Thank God for Roses

Today we had plans to see a movie with the Roses, you know, Wendy from Candy Hearts.

I had a work event and had Wendy come join us to help me with the kids. I ended up not having to "work" the event, but we still got to go and enjoy Kung Fu Panda II.

For some reason, when Wendy and I get the kids together SOMETHING always happens. And it usually involves my kids.

Remember the Playdate at the Mall from last year?

There was also the time when I went with Wendy and Heidi to the Children's Museum and we lost The Superhero and The Princess a couple of times EACH. One of those times The Princess was down the hall in a completely different room, doing art, like a big girl, and all by herself. Both Wendy, Heidi, and their kids were life savers at the museum helping me find my wandering children.

Then there was the time we were at a Diabetes potluck with several friends (Wendy and Heidi included, along with several others) and I lost The Superhero. There was a Relay for Life going on at the same time and he thought some other kids were headed over to the splash area, which was near the Relay and LOTS of people. Wendy found him down the sidewalk. He came back and I tested him, he was low. As much as I don't want to lose a kid, I really don't want to lose a Diabetic kid who is low. Not a good situation. Thank God Wendy helped find him and bring him back.


Well, today was no different.Never a dull moment when out and about with The Ripley kids.

We all went and enjoyed our movie. Only a few minor issues as my kids fought over which of Wendy's girls they were going to sit next to. They seriously LOVE her kids.

On the way out of the movie The Superhero and The Princess were "playing" with the Dippin' Dots machine. I grabbed one of The Princess' hands and got her to leave the machine. She started crying, I thought her hand just got stuck and "hurt" in the machine. I kissed her hand and thought all would be better. Then Sugar (Wendy's D kiddo) said she thought she saw red on The Princess' fingers. I put her down and took a closer look. Sure enough, she sliced 2 of her fingers. I have NEVER needed bandaids before when out and about, so I didn't have any. Thank God for Wendy again, for having bandaids in her purse. We bandaged up The Princess' fingers and moved on.

We went to McDonald's for lunch with all the kids. The kids went to play while Wendy and I ordered. The Superhero was 77 prior to playing and I gave him a juice before letting him run off. When I came back with the food a few minutes later, I called the kids over. The Princess came right down and started eating. I heard The Superhero saying he was scared. I looked and he was up HIGH in the play structure. I don't know why he does this to himself because he HATES heights and he hates seeing through the "floor". He was NOT coming down. And I feared a low, since he was 77 and I was not sure he was coming up yet.

We ended up sending Sugar in with his meter to check his blood sugar. We wait, she was checking, when we called up to see what his number was....ERROR 5! You have got to be kidding me! Of all the times to get a darn Error 5! Seriously?!

Before I knew it, Wendy was climbing up the play structure to get The Superhero to come down. And once he was down, and Sugar was down, I found out she did a second check and he was 98. Thank God he wasn't low. Thank God for Sugar testing him. And Thank God for Wendy climbing in and "saving" him! Thank you God, for The Roses.

After that, there was NO more climbing high up. Just lots of running around and enjoying time with friends.

And to end our day, we went to The Superhero's Endo appointment. He has gained 2 pounds, grown 1 inch, and his A1C went from 7.3 to 7.6 this time around. With the crazy highs lately and his current sinus infection, I'll take it!



*Disclaimer: I am a mom of a T1 Diabetic child and a child with ITP/Asthma/Dysphagia. I am NOT a doctor. I just play one in real life. Please do not take anything in this post or any other post on this blog as medical advice. If you have questions or concerns of your own, please seek advice from your doctor.*

Are YOU ready...

for OUR best A1C EVER?

All of our HARD work is definitely paying off!

I know it is not supposed to be a report card, BUT it definitely feels like a HUGE accomplishment...


I am SO happy with that number and definitely feel we owe the AWESOME A1C to our switch in insulin from Novalog to Apidra, and of course to OUR hard work being The Superhero's Pancreas.





