Summer Break

My kids are officially on summer break.  The end of the school year means so many things for the kids- no more early-early mornings, a more relaxed schedule, no homework, more fun.  And most significantly for me: no more dealing with the school's Clinic Aide and praying that she doesn't mess up Rosie's stuff each day.  

The kids will be at a babysitter part-time this summer, and she's great with the d-related stuff.  I've explained things once or twice, she's understood, and we've moved right along.  She calls me any time there's a question and she makes great judgement calls as to how to handle day-to-day stuff.   Ahhhh.... such a relief to know Rosie will be there instead of under the "care" of the Clinic Aide.

I've worked really hard to restrain myself this school year in dealing with the CA.  We had one confrontation at the beginning of the school year, and a meeting to follow-up.  Since then, I've done my best to let little things slide and to ignore her obvious incompetence unless it was something that would directly impact Rosie's health.  Rosie is old enough now (age 9) that she can handle a lot of things on her own. We took care of the necessities and that was about it.

A week before school was out, though, I had had it.  Rosie came off the bus upset and complaining about the CA being "mean again" and listed several things that had happened that week.  I wrote a lengthy email to the school district nurse supervisor and to the principal detailing the most recent problems.  I respectfully requested that Rosie should be removed from the care of this woman for the next school year and I offered some ideas of ways we could make that happen.  Since we're in a private school, we don't have a 504, because I was initially told by the CA that they don't use them... but I think it's time that we change that.  (I'm wiser now to the way the law works in this area!)   

The principal and nurse both responded that they'd like to meet with me and address my concerns after school was out.... perfectly reasonable since the last week of school is busy for everyone.   I anticipate a call this week, and if the principal hasn't called within a few days I'll call her.  

To be continued...

   

84 carbs: Saturday Snapshots

Click for the Saturday Snapshots - Saturday 5/19 Link List.
Back for the third year, let’s show everyone what life with diabetes looks like!  With a nod to the Diabetes 365 project, let’s grab our cameras again and share some more d-related pictures.  Post as many or as few as you’d like.  Feel free to blog your thoughts on or explanations of your pictures, or leave out the written words and let the pictures speak for themselves.

 This is Rosie's lunch today. It's a pretty typical lazy Saturday lunch at our house: quick and easy. The kids love these trays with little compartments. They prefer to have something different in each section, which means they often eat meals like this with a few tomatoes, a few fruits, etc.

Today's menu: frozen pizza square, 5 crackers, 2 strawberries, 3 blackberries, a banana, 5 grape tomatoes, and sugar-free grape punch.    And yes, if you're wondering, that IS the last of the fresh fruit in the house... hence the odd portion sizes & browning banana.  Obviously I need to stop by the grocery store later, LOL!

The carb count is a little high on this meal, but it's ok, because supper (baked chicken, green beans, and some yet-undetermined side dish) will be pretty low-carb, and she had 43 carbs for breakfast.  We don't really limit carbs but I try to average out to about 60 or less per meal over a typical day.  Lunch is almost always her highest-carb meal.

Link up through the link above and share a snapshot from YOUR d-life today as a part of Diabetes Blog Week 2012!

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Fantasy Diabetes Device (Diabetes Blog Week)

I'm late in jumping in on this year's Diabetes Blog Week posts.  It just so happened that this was also National Nursing Home Week, which meant lots of special events & extra hours for me at work.  So I'm catching up and picking a few of my favorite prompts to write about... even if I am off by a few days!  ;)

Thursday's topic: Today let’s tackle an idea inspired by Bennet of Your Diabetes May Vary.  Tell us what your Fantasy Diabetes Device would be?  Think of your dream blood glucose checker, delivery system for insulin or other meds, magic carb counter, etc etc etc.  The sky is the limit – what would you love to see?

I would love to have a way to monitor Rosie's blood sugars and Dex graphs when I'm not with her... an app on my phone would be ideal.  Then, I wouldn't have to worry about setting a temp basal and then sending her off to school- I could see for myself how it was affecting her.  I wouldn't have to fight with the school clinic aide about how or when to do her blood sugar checks.  I wouldn't have to worry that she had forgotten to bolus for her morning snack again- I'd be able to see it and call her to correct it myself.   

I wouldn't want "remote control" features, though-- that seems dangerous to me.  I might crank her insulin up without realizing that right that moment she's running around in gym class and will be naturally coming down soon.  No, I'd be content to be able to monitor things at a distance and rely on an old-fashioned phone call to actually make any changes.

I know that similar concepts are becoming closer and closer to reality...I've heard about a device from a big-name company that allows parents to monitor their children's CGM from down the hall at night.  I want to be able to monitor Rosie 24/7, though... even when I'm at work 30 miles away.  What d-parent wouldn't want that?

