April 21, 2010 - Ellee's one year anniversary from her diagnosis date. I know it sounds odd to celebrate it, but I've heard of others doing just this and I think that it's a pretty good idea! We have to celebrate the small victories, and one big victory - that we still have our Ellee!!! A year ago, two hospitals and an ambulance ride later, we still have our Ellee!!!
Our nightly ritual is to try to read at least one book before the girls go to bed. Some times it gets too late and we don't have time, and other nights we'll read for an hour! Thursday night Dani had fell asleep so it was just El and I to read. We crawled into my bed and chatted for a little bit before I started the book. I was pretty emotional, for many reasons, this week. While I usually try not to cry around the girls, some times I can't help it! Monday was 11 years since my grandpa passed away, Tuesday was Ellee's 5th birthday (wow, 5 years!), and Wednesday was her 1 year diagnosis day. With all of that, on Thursday night as Ellee and I laid in bed, I told her "you know, you've had diabetes for a whole year now! I am so proud of you for being so strong and cooperating so well! I really appreciate that you handle this as well as you do!" I started to tear up and couldn't say anything else, but she got this big smile on her face and shook her head yes (like she does when she gets really excited about something). It brought a huge smile to my face, I said thank you and she gave me a great big hug!
That is what is so amazing about all of this... she is such a strong person and has taken it all in stride and not let any of it phase her! Why can't everyone be like that?! It's funny that most people look up to an older person to model themselves off of, but after living with and seeing other Type 1 kids, I admire them so much! Sure, I still have to fight her every once in a while to do a shot, or she doesn't like that I make her do a leg instead of an arm, but she's over it very quickly!
Things we've learned in the past year:
1. Type 1 Diabetes is still kind of a tabo thing, but many, many people have it and get it.
2. After Ellee's diagnosis, I am finding that more and more people I know have it and I didn't even realize it.
3. The cause of T1D is unknown, but learning the symptoms of it for early detection are important.
4. Getting the word out can help others, 2 other people close to us have been diagnosed since, and the one has credited us with helping her get her son to the hospital as early as she did!
5. This disease sucks! And while the first couple of months are rough, even horrible, things do get better.
6. Younger siblings do get jealous of the attention, and are often very curious of all the supplies!
7. A younger sibling will always want to check their sugar too, and usually at an in-opportune time!
8. There are terms associated with T1D that when said out in public can raise eyebrows (see this post!)
9. You find yourself saying things with out thinking and realize that never in a million years you'd ever think that you'd be saying it to your child, let alone a 4 year old, such as "Lets do shots!" or "come on and poke yourself, your meter's running!"
10. Kids are very resilient. As an adult, you can't imagine giving yourself a shot, let along multiple times a day, yet these kids do it 3-5 times a day and think nothing of it!
The biggest thing that I've learned from all of this, and the thing that I think has pulled us through all of this the most is that we have to control the T1D, not let it control us! I'm very proud of how well we are doing in this aspect! It is a few extra steps we have to take in our lives. One day I hope that Isolet Transplants will come to the fore-front so that these kids get relief. Knowing how strong as these kids are, I believe that they will push and strive for it, even if they are the ones who go into the medical field and develop it themselves!
Happy D-Day Ellee!!!
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Monday, April 12, 2010
One Year Checkup
On Monday, April 5th, we went in for Ellee's one year check up!
We didn't have the best morning, including a point in which I didn't think my car was going to make it to Dublin. After calling to let them know we were running behind, we finally got there and had a fairly good visit!
They were fairly happy with her numbers over all. Her A1C was 8.3 (they like it to be around 7-8). Her numbers have been higher than what they should be, but they were fairly consistent with very few lows. We did ask about getting a prescription for an insulin pen and the nurse came in and demonstrated one for us! I will admit that I was nervous about them after giving Gaven a shot with his. For some reason it seemed like the needle on his pen was twice as long as the syringes, but after seeing the demo pen, they almost looked smaller! The girls got a kick out of watching us learn to "bleed the air out" of a new cartridge of insulin! To do this, you have to set the pen to 2 units and press the "inject" button. You do this into the air to push any air out of the cartridge before the first use and it shoots a stream of insulin (or in this case of demonstration it was saline), but the girls thought it was just as fun as trying to run through a sprinkler or catch bubbles!
The doctor came in to go over our log book with us. There really isn't anything worse than having a doctor "yell" at you for doing something you didn't know you weren't suppose to do! She did politely tell us to not adjust the long acting insulin because it takes a few days of consistent dosing to see any results. Josh and I talked afterwords and he admitted that he did the same thing, he just didn't write it down in the log book! To us, our thinking was rational so why not give it a try?! Now we know!
