Help from Friends

It has been just over a week since Monkey started on her Animas Ping insulin pump and she is absolutely LOVING it (as are hubby and I)!!  We have already experienced one site fall out (on our first day none the less), one bent cannula that led to vomiting with ketones, blood in the cannula and a couple lows during times that she has never before experienced a low.  But for the most part things are going very smoothly.  I know that I'm going to regret saying that but I'm gonna say it anyways.  We have had AMAZING support and I am very thankful for all of it.

The other day Monkey came to me and told me there was blood in her cannula.  I looked and sure enough there was.  I was hesitant to do a site change as the evening before had been her scheduled change.  This site change was the one that resulted in the bent cannula so I didn't want to have to change another one unless it was absolutely necessary.  I went onto Facebook and was lucky enough that Wendy was online.  I know that Sugar uses the same pump so I figured if anyone would know the answer to my queries it would be her. Sure enough she was very happy to answer my question and we were able spare Monkey another site change.  I figured 3 sites in less than 24 hours would have made for an unhappy girl so I was thankful it wasn't needed.

I have gotten plenty of encouragement in our pumping journey from Wendy, Meri & Reyna that it makes me not be quite as hesitant as I was at first.  I know that we CAN do this.  Even if it's with a little help from our friends!

Thanks Friends!!

Brandy

Diaversary and Pinging!

It's hard to believe that it has been just over a year already!!  Monkey girl's diaversary was on Friday.  I booked a pedicure for her to celebrate but had been planning on keeping things pretty low key.  Turns out that was pure foresight!!  She started to get a chest cold on Wednesday last week.  By Friday we were full on with nasty high BG's and ketones that I couldn't seem to get rid of no matter how much insulin we used.  She enjoyed her pedicure but was happy to get home again and lay down and rest.  Thursday and Friday were non school days for us due to teachers convention so timing wise her getting sick worked out well.  She didn't have to miss school.  On Saturday I took her to the walk in clinic to get checked.  After listening to her breathing the doc sent us up to the ER for chest xrays and IV fluids.  Turns out the chest cold is actually pneumonia :-( The fluids helped to bring her sugar down and helped to flush out some of those nasty little ketones.  The antibiotics they put her on are definitely starting to work too.  She has had pretty good BG's for most of the day, despite travelling.  We go to Children's first thing tomorrow morning to start our pump training!!  We have a saline start tomorrow and then go live on Tuesday with insulin.  I am very looking forward to learning all of the new stuff that goes with her pump but certainly nervous as well!!

Wish us luck!!

IT'S HERE!!!

In case it wasn't obvious from the title of this post......the long awaited Animas Ping Insulin pump has arrived!!  Purolator delivered the giant box to my school yesterday and holy man was my girlie super excited when she seen it after school!!  When we came home she had that box open before she had even unpacked her backpack for the weekend. LOL! But really, who can blame her for being excited!  I wasn't far behind her in pulling things out of the box!  That green pump and those cute little pink infusion sets had us both giddy!  When Hubby came home from work he wasn't even all the way in the house before Little Miss was exclaiming loudly "Guess what came today Daddy??!!"

Now I have 2 weeks to read the rather larger manual several times, watch the video and do the workbook.  Can't wait!!!

16 MORE SLEEPS!!!!!!

Brandy

Vacation, Viruses & Pump News!

So much has happened in the last month that I'm not sure where to start.  I was able to sneak away for a week in sunny, warm Miami after Christmas with a wonderful friend.  We had to go for a work conference and it was wonderfully relaxing.  I left my sweet little monkey in the more than capable hands of my hubby who was happy to let me get away for a few days.  It was a VERY long travel day on either side of the trip but it was well worth it to be able to catch up on some MUCH needed sleep and to just be able to relax and not think about blood sugar levels.  Now don't get me wrong I did think about home and what was happening but I didn't stress about it because I knew that she was being well taken care of.  They were multiple high blood sugar readings but the corrections were calculated and administered beautifully.  Nary a ketone was seen and they had some wonderful Daddy/Daughter time!!!

