DSMA Live: Parents Talk 9/9/13

Tune in tomorrow night, Monday, September 9, 2013 as I guest host DSMA: Parents Talk with Lorriane Sisto of This is Caleb. Our guest will be Bennet Dunlap and the Strip Safely Campaign.

Bennet will just have finished appearing on a panel at the Diabetes Technology Society: 'Verifying the Performance of Blood Glucose Monitors following FDA Clearance.' He will tell us all about what happened on the panel and the current status of the Strip Safely campaign.

Tune in - it's great information about such an important subject for all people living with diabetes.

Evidence of the low

Grace had one heck of a low last night. She was smooth sailing along at a steady 104 BG, heading straight east arrow, on the Dex. I had just looked at it about ten minutes before it happened. Then, she walked into the room. With those eyes, I can always tell by the eyes. The ones that say 'I'm a little dizzy and starting to go out of it, I'm looking around for something but I don't know what...' THOSE eyes.

"I'm feeling a little dizzy" Grace says, as she holds her PDM, strips and 'pricker.'

I press on Dex's little button and up pops 54 BG, with a south arrow. Yeah, the one that points straight down into hell. Cause that's where you are about to go with a low that comes on this fast.

Literally, looking at the Dex graph dots later, it looked like she stepped off a cliff from 104 to 54.
50 point BG drop in about 10 minutes. Whoa, that's some kind of ride.

Beeeeeeep.
31

Did your heart just stop? Cause mine did when I saw that on her PDM. The lowest she has ever gone was 27 and it was not pretty at all. 31 I have never seen, and would like never to see again.

I hit 'suspend' on her PDM and hit '1 hour.'

Thirty one.

Then it happens in slow motion. Grace lays down on my bed and says 'I am really dizzy' and I grab the Juicy Juice that sits in her room, tear off the little straw and puncture it into the little box of juice. All that happens in 5 seconds. She slurps it down, while I open the glucose tabs and hand her two grape ones. She puts them in her mouth and starts to munch, only she tells me that she needs to lay down to chew.

Sweetie, lay down, it's OK, just keep chewing, is what I say to her. Just keep chewing. Chew.

I run downstairs and grab a banana, and a Clif bar.  I know she will eat these.

She wolfs down the banana and the bar. And lays there, opening and closing her eyes steadily. I lay down beside her and hold her hand, stroking it, telling her how lovely she is, how wonderful she is and how it will all be over soon. That the numbers will go up and she will be OK, sometimes it takes a few minutes.

"I'd like half a peanut butter sandwich, and some more juice."

I run down to make the quickest sandwich I can and open another juice. She eats both, sitting up this time, slowly chewing the sandwich. Proclaiming it the best sandwich in the whole world.

As she eats, I write it down, to remember the carbs. Cause with my gal, these carbs will add up, and in an hour or two, she will be sky high if I don't remember what she ate and start adding it up.

So far we are at 90g carbs.
It's been about 20 minutes. Grace rechecks and she is 77 BG.
We lay down and talk, and recheck in about 15 minutes and she is rolling with a 114 BG.
I turn back on her basal insulin in her pump. I give it the respect it deserves.

And with everything in my being, I give her 45g of carbs 'free' in that I don't dose her for them, but I ever so gently input that she had 45g to eat and I hit 'enter' on her pump. Giving her the thing that sent her to the 31 in the first place.

And I keep the list, as a reminder.

D Camp -Year 4

Camp Victory, we have no words. We wait and wait and wait for you all year. The countdown to diabetes camp starts, well, the day after the previous year's week ends. Literally. Grace will say 'Only 364 more days until camp.' Do you know the countdown that needs to happen to count down for an entire year? On second thought, you probably don't want to know. It's looooooooong.

(You can read about Camp Year 1 here. And Camp Year 2 here. And Camp Year 3 here. Enjoy.)

This is Grace's 4th year at camp, and as she puts it 'It's the best week of my whole year, Mom.' And I truly believe it is. Our family would plan a trip to Disney, and if it was the same week as diabetes camp, Grace would choose diabetes camp, hands down. It beats the ocean, Disney and an amusement park, all rolled into one.

She finally moved up to the 11-12 year old cabin. The pink cabin, Sassafras. I love the picture that captures the Sass, because truly it fits.

And of course, the t-shirts rocked. Sweeties with Betes, indeed.

And of course, there is Lily. Lily is the very reason that Grace loves camp. ONE ENTIRE WEEK with her best friend, or as Grace puts it, 'Mom, she's my DBFF, and like my sister.' And they are, two peas in a pod. Outgoing, funny, kind, smart, caring, listeners, and best of best friends. They found each other at this very camp, four years ago. And it was like capturing lightning in a bottle. There had to be a reason we sent Grace to camp that year, and Lily's parents sent Lily, and they ended up in the same cabin, and by the end of 6 days together that first year, decided they were best friends forever. Right from the beginning, to click with someone like that, and only be 8 years old. That's pure lightning, right there.