The yearly blood draw afterwords, however, was not so pleasant. =( We went next door for this and they had a wonderful play area in the waiting room! Which was nice because the girls were going stir crazy after sitting in the doctors office for 2 hours! We got called back in a matter of minutes, Dani was ready to follow the nurse, but Ellee was entranced in the toy! Josh told Dani that she has to stay here and play and without looking up El says "I'm staying here to play too!" I wish I could have let her, but couldn't. We did have a great nurse that worked as fast as she could with minimal pain. Ellee really hasn't had that many blood draws, but she knew that she got that stretchy cord wrapped around her arm and tried to do that herself while the nurse was getting ready! What followed however wasn't not so fun or cute. They had a sheet of different bandages for her to choose from. After blood donations and draws during my pregnancies, I learned that I was okay as long as I didn't watch them insert the needle. Using this, I tried to get El to concentrate on the sheet and deciding what she wanted. The nurse, being as good as she was, recognized this and inserted the needle. Unfortunately, it still hurt and she screamed, then cried. It was over fast, but in the rush and getting El to calm down, I forgot to grab the prescriptions and print out from the doctors when I grabbed my purse and the diabetes bag!
We went over to Cici's for a late lunch and I got a phone call from a 614 area code and immediately answered it. Once the nurse said who she was, it immediately dawned on me that I didn't grab the papers! Oops!!! Thankfully we were still in town and not halfway home!
Over all, we had a very good visit! It's been almost a year since diagnosis and I have to admit that we are all handling this very well! Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't wish Type 1 on my worst enemy, but you definitely learn how strong you really are when faced with it.
We didn't have the best morning, including a point in which I didn't think my car was going to make it to Dublin. After calling to let them know we were running behind, we finally got there and had a fairly good visit!
They were fairly happy with her numbers over all. Her A1C was 8.3 (they like it to be around 7-8). Her numbers have been higher than what they should be, but they were fairly consistent with very few lows. We did ask about getting a prescription for an insulin pen and the nurse came in and demonstrated one for us! I will admit that I was nervous about them after giving Gaven a shot with his. For some reason it seemed like the needle on his pen was twice as long as the syringes, but after seeing the demo pen, they almost looked smaller! The girls got a kick out of watching us learn to "bleed the air out" of a new cartridge of insulin! To do this, you have to set the pen to 2 units and press the "inject" button. You do this into the air to push any air out of the cartridge before the first use and it shoots a stream of insulin (or in this case of demonstration it was saline), but the girls thought it was just as fun as trying to run through a sprinkler or catch bubbles!
The doctor came in to go over our log book with us. There really isn't anything worse than having a doctor "yell" at you for doing something you didn't know you weren't suppose to do! She did politely tell us to not adjust the long acting insulin because it takes a few days of consistent dosing to see any results. Josh and I talked afterwords and he admitted that he did the same thing, he just didn't write it down in the log book! To us, our thinking was rational so why not give it a try?! Now we know!
The yearly blood draw afterwords, however, was not so pleasant. =( We went next door for this and they had a wonderful play area in the waiting room! Which was nice because the girls were going stir crazy after sitting in the doctors office for 2 hours! We got called back in a matter of minutes, Dani was ready to follow the nurse, but Ellee was entranced in the toy! Josh told Dani that she has to stay here and play and without looking up El says "I'm staying here to play too!" I wish I could have let her, but couldn't. We did have a great nurse that worked as fast as she could with minimal pain. Ellee really hasn't had that many blood draws, but she knew that she got that stretchy cord wrapped around her arm and tried to do that herself while the nurse was getting ready! What followed however wasn't not so fun or cute. They had a sheet of different bandages for her to choose from. After blood donations and draws during my pregnancies, I learned that I was okay as long as I didn't watch them insert the needle. Using this, I tried to get El to concentrate on the sheet and deciding what she wanted. The nurse, being as good as she was, recognized this and inserted the needle. Unfortunately, it still hurt and she screamed, then cried. It was over fast, but in the rush and getting El to calm down, I forgot to grab the prescriptions and print out from the doctors when I grabbed my purse and the diabetes bag!
We went over to Cici's for a late lunch and I got a phone call from a 614 area code and immediately answered it. Once the nurse said who she was, it immediately dawned on me that I didn't grab the papers! Oops!!! Thankfully we were still in town and not halfway home!