Being back to school has proved interesting.  We were very lucky and managed to avoid all of the nasty little viruses that were floating around school.  However we've not been so lucky now that school is back in session.  The first week went by without any issues.  But last week my sweet girl came home from school on Friday and promptly put herself to bed!!!  OH NO!  I knew there would be little to no sleep had that night.  She napped for an hour and a half that afternoon and didn't want much in the way of dinner or a bedtime snack.  Saturday we just laid low and didn't do much so that she could just rest.  Her sugar's were slightly elevated but nothing outrageous.  Sunday morning she felt good but her sugar was higher than I liked.  She had a birthday party to go to after lunch that I really didn't want to cancel.  They were going swimming for an hour and I thought that might help to equalize her blood sugar a little.  I stayed at the party while they were swimming and things were all good.  After the hour she checked her sugar and she was 3.1 (she started out at 13.8).  A couple dex tabs and she was all good.  They were having ice cream cake for the party and her friend's mom had graciously asked what Monkey could have instead since the ice cream cake has cookie crumble in it.  I checked Dairy Queen's info and we decided on a mini skor blizzard, 56g of carbs.  Her afternoon snack is usually 25-30 grams so I figured the extra carbs would work to cover what was burned while swimming and the excitement from the party.  I either mis-calculated BIG TIME or she was still fighting whatever nasty little virus was plaguing her.  At supper that night she was 27.2 with blood ketones of 0.3.  My money was on the virus.  The next 2 days were a blur of blood sugar/ketone checks, little sleep for me and very restless sleep for her.  Her ketones got as high as 0.5 but never seemed to go away completely.  It didn't seem to matter how much insulin I gave or how much she drank.  She didn't want to eat anything which made things a tad difficult since she is still on a Humalog/Humulin N combination.  But we managed and both went back to school yesterday.  We did have to do a correction shot at lunch time both yesterday and today but I'm hoping that trend doesn't continue.

In other news....we are now T minus 18 days until we head to Edmonton to start our pump training!!  Her insulin pump has shipped from Animas and should be here tomorrow or Monday!  Very excited!!  I have also ordered her new medic alert bracelet and a TummieTote for her.  They should both be here just before we head to the city for pump start!  I will be very glad to be able to better deal with sick days as we seem to have our fair share of them.  I'd love to hear any tips for pump start up to if anyone wishes to share!  This D-Mama can use all the help she can get!!!

In the mean time I am continuing to keep up with all the blogs that I read and I continue to add others to my list.  Whenever I find a blog I enjoy I read ALL of the posts from beginning to end.  If any of you have any to suggest to me please do!  I'll add them to my list :-)

Wishing beautiful blood sugars to all!!
Brandy

Merry Christmas!

Wow!  I can't believe that Christmas is over already!!  I know it has been just over a month since my last post. I have started posts in my head  many times but just haven't been able to get them from my head onto here.  The last month has definitely been a crazy one for us.  Between work, school & many many Christmas concerts the time has just flown by. For the most part we've had some mostly decent numbers. A couple nasty, come from out of nowhere lows - one of them was a 2.3 that she didn't even feel :-(  We have managed to this far avoid the rather nasty virus that has been making its way around.  All of the festivities were fairly well managed D wise. There was a bit of SWAGing going on & a fair bit of grazing but up until today her numbers have stayed pretty even. This morning she woke up at 16.4 and stayed in the teens/low 20's all day. I'm not sure if it is everything catching up to her or the beginning of something unpleasant but either way I'm hoping it doesn't stick around for long!!

We have had the joy of having our oldest daughter and her baby here for Christmas so there have been LOTS of Nana snuggles happening which is great. They will be here until after the New Year but I am leaving on the 29th so I need to get as many in now as I can. I have a conference in Miami next week that I am really looking forward to attending. 6 days of being warm!!!!  I can't wait!!!  I am certainly nervous about leaving my dear hubby to deal with D but I know he can do it :-)

I hope & pray that everyone had a blessed Christmas and will continue to enjoy the holiday season!!

Brandy

Possible answers....& a date!!!