They swam, they campfired, they ziplined, they ate, they tested, they treated lows, they made mugs in arts and crafts, they went on hikes, they joined the polar bear club and jumped in the pool early one morning. They communed, they made new friends and most of all, they were part of a community that cares deeply about it's members.

There is nothing in the world that comes close to the closing ceremonies, where counselors, leaders, campers, staff and directors of camp sing the closing song 'Waltzing with Bears.' And as they sang it, the words resonated with me:

Raggy bears, shaggy bears, baggy bears too
And there's nothing on earth Uncle Walter won't do
So he can go waltzing, wa-wa-wa-waltzing 
So he can go waltzing with bears

There's nothing on earth that Grace won't do, so she can go to diabetes camp, put her arms around her peers living with Type 1, sway in time to the music, and sing.

Paying for the low

Grace's lows have been endless this past week. I cut her basals by about 30% and still they come on. I increased her I:C ratio incrementally, and still about 2 hours after she eats, she plummets. Not sure what's going on, but it stinks.

There was a low today in Walmart. Yes, Walmart. We rarely ever go, as the one near us is humongous and it overwhelms me - the people, the crowds, someone is always angry there. I find my comfort in Target, not Walmart. Hey, to each his own. But we found ourselves there.

BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ

Dexcom tells me something is seriously wrong. It buzzes against my hip, as I threw it into my purse side pocket as we shopped. I look down and see a 49 with a southeast arrow. She is headed down.

Crap on a stick.

We are near the refrigerated cases. I look for some orange juice, as she would willingly, gladly, drink it. There are no individual bottles of it. Why not Walmart, why? You stock everything under the blessed sun, but drew the line at individual orange juices?

I spy a little 6 pack of Sunny D. Hey, it's either this or some awful chocolate milk by Nestle that I spotted out of the corner of my eye. That will make her sick, so 'no' to that.  It's too far to walk for the diabetes section and the glucose tabs. It's too far to walk for the candy aisle near check out. She's already dizzy and I have no glucose tabs in her kit. Yeah, it's summer, I am a slacker, I know.

I grab the small 6 pack of Sunny D and rip one out of the pack.

Grace looks at me like I came into the Walmart with a ski mask on, a loaded pistol and said 'I'm taking the Sunny D!'

Her eyes widen - 'MOM!!!!!!'

'I'm going to pay for it honey, it's only one of the juices, now here, drink it.'

'I don't want to drink it until we pay for it.'

Are you seriously kidding me? I applaud her honesty, I didn't raise a thief, but for the love of all that is holy - DRINK THE JUICE AND STOP REASONING WITH ME!

She drinks it down in three gulps. And tells me she is dizzy.

'Can you hold onto the cart? I will find us a place to sit.'

And I do, near a pillar, off of an aisle way.

And we sit in Walmart and drink the not-yet-paid-for juice.

And yes, I paid for it later, both in cash and a steady 96, straight-east arrow on that Dex.

Summer and PDM screens

Summer, what is it that makes the days fly? There hasn't been ten minutes where we are not coming, going or doing something. No time for updating blogs, no time for commenting - I missed that whole wonderful day of commenting on blogs, it was 11 PM before I realized it was that day - ugh.

Snapshots of our summer...

Birthday parties in the backyard.

Chilling at the beach.

D meet-ups are the best with Super Kel.

Ice cream on the boardwalk.

And since we have the new Pods and PDM, I am pretty sure that the home screen will, indeed, NEVER read her actual name.

Happy 11th Grace!

Happy 11th Birthday to the rockingest girl I know!

Oh sweet 11, on the way out of the youngsters and into the pre-teens. 

Though you give me a run for my money some days, you are still the brightest star, the one who makes me laugh and smile each and every day.

I am so very proud to be your mother.

I am so very lucky to have you as a daughter.

Have I told you lately how brave and strong and true you are?

You are.

Enjoy 11 sweet girl.

Summer time...

Summer time with D. Waiting to see if you have cooked the insulin on the beach in 90+ degree temperatures. Waiting to see if the Pod falls off while boogieboarding. All good times, huh?! Luckily, we didn't cook anything and luckily, no Pods or Dex were lost to the Atlantic Ocean.

Grace often has kids come up to her and ask her what is on her arm. She dutifully replies 'My medicine' and it seems to suffice for the kids. They end up having an answer and they are satisfied. She gets lots of looks. Most people, I assume, think it's something music-related. An iPod attached to her? Looks like it should have earplugs coming out of it. Come to think of it, that might be a really good joke sometime.

And of course, you need some BIG boluses sometimes.

Good beach days. Relaxing and chilling with D.