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.