can I scream yet??

So yesterday I thought we were in the clear from all this crap with Dada that we have been dealing with! We sent her to bed with her sugar being 124 (perfect) and a small amount of ketones. I got up and checked her sugar at 3. And her sugar was 415!!! 415!!!!! Someone tell me how it can go from 124 to 415 in the middle of the night. Her pump was working all day, it can't just stop working in the middle of the night.

?'s answered

My friend Sarah asked me what Juvenile diabetes actually was. Here is my answer.....................

Type 1 diabetes occurs when the body's immune system attacks and destroys certain cells in the pancreas, an organ about the size of a hand that is located behind the lower part of the stomach. These cells -- called beta cells -- are contained, along with other types of cells, within small islands of endocrine cells called the pancreatic islets. Beta cells normally produce insulin, a hormone that helps the body move the glucose contained in food into cells throughout the body, which use it for energy. But when the beta cells are destroyed, no insulin can be produced, and the glucose stays in the blood instead, where it can cause serious damage to all the organ systems of the body.

For this reason, people with type 1 diabetes must take insulin in order to stay alive. This means undergoing multiple injections daily, or having insulin delivered through an insulin pump, and testing their blood sugar by pricking their fingers for blood six or more times a day. People with diabetes must also carefully balance their food intake and their exercise to regulate their blood sugar levels, in an attempt to avoid hypoglycemic (low blood sugar) and hyperglycemic (high blood sugar) reactions, which can be life threatening.

The warning signs of type 1 diabetes include extreme thirst; frequent urination; drowsiness or lethargy; sugar in urine; sudden vision changes; increased appetite; sudden weight loss; fruity, sweet, or wine-like odor on breath; heavy, labored breathing; stupor; and unconsciousness.

Generally, type 1 diabetes is diagnosed in children, teenagers, or young adults. Scientists do not yet know exactly what causes type 1 diabetes, but they believe that autoimmune, genetic, and environmental factors are involved.


I tried to answer this in my own words, but it ended up sounding really confusing. So I copied it. :)

What a scary day

I have had a couple of scary days the last couple of days. Dada has been on insulin now in her pump since Thurs. Something they didn't tell me going into this, is that when changing an insulin regimen, your body can have trouble while trying to adjust to the new regimen. And this is what has happened to Dada. Tues. morning she woke up and her blood sugar was 468. Incredibly high. (normal is 70-120.) I didn't really red flag it b/c she had had cake the night before. I gave her a huge amount of insulin and we went to school. 30 min later, she walks into my classroom. She can barely walk, she was trying to lick her lips cuz they were really dry, she couldn't lick her lips. It was like watching someone in slow motion. You could see her concentrating so hard on just licking her lips. So I checked her sugar thinking it would be really low since I had given her so much insulin at breakfast. Nope, she wasn't low, she was even higher. She was 560. So I told my boss I was leaving and we went home to check her ketone level.

Sidebar~ for those of you who don't know................a ketone is something we can all have. When you don't eat for a while, your body starts to burn fat for fuel. The little pieces of broken up fat are called ketones. For diabetics, ketones mixed with high sugar is bad. Ketones with high blood sugar means your body isn't using the insulin you have to burn your food. So it starts to burn your stored fat. Your body literally thinks you are starving and starts burning fat like crazy. You make more ketones which becomes like poison to your body. You monitor your ketone levels by peeing on a ketone strip and it will tell you what level your ketones are.

Dada's ketone level was moderate to high. Which would explain why she was lethargic, she didn't want to drink or eat. She just wanted to lay down and sleep. She was in the beginning stages of d.k.a. (Diabetic ketoacidosis ) Dka is basically when you have no more insulin in your body. I took off her pump, and gave her a shot. Her sugar finally started coming down. So we kept the pump off most of the day and just gave her shots. By the evening her sugar was normal and her ketones were small. So we felt good about putting the pump back on. We did that, and then checked her before she went to bed (she was 265 so I gave her insulin and she went to bed ) Then in the middle of the night, I checked her and she was 155. So I knew that the pump was working. This morning though, she woke up at 348, with moderate to large ketones. I was SO frustrated! So I called the doctor and we were home for another day of constant checking blood sugar and monitoring ketones.