Over all, we had a very good visit! It's been almost a year since diagnosis and I have to admit that we are all handling this very well! Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't wish Type 1 on my worst enemy, but you definitely learn how strong you really are when faced with it.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Kindergarten Screening
I can't believe how fast time goes! Seems like Ellee was just born yesterday, and now she's ready to start full time school! She's been in preschool for less than a year and a half, for just a couple hours 4 days a week. Preschool has been very manageable with diabetes because she eats and gets a shot before school and snacks are kept to around 15 carbs or less. The only thing they have to watch for is signs that she's low, which equates to watching to see if she doesn't feel good or isn't acting like her normal self. This is the beginning of April and there has only been one or two instances of her getting low, so I have to commend Grandma and Mrs. M & Miss H for the great job of watching and controlling since I can't be there!
But now it's time for Ellee to start "big kid school"! I'm excited about this, but with her medical condition, I am an absolute WRECK! When we were at Children's Hospital (almost a year ago) all I could think about is "how are we going to handle full time school???" Since I moved, I've been looking into different school districts and checking on their nursing staff and how they handle T1D children. We found out that when Indian Lake built their new elementary school, they included a very nice nurses station and have a full time nurse. At the time we were told that she has around 5 T1D kids! This is great news because most rural schools only have a nurse that is part of the county and visits different school.
Our big day was Tues, March 23rd at 5pm! I can't tell you how nervous I was about if she knew what they needed her to know! After being assured by some friends on facebook that she'd be okay, I felt much better going into it! Once we got there, we signed her in and off she went with one of the high schoolers - not shy at all, but excited to see where these big kids were taking her!
The school nurse was talking with all the parents one on one, so when it was our turn, we headed over to her table! As I went to sit down, she stood up to shake my hand and introduce herself. I said my name and "we are going to get to know each other VERY well this year!". She gave me an odd look and I said "Elizabeth has Type 1 Diabetes". It use to choke me up every time I said that out loud. I can't describe how hard it is to admit that you don't have a perfectly healthy child. But I am over-coming that and am now able to say it with a steady voice and dry eyes. Mrs. M smiled and immediately wanted to know more, pencil in hand and took lots of notes as we chatted!
As we wrapped up our conversation, she asked permission to tell the staff that they have another diabetic in the pre-school staff meeting and I immediately agreed that she can... and should! Like I told her, I think that EVERYONE should be aware of the symptoms because I believe that catching it as early as possible may increase the length of the honeymoon phase! Since teachers are with kids for 6 hours a day, they are likely to see the warning signs.
We also talked with the principal of the school and was in agreement that before school starts there will be a meeting with him, the nurse and her teacher to go over an action plan for the year. I can't even begin to express how much of a relief it is to know that they are so willing to work with us! I hear of so many people who get nothing but grief from the school about their child's care and hope that we never have to deal with that!
But now it's time for Ellee to start "big kid school"! I'm excited about this, but with her medical condition, I am an absolute WRECK! When we were at Children's Hospital (almost a year ago) all I could think about is "how are we going to handle full time school???" Since I moved, I've been looking into different school districts and checking on their nursing staff and how they handle T1D children. We found out that when Indian Lake built their new elementary school, they included a very nice nurses station and have a full time nurse. At the time we were told that she has around 5 T1D kids! This is great news because most rural schools only have a nurse that is part of the county and visits different school.
Our big day was Tues, March 23rd at 5pm! I can't tell you how nervous I was about if she knew what they needed her to know! After being assured by some friends on facebook that she'd be okay, I felt much better going into it! Once we got there, we signed her in and off she went with one of the high schoolers - not shy at all, but excited to see where these big kids were taking her!
The school nurse was talking with all the parents one on one, so when it was our turn, we headed over to her table! As I went to sit down, she stood up to shake my hand and introduce herself. I said my name and "we are going to get to know each other VERY well this year!". She gave me an odd look and I said "Elizabeth has Type 1 Diabetes". It use to choke me up every time I said that out loud. I can't describe how hard it is to admit that you don't have a perfectly healthy child. But I am over-coming that and am now able to say it with a steady voice and dry eyes. Mrs. M smiled and immediately wanted to know more, pencil in hand and took lots of notes as we chatted!
As we wrapped up our conversation, she asked permission to tell the staff that they have another diabetic in the pre-school staff meeting and I immediately agreed that she can... and should! Like I told her, I think that EVERYONE should be aware of the symptoms because I believe that catching it as early as possible may increase the length of the honeymoon phase! Since teachers are with kids for 6 hours a day, they are likely to see the warning signs.
We also talked with the principal of the school and was in agreement that before school starts there will be a meeting with him, the nurse and her teacher to go over an action plan for the year. I can't even begin to express how much of a relief it is to know that they are so willing to work with us! I hear of so many people who get nothing but grief from the school about their child's care and hope that we never have to deal with that!
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