Infusion Set for Two

He was not impressed that I took a cannula bullet with him.

Riley and I went to Pump Education Session on Monday. He was just humoring me by going, but he didn't think it was funny. By the end of the second hour, he was interested in trying out an insulin pump. He even let the Nurse Educator attach an infusion site - not sure if that's the right lingo, is it site or set?

I figured he should try it out on his arm where he prefers to do his injections since he had already tested it out on the belly back in February at our last quarterly Endo appointment.

The nurse was wonderful. We think we met her briefly at our first visit the day after Riley was diagnosed by his pediatrician. This time, she saw Riley's façade of angry teenager and patiently brought out the curious, willing spirit in him.  The doctor was also pretty wonderful. Considering we only see her for about 6 minutes every 4 four months, she actually sat and talked to Riley about how hormones effect insulin absorption. She even had a pat on the back for his mom who teared up when explaining that Riley was so upset by our reactions to high numbers, he'd rather lie. On a side note, his A1c was down. By .1! Yes, that is a point in front of the one. This was the first decrease since he came out of the honeymoon one year ago.

Back to the pump - He thought the t:slim was very cool with it's touch screen technology. Not waterproof, but user friendly was the word on the streets of the pediatric endocrinology clinic. The very coolest thing is that he will be able to try one out at the CWD Friends for Life conference this summer! So, we have officially taken the first step to Insulin Pump attachment: two weeks of food logs to be sure we can carb count with the best of them. Today was day one. If we stay on schedule, we will be able to fax the logs to the nurse on June 17th.

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.