Well Friday was definitely an interesting day!! I'll start with the GI appointment that we had since it was the one that I was really worried about.  Now let me start my saying that Monkey's GI is wonderful!!  She is very friendly and is so loving towards our girl that is just puts her right at ease. Se was able to give us some answers to the ongoing tummy ache & frequent bouts of vomiting.  She thinks that we are dealing with cyclical migraines!!  She has given us a prescription to try for 6 weeks. If we see no more vomiting & decreased tummy ache then we should have our answer.  & if that's it then we should be able to wean her off the meds & just use them for her high stress times & when travelling since she really does not travel well at all. BUT....if we don't see an improvement she is going to schedule an endoscopy to rule out IBS and to make sure that her celiac is not causing the problems regardless of the blood work. Seeing as how I get migraines and have for a really long time I'm guessing this is a likely diagnosis.

Now onto to exciting part of our Stollery visit......the Endo was super happy with everything we have been doing. Monkey's A1C was 7.9!!!!  Down from 8.5 last visit!!!!!  So very excited!!!!  Can you tell?! LOL. I asked about a sliding scale for her carbs and was given one for supper.  We can use 1:15 & just watch to make sure it doesn't bottom her out. He gave me full permission to play with it as needed to get those numbers right but let her have to freedom to eat what she wants. I can only use this scale though for supper since she is in Humulin N to cover her lunch time at school. I am also allowed to play with it a bit for breakfast but only on the weekends for now.  If anyone has any suggestions I love to hear 'em!

And the other big news is if course Insulin pump training!!  We were given a date of Feb 11-13 for our pump class!!  I'm not sure I've seen Monkey that excited in a really long time!  I know it is a ways off yet but it is something to look forward to & I'm sure the time will fly by especially with Christmas right around the corner!!

So that's all my news for now!!

Brandy

2 for the price of 1?

Things seemed to have settled down a bit here D wise. I know I probably just jinxed myself but oh well!!  Monkey has had some pretty decent numbers this past week. A couple lows & nothing super high (lots of 6's & 7's!!) which I'm glad about because tomorrow is parent report card day!  That's right, we're off to see the Endo!!   I'm actually really looking forward to this appointment. It has been 9 1/2 months since she was dx with T1 and we are tired of the strict regime that injections brings with it. Hopefully tomorrow we will get a date for our pump class!!  We have already chosen a pump, spoken with the pump company & have started the process to get her pump covered under insurance. Alberta Health doesn't cover any portion of an insulin pump right now. I think we've one of the few provinces left that won't cover a pump, at least partially so I'm praying between the 2 insurance companies we are good to go!!

Now for the 2nd part of my 2 for 1 title.......For the last few months Monkey has had a constant tummy ache. She wakes up with it. She falls asleep with it and it seems to be with her all the time. She doesn't seem to have an appetite anymore most days. She has started vomiting quite a bit again and she just generally feels unwell. Now her family doctor is AMAZING!!!!  If we go in with a problem he listens to us. He will take the time to try & figure things out. The tummy thing really started towards the end of June. She had a very nasty bout of gastro that landed her in emerg because we were worried about appendicitis. That turned out ok but she never really got over the tummy ache thing. Since then she has had gastro at least 7 or 8 times. She has lost a bit of weight (not a lot because she HAS to eat x number of carbs......I really wish we had a sliding scale for her carbs......but I digress). She has started getting circles under her eye again as she is not sleeping well at all.  Her family doc has ran all sorts of tests. She has had tons of bloodwork done & she also had an abdominal ultrasound done at the beginning of November. (Not so much fun for her since she couldn't eat/drink anything prior). Everything has come back clean. We've checked her celiac panels to see if she is getting cross contamination somewhere but the tests don't support that. So her doc sent things up the ladder to her GI doc. The Stollery phoned me today to say that the GI wanted to see us next Wednesday. When I told them that we were going to be at the Endo clinic tomorrow after they did everything they could to make it so we didn't have to go back next week. It's a 3 hour drive one way for us & that's if the roads are good. No guarantee of that this time of year!!  The booking receptionist called me back about 1/2 hour later & informed me that she personally went over to the GI's office to see if something could be done. Apparently the doc is not in clinic tomorrow but agreed to come in to see us after our Endo appt so we don't have to come back in!!!!  So happy!!!!  Especially since hubby is just finishing up holidays this week & wouldn't have been able to come with us next Wednesday.  Definitely God's hand at play in that one!!

So that's our 2 for 1!  Endo at 1 & GI at 3. Hopefully good news from the Endo & maybe some answers from the GI :-)

Hope all my DOC family/friends are well & Happy Thanksgiving to those of you who celebrate it in November!!