with Riley and explained he had to do something productive with his summer. Maybe golf camp - three hours each morning for a week. Something. Today, he said he would rather just go to camp - the one he goes to every summer! I am beside myself. It is no good being myself and next to me is so much worse.

Father's Day

We're winning-why is he laying behind the hole?

 I have a great spouse. I adore him. He's an awesome dad.

We enjoyed an afternoon at my brother/sister-in-law's house, picnicking on the back deck, playing corn-hole (why has it become so popular again?) and eating a lot of good food.

Everybody (my in laws and my husband's brother and his wife and us) brought out the best in their own repertoire which means my mother-in-law made chili sauce for the grilled hotdogs, my sister-in-law bought a white cake with white icing and coconut from the local Wegmans.  And I made tomato pie and ordered an almond cookie that's the size of a cake.  All of this made for a fantastic gastronomic experience.

Then my team beat his team in corn hole. My team = Riley & I their team = Tim and Reid

Hottie on the left cutie on the right

My dad died three years ago after not so much of a battle with cancer for 2 years. Battle sounds like he and cancer went back and forth but he actually never had the upper hand. But he always had a great attitude. He was joy to care for in the last 6 months while he lived with me. He was a pleasure to spend time with. We had such fun. When he felt up to it, we would go to Wegmans and stroll around in his wheelchair while he picked out Valentine cards for my mom and I and a bouquet of flowers and a box of candy for her. We went to the movies a couple of times when Regal Theaters had open captioning on one of their films. My Dad has been deaf since birth. He came to a few of Riley's baseball games that spring.

During that time, I began this blog. Most of my parents friends are not local, so blogging/ his video-blogging kept everyone in the loop until the end.

We had tuna salad sandwiches at the cafe and did some shopping

Happy Father's Day to both my kids' father and my Dad. Two very special people.

Summer is here and ...

Everything is different now. Makes me not want to blog at all. I don't even want to read D-blogs except for Bigfoot Child Have Diabetes  I can't get enough of Katy.

I finally upped the evening (long acting insulin) Lantus last night, so the numbers look fantastic today. Which doesn't make me feel better, it worries me that tonight or tomorrow his bg will be too low.

Summer has been tons of fun while trying to get bg numbers under control-or at least under 200. That's a good goal, right?

We already went to visit Gramma at the beach. We were joined there by my neice and nephew, ages 2 and 3 1/2, and their parents. I tried to make it like a real summer vacation - we went to the beach, we went to the pool, we miniature golfed and had a huge Kohr Bros custard cone for $7. a piece at the boardwalk.  And because it is a tradition - Reid and I rode my dad's scooter to the grocery store. We do this every single time we go to my parent's house. My parents both got scooters shortly after retiring and moving to the beach. My dad's is a Vespa.

Vespa - So Cool!

I don't have a motorcycle license so I rarely rode it. Dad would limit my joy rides on his faster-than- mom's-scooter to just in the neighborhood. I ride my mom's Honda scooter all over Bethany Beach, Ocean View and even to Ocean City on occasion. No license necessary since it doesn't even go 30 mph. The scooter is absolutely one my favorite things. I ride it every time I go to the beach -when my dad was alive. Now three years after his death, I have only been to their house a handful of times but I ride the scooter. It takes me back to the fun times of all of piling onto the two scooters and going into town for the July 4th parade or to the beach. My dad would ride the Vespa with Reid in front of him and my mom on the back of him and I would have Riley with me on the yellow (Honda) scooter. Good times.

We also picked strawberries the morning before we headed home. The four of us, my mom, Reid and Riley and I picked almost 18 pounds-I have no idea what that means in the proper strawberry quart measurement. But it was a lot and they were delicious. I froze our bounty so I can learn how to follow a recipe and make jelly with them. That is my goal for one day this summer...eventually.

