Quartly Endo Visit

On Monday we had El's quarterly doctors appointment with her specialist.  We did see the nurse practitioner this time, whom I really like!  Unfortunately her A1C went up from 8.3 last visit to 8.5, but we can deal with that. 

The Endos keep pushing us to give her shots sooner when she's eating and even want us to give it to her before she starts eating.  I understand the logic behind it, but lets just say that I'm not excited about it.  And the main thing that I can't get through to them is that she's not a predictable eater so how can I predict how much insulin to dose her with?  If she eats more than I think she will, then she's still going to run high, and if she doesn't eat as much, then she's going to go low and I'll have to force her to eat something.  It's times like this when the pump is looking better and better! 

Ah, the pump debate!  It's not that I'm opposed to it, it's just that it makes my stomach hurt just thinking about inserting, removing, and having a port in her stomach.  =(   I keep hoping that Gaven gets a pump soon so that Staci can show me first hand how it works. 

One bad thing that did come out of the Endo appointment is that Ellee is developing lumps in her arms from the shots.  Injections should be done in a different location every time if possible because the insulin causes the fat cells to either break down or harden, causing lumps.    We have 4 areas to chose from to give injections... Upper Arms, Thighs, Upper Butt (or Hips), and Stomach.  The stomach is the ideal area because it's closer to the digestive system and is absorbed quicker, there for working quicker.  El has always preferred her arms, but has been letting us do her thighs.  For some reason she fights us when we suggest her hip.  I refuse to consider her stomach, at this point in time, for a couple of reasons:  1) she has no fat in her stomach!  (Yes, I will admit that I'm jealous of her little, flat abs!) and 2) when she goes on the pump, we will run out of spots on her stomach to rotate though, so I see the stomach as a "pump area only".  My only hope is that she will let us use her hips soon, because it will only be a matter of time before we face the same lumping problem with her thighs. 

On a positive note: We are nearing the end of our last bottle of Humalog so we can finally switch over to the Novalog Pen!  The pen will be much more convenient and quicker, plus we won't look like a bunch of drug addicts with all of the syringes!