Dietician

We are doing our last meeting with the dietician today.  It's been *very* helpful for us to learn all the ins and outs of this disease.  We've learned about counting carbs and good meal choices but most importantly as a parent- it's enabled me to not have to be the HEAVY on everything.

Katie still eats sugar.  Please don't think she doesn't.  She gets cravings like any other kid out there. We just ask her to limit that sugar and to make choices about carbs by choosing good carbs.  She knows how she feels when she eats candy or has ice cream.  But I don't see her giving it up forever.  So now when she has a Blizzard from DQ it's a small one and only when her numbers are running lower.  She has to drink water to bring her sugars down.  Exercise also is excellent for it.

Which is excellent because I need to exercise anyway.  Fruits and veggies are better choices.  Fruits are a better choice for carbs than ice cream or sugar.  But she also needs to avoid the sugar-free options that are great for type 2 diabetics if that is their choice.  Katie has a mom and dad who are educated in science.  I have a BS in Biology and a minor in Chemistry.  I'm getting my masters in Environmental Biology.  Needless to say I have opinions on aspartame and other poisons out there.  But this is our personal choice.  Plus sugar-free foods we found out have a lot of fat and other additives in them added in to make them more palatable.

We try and live more on fresh foods and eat that way.  We aren't perfect- no one is.  But these classes have given us a way to learn about what we need to do to keep Katie's organs as healthy as possible.  And she's handling it like a pro.

She wants to be a doctor or a personal trainer and she's all about health.  I see her easily getting her degrees and then going on to help find a cure for Type 1 diabetes.  She's going to be passionate about it because she's living it.  Go get 'em honey- we are behind you 100% all the way!  So, so proud of our girl!

Everything and the kitchen sink

Katie is carrying SO many items with her these days.  The education we went to was awesome..they gave her a customized (glorified I guess) lunchbox.  So at least her needles are not visible, etc She carries in this little lunchbox:

-glucose monitor
-strips
-lancets
-lancing device
-carb counting book
-sharps container
-insulin pen
-needles for that pen
-glucose tablets
-snack
-logbook
-glucagon (sort of big container with her shot and glucagon for if she goes hypoglycemic)

and probably some other stuff I am forgetting.  She carries this everywhere with her.  To bed, to the store, to the car.  She can't leave it in the car because the insulin can denature in extreme heat or cold (it's a protein folks...and yes she knows the word denature..from me and her AP Bio class).

The goal is to do away with some of this stuff...the strips will still be there..the glucose monitor I believe becomes integrated with her pump but that means all new test strips..at all new $$$ and arguing with the insurance company.

Actually reading over her list I'm laughing b/c really the ONLY item she won't be carrying will be the insulin - I think..but then again- when she needs to bolus- then what?

This is a lot of stuff to figure out!

Hitting that wall

For my friends and family- seriously?  Did I not predict locusts soon?  So Katie had a car accident in October- with Mike in the car after the homecoming game.  Her fault but the car was totaled and they were lucky to get out alive.  Then after that in the spring our house flooded with the bad storms that flooded the Chicago area.  We pulled up all the carpet in the basement (after sucking up 2 inches of water), replaced the sump pump and carried on.  Then in May- Kev was driving back from MI and got in a major accident- car rolled, he's lucky to be alive.  Dishwasher dies next...and now the fridge is starting to go.  Plus we get word that Kev's CT scan was NOT clear like we had hoped.....so we have to go a neurologist now to see what is going on with his brain (I'm glad that the ct scan caught *it* - whatever it may be).  Katie got diabetes and I just keep saying- ok this is it right?  I mean how much more can we all deal with?

I'm calling 2012-2013- the year I'd like to forget.  Please.  :)  Every single event has corresponded to me being in the field doing my research for my thesis...can I just say that I am nervously looking at August field day?  I mean really.  I just don't want to hear the next worst thing.

October Crash- bye bye van!

Now we have it easy compared to others..I know this....and I am so grateful.  So for each of those things:

October- car totaled- but my kids survived...amazing!!!!!  Plus we got a replacement used car that was not that much money out of pocket.  (Ok 4 grand is a lot but it could have been worse right?)

Spring- it flooded but lots of people lost their whole homes.  I lost carpet and padding.  Yes the basement has some issues (We are pulling off baseboards this weekend to see if there is hidden mold- I'm deathly allergic) but otherwise we got off rather easy with it.  And a desktop computer might have bitten the dust since the tower sat on the carpet.  But overall- we have a house- it wasn't leveled with the tornado, etc and so on.

Flood of 2013

May- Kev is alive....and in an odd twist when I called the guy I got my red Jetta TDI from- he had just gotten one at auction that very day and it was the first Jetta he got his hands on since the last one- he sold us.  :)  So that's a good twist.  The insurance company covered all but a few hundred to replace that car (unlike the van that had collision only) and Kev is alive.  Major fluid on brain- but he is functional.
Oh and Kev's car?  Imagine the van times 20.  The whole top of the car was mangled as it rolled a few times...the car un-useable totally.
Dishwasher?  The new one is so quiet..we could have just done dishes by hand and I would have gladly- but am so grateful I don't have to!  I love, love, love the new dishwasher  :)

So maybe we are having a run of good luck to go along with our bad luck?  I have to keep on looking at the silver lining because if I don't I might not make it.  It's funny- a professor at my school suggested back when Katie got in the accident that I drop out of the program and yet I am still plugging away.  To heck with that.  We can make it through this.  I firmly believe G-d doesn't give us more than we can handle...and hoping that he opens that window soon if the door is closed..because beating my head against it seems counterproductive!

Uncovering the mystery

Getting the call from the doctor, I can remember answering the phone and just knowing something was wrong.  And yet I was *still* shocked to hear the words- 'she has diabetes' coming out of her mouth.  I wrote down everything and promised to get her to the office in a few minutes for another blood test.  And then I went upstairs to talk to my husband.  He knew something was wrong just by looking at my face.  I said it as calmly as I could and I remember feeling like I was floating above my body and watching the scene.  I ended with "Well type 1 diabetes is the better one, right?" and my husband saying "No it's much worse".  I think when I look back..when I first mentioned diabetes to him- he KNEW it was going to be type 1 and was hoping it wasn't.

I was in la-la land because I was worrying more about cancers of the thyroid and things of that nature.  When I first heard diabetes I admit I was pretty cavalier about it..like it's not a big deal.  But it is.  It's scary as heck and explains a lot of things that had been going on with her.  From attitude (nasty mood swings) to lack of interest in school (a 5.0 gpa straight A student- not caring about her grades) to general sleepiness and just not feeling good.  It's astounding to me that she was still able to exercise.  Really????

Little did I know.  It's been two weeks since she was diagnosed and life as we know it has changed and will change drastically.

Date of Diagnosis - June 21, 2013