A Rough Patch

As you see from my post from Memorial Day weekend glucose numbers, we've hit a rough patch. It took every bit of these past two weeks to get it back to "normal". Normal is in quotes because let's be honest, what is normal?

But now that I'm looking back wihtout all the emotion of the honeymoon is over, will his numbers ever be stable again, will he ever consider the pump (because now I see why it would be so helpful), and why does everyone celebrate everything with food, it really only took an increase of one unit of insulin at each meal. I haven't even changed his long-acting before bed insulin. Yet.

First Time for Everything

An unresponsive blood glucose

9:30 am   89  HUGE carb breakfast with some non-lite syrup on two pancakes and hash brown potatoes

{spouse had to drive 35 miles one way to get insulin kit left at restaurant}

1:40 pm   253

4:50 pm   240

6:30 pm   265

6:31 pm   274

9:20 pm   239

7:13 pm   135   whew...

Catch Up

I still have things I want to talk (blog) about....What I Want People To Know About Diabetes /Day 5 and Saturday Snapshots /Day 6. Forgive me that I didn't keep up with the fantastic Diabetes Blog Week, I lost steam on Friday, right when I was getting good at this (in my own mind-that's all that really counts, right?)

I want to tell you every strange conversation I have had with people who talk to me about Riley's diabetes. From the death of fill-in-the-blank to the "easy kind of diabetes". But I don't have to because of Death of a Pancreas  where I found this HYSTERICAL video that contains every one of 'em. 

Maybe I could post it here instead of doing the linky thing above.

Oooh, I did it!

Snapshots of what T1D looks like at our house:

First bg check at soccer practice
Riley is under this group of onlooker team mates

This pack on his back is the "kit" as in "do you have your kit?"

random lancet

bg check at Massanutten water park

Diabetes Blog Week - Day Four "Fantasy Diabetes Device"

This is what our CDE, Pam stormed into the room with when she saw Riley & his iphone sitting on the exam table today.  This was very appealing to a 13 1/2 year old! Especially if he's the first guy on the block to have one. I'm gonna run right out and get him one...right after he uses the forty boxes of One Touch Ultra 2 or whatever test strips go with his bg meter.

So I was gonna skip out on today's "Fantasy Diabetes Device" topic. We're so new to this. We're just happy Riley's alive. The only change he has had in his diabetes care in these 8 months is when he was able to switch to the Lantus pen instead of Lantus vial/syringes. That was a huge change, it was about twenty days after he was diagnosed and he counted every night down until he could switch to the pen like his Novolog.

Then we got introduced to this very cool little $75.00 attachment to the iphone. Apparently, it's not even on the formulary yet and calls need to be made to insurance, to Sanofi and to the Endocrinologist's office, too. This all sounds so exciting!

I'm happy we found some cool device before we got to wishing for one. I'm not a dreamer, it would have taken me a long time to come up with something. I just don't know enough, YET!

The 3-month appointment went well.  Riley's still in the honeymoon phase, although he's had a few very high highs the past couple before dinner checks. We'll wait and see how it goes. They said he will have high morning numbers when the honeymoon comes to an end. So I'll plan on only getting anxious at that time.

Diabetes Blog Week - Day 3 "One Thing to Improve"

I was feeling all smug...I just don't have anything we (the boy with T1D and his mother) could do better. As already mentioned, he wears his alert bracelet most of the time, he checks his bg before each meal and bed time (MDI), he is doing his own injections. We go to the Endocrinologist every 3 months and meet with the diabetes nutrition lady, too. Riley is still in the honeymoon phase, so things aren't too hard to manage.

Until dinner time last night. Bg was 326. I was sure this was a he's been playing in the sugar sand box again or fell head first into a bakery supply store. I made him wash his hands (I've heard about this from blogs) and re-test. 318. We sucked it up and he injected 2 units of additional insulin which should have been 3 units and ate dinner and enjoyed the rest of the evening.