Today, her sugar has been on the higher side. It has ranged from 200-350, with moderate to large ketones. The last time I checked her, she was down to a small amount of ketones though. So I was happy about that. I am wondering if this site is bad. We currently have it in her upper butt. And we are using a different kind of site then what we started with. I am wondering if we should go back to the 1 we started with. It is just that that is a little more traumatic for her and us to put in then this other 1 we tried.

I am amazed at how she handles these things.......site changes, injections, checking her blood sugar. She just does them like it is just part of daily life. She is amazing. The hardest part is just dealing with her incredible mood swings. This is so hard on my patience level.

Dada's pump

This is what is called her "site". This we have to change every 3 days. It is fairly painless to insert. It's more uncomfortable then pain. If you look at the picture good, you can see a red tiny dot below the site. This is from her last site. When we took the old 1 out, there was this scar there. I am afraid that when she gets older, her stomach will be full of these.


This is her pump. She wanted a pink 1 and that is what she got. The pink part is actually called a skin. You can change these when you want.

We went yesterday to Madison and got her started on her insulin. It went really smoothly except for the fact that about an hour into our trip to Madison, Dada started vomiting!! We had no idea that she didn't feel well before we left. She had eaten a good breakfast and was fighting with her brother as usual!! :) She puked twice in the car before we got to the doc and then once while we were in the office! I felt horrible for even being there, but we needed to switch her over to insulin! She slept the whole way home, and then when we got home, she wanted some soup. So I made tomato soup and grilled cheese for supper. She ate some of that. I thought she was going to keep it down, but 2 hours later, she drank some water and then threw up. Thankfully that was the last time.

I set the alarm to check her sugar about 3 last night. I never do this, but I thought with just switching her to insulin, and her being sick, I thought it would be a good idea. I'm glad I did, because she was 46!!( I took her pump off b/c I didn't want her getting more insulin being so low!!) I gave her some juice(after she chugged her juice, she immediately asked where her bucket was. I didn't think that was a good sign. :) ) I then checked her again 15 min later, and she was only 50. So I then resorted to Mountain Dew. That brought her sugar up! I checked her sugar 15 min later and it was 66. So I gave her a little but more pop, and then went to bed. Jeremy checked her at 6:30 when he woke up and she was 270. We then put her pump back on.

more pictures

Here are the kids school pictures..............

Dada~1st grade

Brother~k-4

As promised

You really have no idea how hard it is for me to post these pictures of me on here. I have an idea of what I look like in my head, but what I see in a picture is totally not what I think in my head. So it really depresses me to see pictures of myself. I avoid getting pictures taken of me at all cost. I am going to be brave and face my fear.

Me as a blond- my school picture......yuck!!

My new hairstyle. BTW, I told you it isn't a great picture!!

Hair

I cannot believe my kids. Everyday I have to fight with them to get up, Maddie always tells me she doesn't feel well, and she is just so tired, and finally after fighting with her for about 10 min, she gets up. So of course on the day that they can sleep in, they are both up running around and blaring music at 6 o'clock in the morning. Yes, I said 6. I couldn't believe it, when they woke up this morning. And while I was laying in bed, praying that by some miracle they actually would fall back to sleep, my mind started racing with all these thoughts about what I could actually blog about. So here I am. Praying that my thoughts won't slip away, b/c it is hard for me to think of something to blog about.

Well, as some of you know, I have been growing my hair out. It has been about 18 months since I have made this decision and my hair is not even shoulder length. I have been so sick of this growing out phase. I thought maybe if I were a different color that would help, so I "highlighted" it blond. Nope, that most definitely didn't help. So then I had it colored. I LOVE my new color. It is a reddish brown on the bottom and strips of gold with the reddish brown. It really does look very nice. I also had it trimmed up just a little. I say all that to say that people have been commenting quite frequently about my hair. The comments range from oh, your hair looks so nice, to have you been doing something different to your hair. I have also gotten the rare, Julie, your hair is actually starting to look nice. But my favorite 1 of all time happened this Sunday by a little old lady in my church. She was staring at me when she was walking past me and she said.........oh you look so pretty, I almost didn't recognize you. Hunny and I just stared at each other in disbelief, and then I said thank you. I sort of took it with a grain of salt. If you knew this lady you would know that she didn't say it to be mean. But I still had to laugh. ( I will post pictures later of my hair )

Well, now the rest of my thoughts are gone, so you will have to wait in anticipation for another day when my kids wake me at the butt crack of dawn. Hopefully that will be a while.