Curious as to what others would invent?  Want to share you own idea?  The link-up for this topic is posted HERE. 

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Puppy Knows...

Rosie had a bad day at school d-wise... the clinic aide (whom I filed a complaint on this morning due to ongoing problems... but that's another story for another time) called at the END of the day and left a message to let me know that Rosie had been in the clinic 8 times, and was low each time. One her teacher sent her to see if she had a temperature, because she kept saying she didn't feel right.   First off, I was concerned about all the lows.  Then later it hit me-- why on earth didn't she call me earlier in the day???  I would have brought Rosie home. That's getting added to the complaint list, of course... but as I said, that's another story.

Anyways, Rosie comes home from school and settles in on the couch.   Our puppy, Angel, clearly knew something was wrong with Rosie.  Angel was determined to lay down with Rosie, either next to her or on top of her.  (Bear in mind that our puppy, a 5-month old Golden Retriever, is nearly as big as Rosie!)  After repeatedly being pushed down, Angel went and got a bone, and laid it down right next to Rosie's face as she slept.   Angel finally had to be put into her kennel so that Rosie could get some rest.   Aren't dogs the sweetest things?  :)

As for Rosie, this evening she's running a fever and has the sky-high blood sugars that we've come to expect when she's sick.  She just went up to bed... we're on a 200% temp basal and a fresh dose of ibuprofin for her, with a cold drink and a new book for me.  I predict a long night ahead for both of us.  I pray she feels better by morning!

 

Happy Mother's Day, D-moms!

D-moms.  We're a special breed.  Don't get me wrong, everyone in a D-family is special.... dads, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and anyone else that lends a hand in carb counting, juice dosing, and acting as though it's perfectly normal to speak in coded numbers at every meal.  

But D-moms... we're a special club.  We don't think we're any better than other moms, and in fact, we often times beat ourselves up for not being "enough" for our d-kids.  We d-moms, as a group, seem to carry the worry and some vague sense of guilt more than anyone else.  We get accused of being over bearing and over protective, generally by people who only know about "the sugar" because their great-aunt had it "bad". Most of the time we even manage to hold our tongue and try to educate people, even though we'd really rather pelt them with a few empty test strip containers.  ;)

Happy Mother's Day to all you over bearing, over protective, sleep deprived, substitute pancreas moms out there!  :)

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P.S.  Meri said it better than I did- check out her great Mother's Day post at Our Diabetic Life! (Meri's family remains in my prayers, and in yours, too, I hope.)

Stormy Day

Cloudy this morning.  5:30am check of 260.  Breakfast check at 7:40am: 400, but negative for ketones.  Bolused, fed, bolused the carbs.   I downloaded her pump and Dexcom and emailed the info to her endo, since she's been having a lot of highs lately.  Rosie said she felt fine, so off to school she went.

Thunder.  9am call from school: blood sugar is over 600.   I head to school to change her site and set a temp basal.  I also sneak in some ibuprofin to ward off the headache that's sure to hit Rosie as she comes down... ibuprofin is still an issue of contention with the school.  Wish I'd taken some myself as I deal with the clinic aide.

Lightening.  11:40am phone call: it's lunch time and she's still reading over 600.  This is going on three hours now, and we're getting really worried.  Daddy is at home, so he's dispatched to go pick her up.  I'm half an hour away at work... not really getting anything done, but there, just the same.  I pace my office and try to be a psychic long-distance pancreas.   I can't for the life of me figure out why she's so high.

Lull in the storm.   12:55pm.  I can't stand it... I'm not getting anything done at work for worry over Rosie.  I call home.  She's down to 450.   We joke that it's a bad day when we're actually celebrating a 450.

2:45pm.  I'm home.  I was useless at work.  It seems that Daddy and Rosie have found a magic formula that works to bring her blood sugar down: lunch from McDonald's and playing at home.  Not my first choice of ways to deal with it, but, whatever... she's ok.   Rosie is playing around the house, laughing about the McDonald's cure for her crazy high.  She's down around 189.   I'm exhausted, worried, and relieved, all at once.

Raining again.  Rosie's at 131 with an arrow straight down.  A 15-carb snack levels her out.  We'd normally let a number like that ride a while, but we know better-- she typically crashes after coming down from a crazy high like that.

Supper: calm skies.  She's fine.  Glucose in normal range, no headache, anxious to go to softball practice and Brownies with her friends.  To look at her, you'd never know that the last eight hours have been a diabetes rollercoaster. 

Ironically, after supper we head out to softball practice, where it promptly started raining, for real. 

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