Then it was 10 pm and he tested before bed. Bg was 243. WHAT IN THE WORLD?! He panicked a little thinking as we always do at a high bg reading that this was it, the end of a partially functioning pancreas. First, we always say, what did you eat? Then we think, maybe this is the end of the honeymoon.

I told him not to worry, we (his parents) aren't worried. There are hundreds of reasons why a number would be high, growth hormones was the only one that I mentioned because it was the only one I could think of...He said, "You guys don't understand, you don't get it the way I do." I appreciated that he thought he could out-worry me because it was HIS diabetes. I liked that. BUT let's get serious, I will always worry more than he will and never in front of his face. I wanted him to know that the people whose job it is to worry in this house, are not worried at this blood glucose reading. Listen up son-of-a-worrier, DO NOT WORRY about it. I think this talk helped. Although, he couldn't sleep until way past 11 and ended up sleeping on our bedroom floor, so maybe not.

He knows as well as we do that the day is coming. All the wishful thinking will not make it go away. The honeymoon has to end.

The One Thing to Improve today is dealing well when that day comes. We're no longer living waiting for the other shoe to drop like we were when he first was diagnosed. We've lulled ourselves into thinking he'll be one of the few who have a little pancreas function like the sweet man I met at a JDRF envelop stuffing event (see March 17, 2012 post-I would link it here for you, but I don't know how). I do believe in a God who heals mind you. But I'm not sure if this is where the miracle will happen.

Diabetes Blog Week - Day Two "One Great Thing"

Riley goes to a small private school that doesn't have a full time nurse. They have a part time nurse's aid. The district nurse comes in on Thursdays. I didn't know any of this before Wednesday, September 21, 2011. And my kids have gone to this school for 9 years.

The school nurse called me on Thursday morning, two days after Riley was diagnosed and had the two of us come into the health office to do a practice run of how it would go on Friday when Riley was back in school. I hadn't even given him an injection yet. My spouse did them at the Diabetes Clinic/Endo's office while we were there in training all day the day before. That nurse did the pre lunch injection that day (Riley preferred a certified medical person that he had never met over his rookie mom) then she suggested I get practicing. I've done almost every injection in that health room since Friday, September 23.

Riley goes in, tests his bg and I do the injection and write the date, bg number and insulin units given on the clipboard. Until April 2. That was the day Riley got furious about some school work he was missing or forgot to do and had to take care of at the last minute. I have no idea why he was so mad, this happens regularly. But, he went upstairs and did his nighttime bg check and Lantus injection by himself. He's been doing it ever since.

Our CDE had told us that by the time we came to the next 3 month appointment which is this Thursday she wanted Riley wearing his Type 1 diabetes stretchy bracelet thing and him to be doing his own injections at school. I told her that was too much. He would certainly wear his stretchy bracelet thing after I ordered the coolest one we could find, but I would still be going to school everyday and monitoring his insulin injections...do you hear what I am saying, there is no one in that health office to make sure everything is ok? Do you realize he has only been Type 1 for a few months? What's the hurry, he will be doing his own injections for the rest of his life? Have you ever done this before? I believe tears were dripping down my face at this point. I believe this because she handed me a box of tissues.

And here we are three months later and this boy who couldn't even look at the needle when we would draw it up in the glass vial, has his diabetes care under his control. Not my control, but his control. That is one Great thing.

I still wish I could give myself the injections for him. Sort of like we were still connected by the umbilical cord. I wish my pancreas could function for both of us. But I am so proud of him.

Diabetes Blog Week - Day One "Find A Friend"

I have been reading blogs regularly since my son, Riley was diagnosed (8 months ago). I found immediate comfort in finding a great blog then reading all the blogs that that original blogger reads. It all started for me at  Sara's http://momentsofwonderful.com/.