7.4!


Woo Hoo!

A SUPER sized post

I feel like SO many things have been going on and I have not been very good at updating everyone!


So, here it is, a SUPER sized post to update you all on what has been going on around here.

1) School's OUT for the summer! Ok, so I only get 4 weeks off, 3 weeks now and 1 in July (I scheduled it this way), BUT I am enjoying my time off as much as I can. I go back to work on Monday and have LOTS to get ready for next school year. I will be teaching 5th grade math and the school has never been grade level specific before, so we have LOTS to get done.


And, I know, it is weird that I am a teacher who works in the summer. But honestly, I don't mind. We are not a local school district. We are a charter school run by K12, a corporation. So, it is a little different for us. And I am ok with it. I LOVE my job enough that it does not bother me one bit. I still get some time off and then get to prepare for the upcoming school year.


2) Quarterly Endo visit. We had The Superhero's quarterly endo visit on the 1st of this month. We were super excited to see Dr. D at her NEW office. She was as great as always and I was happy to see that one of the nurses we liked from the old office followed Dr. D to her new office. We discussed The Superhero's tummy aches (he complains A LOT), starting pre-school, Dexcom (LOVE), and of course my report card, aka the A1C. I am happy to report that our A1C only went up from 7.8 to 7.9! I am SO happy because I was expecting a little higher.


3) Blood Work. It has been a year since The Superhero had his annual blood work done and that means getting it repeated. We needed all of his annual labs done which included celiac, which is good since he complains of these tummy aches so often now. And since The Princess has started showing some signs of Diabetes as well (excessive thirst, peeing through diapers, crankiness), I asked to have some blood work done for her too. And our Endo is SO awesome that she ordered the testing for us. SO my mom and I took both kids to a "kid friendly" lab to get the work done. I was very pleased with the lab techs this time. There were two of them to help with both kids. The Superhero sat still for them, but CRIED the whole time. He kept telling me "Mommy, I don't like this! Make them STOP!". It was awful! But, he held still and it was over quickly.

The Princess on the other hand, I thought she was going to hyperventilate! She cried SO much it was crazy! It does not help that they always have a hard time finding her veins. The first tech got two vials of blood out of the first arm. The second tech got the other vials out of the other arm. So, she ended up needing 2 pokes. After they were both done, the second tech (who was much more personable) offered both kids a miniature doughnut. I don't think they get a lot of kids in there and this was from their break room. :) It was SO nice of him to offer and my kids enjoyed their doughnuts a lot! The Superhero talked about his blood work and the doughnut all day!

Some of The Superhero's blood work has come back and was normal. (just the cholesterol, kidney's, and something else, but not the celiac yet) I will do another post once we get all of his results and the results from The Princess' testing.


4) The Dentist. I braved the dentist with both kids, by myself. I usually take my mom with me so I can hand off one kid while the other is being cleaned. She was out of town this time, so I had no choice but to do it alone. The kids were great! The Princess' teeth look great. We need to work on getting rid of her binky, but other than that, she is great! The Superhero looks ok too, but he does have one cavity already that will need to be filled the next time we go in. He was very excited to get a new toothbrush. And I think even more excited that it was GREEN!


5) The potty. The Princess has recently started showing interest in the potty. She tells me in her non-verbal way that she needs to potty. And she has ACTUALLY gone several times now! I made the decision to capitalize on her interest and bought her some panties and some pull ups. We tried the panty thing today, she had MANY accidents. I put a pull up on for the afternoon and we did better. I think I am going to give it a few days of taking her in regularly before completely switching to the panties. BUT I am still in shock that at 19 months old, she is pottying like a BIG girl!

The only problem now is that when I give her an M&M for pottying, The Superhero thinks he needs one when he potties. I had to tell him that when he was learning we gave him his candy then. And now that she is learning, it is her turn to get the candy. It is not working so well. We will see how this goes.

