E's diagnosis week in pictures...

Oddly enough, we have picture of almost the whole week leading up to E's diagnosis.  It was such a busy week, we had a family reunion, my cousins wedding shower, my son stumbled upon a ground hornets nest and got stung on his face (which totally freaked me out), and we had taken the girls to see Selena Gomez, me and my husband and all of his family went to a country concert together. And all the while preparing for school to start the following week, yes,E's diagnosis came 5 days before school started.  All in all I was very thankful for this busy week at different places we had to go.  In order for E to use the restroom she had to come and tell me first, since we were in strange places and I had to go with her.  Up until this I had no idea how often she was using the restroom.  She was 8 and she is very private and so it wasnt like she told me every time she was using the restroom.  I look back at these pics, and I remember how drawn her face was, she was so thin, even though she didnt lose weight, she wasn't gaining either.  I think back to those few days before when we had no idea what we were about to be hit with, the changes and struggles that we were about to face just with in a matter of days. And we were completly oblivious up until the Selena Gomez concert.  We left the house, she used the restroom, we got downtown, a 45 min drive and she was pleading to use the restroom again, we were on a rain delay because the concert was outside and she went 4 times in 2 hours and then made us stop on the way home to use the restroom also.  That's when all the pieces started coming together... Well here it is our week before diagnosis...

 

 

Above: Here we are during our rain delay at the Selena Gomez concert. E is on the right.

 

 

 Remembering this moment with my husband without the worry of diabetes in the back of our minds.

 

Above: I believe this might have been the day before we went to the Dr.  She really was so thin.

 

Above: The fist day of school, we had now almost gotten through an entire week with diabetes.  Taking her to school this day was worse than the first day of kindergarten.  I really didn't want to leave her there.

 

Below:  And here she is today almost 2 years later... WOW I really need to remember how awesome insulin is... She is a healthy and intelligent girl and Insulin injections save her life!!!

 

 



Defining HIGH...

Recently I have been more aware of how I throw around my diabetic terminology.  More so with the word HIGH. 
A couple of weeks ago, I was going to breakfast with a couple of my girl friends and we were talking about our kids, and they are always so kind and concerned and always ask about E.  I went into how she was and then made the statement, that I hadnt slept alot because she has been HIGH all night.   They are all very aware of the diabetic Highs and Lows, but for just a quick second they got a strange look and I said HIGH BLOOD SUGAR.  We all laughed, they said they were aware of what I meant after 3/4 of a second but that the term HIGH did throw them back. 
This got me wondering how many times have I been out in public, with E and said you cant have that food right now you are to HIGH!!! Oh my goodness, the looks that we have probably recieved from strangers thinking that I am allowing and toleraring my 9 year old (now 10 year old) to activley take drugs.  I laugh and cringe at that thought.
We are all very vocal here about E's diabetes, we do not want her to be ashamed or embarressed of it.  She loves educating people about diabetes and has no problem letting people know that she is diabetic.  With that being said I guess, misunderstandings come with the territory!!!

High...then Low... where's the middle?

Surprise... Diabetes doesnt care what I think!!!  It took me a full year to accept this to be true, every high and every low, brought me to my knee's asking... What did I do? What can I do different? It was all my fault... Guilt ruled my day!!! 
This is why the DOC is soooooo very important.  If I wasn't able to see how diabetes affects other families, or have the ability to reach out to other parents in the DOC, I would be lost, heavily medicated, and probably in a padded room. 

So this leads me to the past 2 weeks.  We started with night time highs, no matter how much insulin we gave it didnt bring her down!!! Grrrr.... We made adjustments, not crazy adjustments, just one setting up.  Then of course after a week of fighting the night time highs, and no sleep,( not that I do much of that anyways since diabetes entered the picture) she begins dropping at night, 6 glucose tablets a night... OK the growth spurt or whatever game diabetes was playing is over, so we bring her settings back down to where they were, now remember this is just ONE SETTING... and now we are back to highs!!!! UGH!!!! Where is the middle ground?!?!? I'm trying really hard to not let this rule me, and do what I can and just realize that this is the nature of the disease. But this is stressful. Of course before this we had a month of beautiful perfect #s, and now that it is almost time for our Endo appt. to get the that wonderful A1C checked, diabetes is up to its old tricks.
When I think of diabetes I picture this akward little creature creeping around the corner, laughing at me through every high and low, knowing that he has done his job successfully, and making me feel inadequate is just a bonus for him.  And since diabetes doesnt sleep, it doesnt think that I should either!!!

Well we are off for a site change, new bottle of insluin, and alot of praying!!!