Then I stumbled upon Kerri Sparling's http://www.sixuntilme.com/. I didn't realize that she was some whiz-bang-long-time-maybe-original-diabetes-blogger-professional. It was her Diabetes Dictionary that I found in a google search looking up words diabetes bloggers always use like SWAG and bolus (we're MDI'ers). It had me laughing out loud and reading the entire dictionary to my husband who was trying to work. I just re-read it and still find it hilariously funny see: diabadass, daibetus and diablandic. Now I never miss her blogs thanks to RSS feed or whatever technical thing that sends me her updates as soon as they arrive.

And that all lead me to my ALL TIME FAVORITE, can't stop talking like she blogs, read it in the middle of the night in case I missed it during daylight hours http://bigfootchildhavediabetes.com/. Everyone needs some Katy in their life!

These blogs made a difference in my life. The more I read other people's blogs, I see the same impact they've made on me in other's lives. Specifically, I see hope and find courage. My perspective is so limited, I only know what we were taught in Diabetes Education classes and how it went for Riley's bg numbers last week or that time in October...I'm so grateful for the blogosphere lessons I'm learning and the experience I'm gaining through someone else I have never met.

It would be embarrasing if I saw any of these women in real life...I may be arrested as a too-long-hugger or something creepy like that.

Undefeated and Defeated

Spring soccer will not defeat me!


He hates it when his hair looks like that
-I couldn't resist

It started with me laying in bed this morning. It always starts that way. "Riley don't take any insulin with your breakfast," I say. He says, "Dad told me to do just one unit." (half of his normal dosage) "No, none" I reply.

8:15 am before the game 86 mg/dL
He played the entire first game, 90 minutes. And scored a goal. His team actually won this game, first and only win of the 6 week season.

10 am just before the second game grudgingly tested  253 mg/dL
I turned to my spouse and said something like woo that's high BUT that number is a dropping as we speak.

11:30 am - tested before eating lunch  149 mg/dL 
The second 90 minute game dropped his blood glucose by more than 100. He had a salad and two large slices of pizza with one unit of insulin.  BTW, his team lost that game in similar fashion to every other Saturday morning these past six weeks, except Riley had another goal.

1 pm - heading to the shower, laughing and yelling and possibly dancing around ridiculously. Spouse and I looked at each other and then I ran down to get his kit. Riley said NOOOOOO! and jumped in the shower. I set up the lancet poker thingy (and while cleaning out the kit, poked my finger with a stray lancet, but can't complain right...once every 4 months I injure myself with a lancet or sharp somehow, not eight times a day minimum like he has to)
When he got out of the shower  68 mg/dL 

Diabetes Blog Week

May 14 -20 is Diabetes Blog Week
Join in the fun this week. Come on, everybody's doin it!

Karen at Bitter Sweet is hosting her 3rd Annual D-Blog Week. Everyone participating will blog each day about a set diabetes related topic. Everyday for a week (thus the title). Her blog shows the list of everyone in the DOC - Diabetes Online Community who is signed up to participate. So readers can gain all kinds of insight and great stories from a whole slew of people blogging their experiences having diabetes or caring for a child with diabetes, etc...

Sibling

Riley's sibling, Reid was in the car with four other girls her age heading to a special choir practice about 30 minutes away from home. She was looking through the camoflauge bag I keep in the car with snacks, glucose tabs and juice boxes (just in case). I heard her say, "I wish I could taste a glucose tab." This caught my attention. I watched her in the rear view mirror answer all the questions that were aroused by her comment. She explained that her brother's blood sugar might or could go low (another child interrupted asking "Is it supposed to be high?") She continued saying that if it went to a number like 67, he would need to eat something sweet like the glucose tabs and added that no, your blood glucose isn't supposed to be high either. I added that I bet those glucose tabs probably taste like Smarties. 

I was proud of her. The way she described what she sees of her brother's diabetes care and control was matter of fact. She knew the answers. It took me back to that first week after diagnosis. None of us thought we would emotionally make it through. Now look at us!

We interrupt your regularly sceduled programming...