All the HARD work being a pancreas

has PAID OFF!

WOO HOO!

As you may have read in my post from last night, we had The Superhero's quarterly endo appointment this morning. I was a little off on his last A1C, it was 8.2.

I am SO HAPPY to report that his current A1C is 7.8!

Dr. D. was impressed that we could get such an awesome number with The Superhero only being 3 years old and the fact that we don't really see too many lows. I attribute much of our success at being a pancreas to Dexie. We got Dexie in January and I am SO in love! (I will do a post on Dexcom soon, I have been getting LOTS of questions. :) )

He has not gained weight in the last 3 months and has grown a little. We will keep an eye on this, but I am sure he is fine. He had that tummy bug last month that I am sure did not help.

Overall, a GREAT appointment! I can't wait to see our endo at her new office in June. :)

The Curse of the Dreaded Endo Appointment

NOT THIS TIME!

Well, tomorrow is the BIG day. Our 3 month check up with the endo.

Normally I start feeling a little nervous about that darn A1C report card.

Not this time.

For some reason I feel pretty good about The Superhero's numbers lately. I feel we have had decent control of his BG's and have made adjustments as soon as we see needs.

I think have the Dexcom since January has helped A TON. I REALLY hope it reflects in the A1C.

Our last A1C in December was 8.1, which was up from 7.8 in September. I am really hoping to be back in the 7's, but will take what we get.

I will update tomorrow with how it all goes.

Endo Visit

Yesterday was The Superhero’s 3-month visit to the endocrinologist. Our last A1C was 7.8, and it took A LOT to get it there! We had been hovering in the mid 8’s for months. 8.4, 8.5, 8.6, then 8.3.


My husband and I decided we REALLY wanted to get down into the 7’s. So we worked REALLY hard and adjusted like crazy and checked fingers like crazy, and it paid off! We got down to 7.8 in September!


Then we were hit with a major growth spurt, illness that sent The Superhero to the hospital, a trip to Disneyland with HIGH numbers. I KNEW our A1C would not be as good. I was just hoping to not make it to the mid 8’s this time.


We get called back at the endo yesterday. The nurse does the routine stuff. Poke finger for A1C test, put it in the machine, weigh The Superhero, measure The Superhero, check The Superhero’s blood pressure (his LEAST favorite part, he would much rather give blood, weird kid).


We go into the exam room and get visits from our pump start nurse, J. and our favorite nutritionist, A.. We had not seen A. since The Superhero was diagnosed 1 ½ years ago, and I was pregnant with The Princess. She was excited to see how much he had grown and to get to meet The Princess.


A. was the person who I connected with the most when he was diagnosed. She helped keep me sane in the hospital and even after we left. There were times I would call her on her cell phone to talk about carbs, insulin, etc. She is an amazing person and it was really nice to see her yesterday.


Then the Doctor came in. And to say we LOVE Dr. D. would be an understatement! We originally had a different endo in the same office, which we liked, but did not have a personal connection with. Then we heard a ton of good things about this Dr. D and decided we wanted to switch. I knew she had kids of her own that were around my kids’ ages. I knew she would at least understand the 2-year-old issues we were dealing with.


In June, we made the switch! I am SO happy we did! I love her. I feel like I can just talk to her about anything.


So, Dr. D. came in and told us how great we were doing. She said The Superhero had grown a whole inch in the last 3 months and wondered how in the world we could keep his A1C at 8.2! I was surprisingly happy to hear 8.2 and not a higher number. And knowing how much he had grown helped me to accept the number as well.


Of course, I would like it back in the upper 7’s, I also know that we lost enough sleep, made enough changes, and did everything we could as his human pancreas to keep his blood sugar as in range as possible.


I am going to do whatever I can in the next 3 months to get him back in the 7’s. We will see if it happens.


So, no more getting sick, no growing, no Diabetes taking control of his BG’s and we might get there!