New Year - New Diabetes??

Screw Diabetes.

That's a direct quote from me after yelling at Riley that he needs to learn the lesson of insulin dosing before he eats! We just ate dinner celebrating my father-in-law's 71st birthday. Riley had his own pizza and Caesar salad. Before dinner he tested, bg was 293. *Important background information: For lunch he had a pretzel from a kiosk at the mall and a bottle of water. Then we divided and conquered Christmas returns and birthday gift shopping. Riley went with his dad and Reid with me. I assumed he tested and dosed. I was wrong. He did neither. When we got home from the mall at 4 pm, bg was 351. He corrected with 5 units of insulin (1:50).

Back to the story: I told Riley not to correct for the 193 he was over his goal because we already made that correction an hour and a half ago. Just dose for the pizza was the plan. Riley was sitting at the other end of the table with his Grumps (birthday boy) and Aunt and Uncle. When we were walking out, Tim asked me if Riley dosed. I thought..."that's a weird question, I was sitting across from you, four people and a diagonal line across from Riley, how would I know and of course he did". That's a lot of thinking without saying a word in reply.

Then we're driving away to go eat more carbs to celebrate the birthday. Tim asks Riley if he did his insulin. The reply? no

I freaked out. Something along the lines of ..."Your number before dinner was high, like 293, and then you proceeded to eat a carb heavy meal of pizza? Have you lost your mind? How could you not have dosed? You are going to test right this minute and see what your number is. That will teach you a lesson".

Bg? 223

How could 5 units of insulin at 4 pm with a bg of 351 bring his sugar down to 223 with pizza added to the mix over an hour before? Oh yes I thought of that, too. Pizza has a delayed rise...But no way. Who got taught a lesson here?

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...