Last night, when Riley was doing his slow-acting insulin (Lantus) injection before bed, he realized at the too-late moment that he injected his fast-acting insulin (Novolog) instead. He was distraught! We assured him everything would be just fine. We went straight to the notebook we compiled from 20 hours of Diabetes Education. I remember the lesson about insulin mistakes, ie forgettting to inject insulin, injecting low-acting instead of slow-acting, injecting the wrong amount. I said out-loud in class after hearing a description of one of the errors, "That's impossible." "No it's not!" our educator replied. Sho-nuf.

The notes say to eat enough carbs to cover the insulin. How bad can that be? Riley had a little cup of ice cream (15 g), a cookie (I assume 15g-threw away the packaging too soon) and we added a tablespoon of chocolate syrup (15 g) for good measure. We made him promise not to make this mistake on purpose next time!

The question remained. Do we give the regularly scheduled Lantus after this? The notes didn't cover this question. Spouse says he read somewhere not to mix insulins-we figure that an injection of Novolog followed by an injection of Lantus an hour later constituted a mixing of insulins. I thought wait until morning to give the Lantus injection. But today is the beginning of the 30 Hour Famine!

So, we skipped it all together. He woke up with a blood glucose of 104 mg/dL. He totally carb loaded for breakfast this morning. The four us went out breakfast before school to use a Denny's gift card Riley got as a joke for Christmas. What's the joke? We were in California last year and while my spouse was working, I wanted to take the kids to LegoLand. Denny's in CA had a coupon for getting a kid in free for every adult pass purchased. So we drove to San Diego one morning for breakfast. Riley ordered himself the Make Your Own Grand Slam with turkey bacon (two orders of it). It might have been the highlight of the week's vacation.

 



Disaster avoided. We think. We'll see how high his numbers are today with the long-acting insulin on board. Then to further muddy the water (or blood), the fasting. It should be interesting. Tune in next time...

30 Hour Famine fundraiser

This weekend is the 30 hour Famine fundraiser I mentioned last month. Riley waffled about actually doing it. As of today, he is in.

Starting after lunch today, he will be on a juice (how does a diabetic drink juice?) diet for the next, you guessed it, 30 hours.

I'll let you know next week how it goes.

Spring Soccer

Saturday, we attempted to do it all. We all got up early for Riley's spring soccer game at 8:30 am, he had to be there at 8:15. Everyone was dressed in their wedding attire for the wedding we would be attending an hour and a half south of our home at 11 am. 

We were rushing so Riley had a cereal bar, some fruit and chocolate almond milk on the way to the game along with his morning Novolog injection of 2 units. He played the entire game except for the last five minutes, we couldn't be late for a wedding! He jumped in the the 3rd row of seats so he could wash up and dress during the trip with some privacy.

We walked into the wedding with the program hander-outers right behind us and then the matron of honor right behind the hander-outers, then of course the bride, my aunt -who looked so wonderful walking next to her son dressed in his military uniform, I could barely stifle the tears.

I don't think the wedding was very long, but it started right on time. 11 am. The kids popped up as soon as the wedding was over to see cousins once or twice removed. Ten seconds later, Riley said, "I think I'm low...I'm dizzy."  Do you have your kit? Of course not! Not when we really need it. But when we arrived at the wedding, I grabbed the pack of Sprees my husband had bought right after dropping Riley and I off at the soccer game.  He also picked up a Gatorade for Riley to drink during half-time to keep his glucose from plummeting. Tim, spouse, ran to the car to get the glucose monitor ("the kit") and I gave Riley 7 Sprees. He was still shaky, so they headed down to find some additional food and test his bg. He was 65 mg/dL. I wondered if that was with some Spree sugar, had it been lower?

All sugared up

We're a little rusty with organized sports and diabetes. Riley was diagnosed during his school's fall soccer season. That was a Tuesday, he was back at practice on Friday. In the beginning, he was getting a lot of long-acting Lantus and way more fast acting Novolog (compared to now). The lows were tough. Each time, I was grateful that we were home together and could experience it together. We would learn how to handle them and be just fine.

We followed the under 70 mg/dL plan: test, 15 g fast acting carb, 15 minute wait, test again. Repeat if necessary. I'll never forget the first one. It was the first Saturday after being diagnosed. We were outside in the backyard kicking the soccer ball back and forth. When I kicked it out of his reach, I wouldn't let him run and get the ball (Our CDE's had a good laugh). I was so worried about how exercise would effect his glucose.  After ten minutes of playing and me asking how he felt ten times, Riley felt weird, sweaty and then hungry. So he tested. He was 45.

The second time was also very memorable. It was the following Friday. Riley had a game after school, then we all met at our favorite Mexican restaurant to celebrate something, I can't remember what. My husband's parents, my mom and brother. 8 of us squeezed into the round corner booth-my usual favorite spot. We stayed an hour after eating, just chatting. When we got home, Riley was running around wrestling with his uncle. Hootin and hollerin in his skivvies. About 5 minutes into this ridiculously funny moment, Riley said, "Woooo, I'm dizzy." My husband and I looked at each other. The light had already gone off. This is what LOW looks like. He laid on his bed and tested - 34 mg/dL. This was at the same moment one of the scariest and funniest moments of my life. Riley was talking to the dog (begging Reuben to bring him a snack), he was talking to his pancreas (congratulating it for producing some insulin), he was chewing Skittles. My husband was calling the CDE-triage number. We had been instructed to notify them anytime his number was below 50 in these first few weeks.

The lesson had been learned. He tested before each practice or game, ate a 15 g snack if his number was below 120. Then after the game (during, if necessary), he tested again. But the most important glucose test would always be about two hours after soccer. That was when his glucose would bottom out.

So...Spring soccer is requiring us to dust off our lessons learned. Decreasing his Novolog by a unit at breakfast is the first change we will make this Saturday for the double header soccer game. Additional testing between games, too. And Gatorade/snacks as needed.

Old Insulin

They say you can only keep the Novolog and Lantus pens a month.

We meticulously write dates on each pen as Riley goes through them. We regularly throw away 15-20 units because the four weeks is over but the insulin isn't. But last week, we just kept using the Lantus before bed time even though it was a week past due. His morning blood glucose number was a little low 86. I knew "they" were just trying to get us to buy more insulin, this stuff doesn't really get old. Then lunch rolled around, bg 168. Hmmm, that's odd. Maybe Riley had a pretzel rod in Math class for getting a 100 on your assignment. It is the last class before lunch and Mrs. Math Teacher really does give pretzel rod treats. At dinner, his bg was 172. I'm gonna have to think about that one. Then bedtime again, bg 251. Well, I guess the honeymoon is over...

Next day, we do it all over again. Before breakfast bg 113, lunch 202, dinner 122 and bedtime 234.

Then it hits me! It's the old Lantus.

Proceed with new Lantus.

Before breakfast bg119, lunch 97, dinner 88, bedtime 128.

Why would I think I knew more than "they"?

Bed and Breakfasting

We aren't really B&B people...but this weekend was our 5th visit. People like to give us the bed and breakfast gift certificates. Our first was the week after we got married almost 16 years ago. We didn't honeymoon, we B&B'd in Lancaster, PA. This one a gift from my husband's grandmother.

Next was our 10th anniversary. My mother gave us a night at the 5 Gables in St. Michael's, MD-my favorite so far and she watched the kids to boot.

Then we went to one in Middleburg, Va. I can't recall the name of that one but it's just beautiful there.  The highlight of that trip was a Morrissey concert at Wolf Trap, my husband was a big Smiths fan.

Time before last was Hamannasset in Chadds Ford, PA given to us from my brother and his wife as a Christmas gift bonus for all the help we gave them for their wedding a month earlier.

Finally, that brings us to this past weekend. We had two nights at Fairville Inn in Chadds Ford again. Lovely place and just a stone's throw from Longwood Gardens which we did all morning on Saturday.

In the newer Conservatory - hanging hydrangea balls...just beautiful



Pierce-du pont's 1st Conservatory in his original house. ahhhhh Wisteria

And to complete the pattern, this one was also a gift (groupon) from my brother and his wife for Christmas 2011.

That's a lot of gift certificate giving-I'm grateful. We had a wonderful time together. I didn't even worry about our kids who were staying with my husband's parents.

Candy, Cake, Cookies and Coins

This past week began with Riley's sister's birthday celebration with half of our extended family and Eclair Cake to top off the evening.

Then three days later, his sister's birthday party with her friends. Riley took a friend along, too. It would have been unbearable to drag a 13 year old to his little sister's 10th birthday party with 8 other girls. It was an awesome trampoline party, not a blow up bounce place, but a building with huge 20-trampolines-sewn-together-huge trampoline for free style jumping, then another for a humongous game of dodge ball while jumping and finally another for racing with another jumper into a big pit of foam and back! This evening was topped off with my personal favorite Dairy Queen's ice cream cake, you know the one with the chocolate crumbles in the middle. I didn't eat any though..on a no carb diet. And if this blog were about me, I would tell you I also didn't have the pizza because this is a serious competition with my husband kind of no carb diet.



DQ ice cream cake.
I think she is still jumping

Then it was Saturday already and we got together with the other half of our extended family for traditional Easter fun...but they gave dollar bills in their Easter eggs. I need to mention here that my brother and his wife have two kids, three and 1/2 and 20 months, and for my kids they got Hard to Find Eggs that looked like the landscape of the backyard-stone colored, grass colored, old leaf/dirt colored-it took 40 minutes to find them all with parental help. It was awesome! Not to mention how thoughtful to put money in those eggs instead of candy. I also avoided candy for his kids. I went with raspberry yogurt covered raisins.

This brings us to Sunday and Easter dinner at the extended family #1's house (first mentioned above). They too were thoughtful and put coins in the eggs and then gave the kids fishing poles as gifts with a bag of chocolate covered peanuts with no sugar added (carb count: 1/4 c = 15 g). There were some Peeps and chocolate Easter shaped candy, but they're having little pieces of them after dinner this week.

Moral of the story:  what looked a like a crazy week of carb counting, balancing and added exercise to keep it all kosher (pun intended) ended up pretty great! We have wonderfully supportive and thoughtful families. We are grateful for them.

Blog Discovery and Helping Others

Tonight, Riley found out this blog exists. He couldn't believe I had done such a thing...And without his input. He was appauled and had a huge grin on his face at the same time. He doesn't like the picture I picked. He will be working on updating it with a much cooler or "boss" one.

Riley was introduced to 30 Hour Famine at our church youth group last night. He's excited about "Going Hungry So Other's Don't Have To". But how does a kid with diabetes go without food for 30 hours? I called our CDE and they very quickly got back to me and commended Riley for his desire to help others while sacrificing his own comfort. And informed me that he could definitely participate and to use glucose tablets (considered medicinal, not food) and to check his blood glucose every 3 to 4 hours.

If anyone has experience doing these fundraising events where no food is involved, please let me know. Interesting predicament, normally it's all the food at events that causes much thought to figure out how to dose insulin when not during meal times (ie birthday parties, club meetings etc). Since Riley doesn't use a pump, we usually do less insulin and food at the previous meal and hope the event includes physical activity to cover the snacking.

Diagnosis Day 6 Months Ago Today

It was a Tuesday.
He hadn't slept well and complained of being so tired. His father and I decided to let him stay home from school that day to let him get some much needed rest. The aching legs were waking him up several times a night lately. Two weeks earlier, he had a bout of thirst like we had never seen before. He couldn't get enough water. He was keeping a collection on his desk of the water bottles he was going through. And when he wasn't guzzling water, he was making trips to the bathroom. The predictor of our future, my husband, said, "Riley, we're going to keep an eye on this, these are classic symptoms of diabetes." This immediately sent him into hysterics. He didn't know much about diabetes, but he knew he did not want to stick his fingers multiple times a day. The ruckus prompted me to come upstairs to see what was going on.  I immediately tried to calm Riley down by saying, "Of course you don't have diabetes, Dad just means we need to keep an eye on you and see how you feel tomorrow. Don't worry!" I mean, I'm the one who jumps to conclusions, not my stable and thoughtful husband. What in the world?

The day before, Riley had weighed himself. Coincidentally, he was trying to get in shape and losing weight was important to him. He called out after leaving our bathroom where the scale was that he was down to 119. We congratulated him. As soon as he left the room, I got my calendar out to see when his last yearly well-check had been....August 4th. It was September 19th. He had lost 16 pounds in six weeks.

Riley was excited to get a day off from school, we never let him stay home unless he was pretty sick. And he was almost never sick. I ran to the basement (so he wouldn't hear me) and called the pediatrician. I explained to the nurse that I was bringing my son in because I thought he had caught a bug. I described the difficult sleep and maybe I could hear a cough coming on. Then I said, "While he is there, I want the doctor to check him for diabetes."  I described all the symptoms we had noted in the last two weeks: weight loss, the bout with excessive thirst/urinating, and leg cramps that wake him up at night. I went on further to share that it was important not to freak him out-he excites easily-I should know...this apple didn't fall far from the tree.

The doctor was fantastic. He had me believing that cutting desserts and laps during soccer practice for the past month were probably the culprits behind the weight loss and leg cramps. All he needed was some magnesium or something like that...Then, right before we were all done. He said it was a good idea to get a urine sample... just in case.

Envelope Stuffing for JDRF Central Pennsylvania

Last Friday I helped stuff envelopes for the JDRF Gala event here in Central Pennsylvania. The local chapter office is pretty near my home and I thought it was a great opportunity to do something to help as well as meet other T1D families.

Then I met Lyle. He is 66 years old and was diagnosed with T1D during his sophomore year of college at Penn State University almost 50 years ago!

You recall my last post about getting thoughts on diabetes honeymoon, right? Well, I jumped at the chance to talk to the other two volunteers about theirs. Lyle had never even heard the term. And the other volunteer said her son had been diagnosed 1 1/2 years ago and he was still producing some insulin! I was ecstatic. Actually, hopeful is a better word for what I was feeling. I announced that it would be our family goal, I'm sure if we really tried we could make this honeymoon last another year...(I do realize that trying and wishing has nothing to do with how long the pancreas produces insulin).

Then Lyle said that he was also still producing some insulin...after 50 years! I don't know what that means, but it was a wonderful conversation and Lyle gave me permission to share his story here on my "brand new" blog. He was wrestling at Penn State and during a routine physical they found not exactly right blood glucose numbers. He was about 18 years old at the time. The campus doctor told him that most doctors would not immediately put him on insulin, but that she thought it would help save the pancreas function that still existed. That was 1964.  Lyle just got a pump last year and loves it.

Honeymooning-diabetes style

I love the honeymoon. I hate diabetes but at least we're being slowly lowered into the depths. How long does it last? Everyone is different, right?

I've noticed from all the D-blogs I obsess over (as in locate their diagnosis story and cry) that the younger the child is diagnosed, the shorter - if any at all - the honeymoon lasts.

Riley had just celebrated his 13th birthday a month earlier. Now we're almost to the 6 month mark.

It's Been Too Long

I began this blog as a result of an outcry from friends and family who wanted to know the status of my dad's health after he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer back in 2007. It was difficult to even look at this blog after he died on June 2, 2009 ( see below).

But now I'm a blog-reader addict. And every now and then I get so inspired by the stories I read-mostly Type 1 diabetes blogs - that I want to revive my original blog and start again.

So here it is. Wish me luck!