Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Mourning


Even 6 and 1/2 years after Adele's Type 1 diagnosis, I think I am still going through a certain mourning process. The chronic aspect of Type 1 Diabetes hits me sometimes. I have fond memories of my youth, coming and going as I pleased, litterally riding my bike from sunset to sundown, not a care in the world. It makes me sad to think that Type 1 has robbed this from Adele. I even feel guilty when I get up and just go out for a bike ride. With Type 1 Diabetes you can't do that. Everything has to be carefully planned. It's just part of the game, always on your mind, always trying to think ahead to try to avoid highs and lows.

Today Adele and I had the opportunity to speak at the UPS JDRF Telus Walk to Cure Diabetes fundraiser kickoff. Adele was quite shy in front of the big crowd and didn't want to speak. Mr. Norm Robichaud's speech was quite moving. If that didn't encourage UPS staff to step up to the challenge and participate, nothing will in my opinion. Excellent job Mr. Robichaud and THANK YOU once again UPS for choosing JDRF as your charity.

We have an apointment with the Medtronic rep Thursday, May 14th for our pump training. It is really more training on the Continuous Glucose Monitoring aspect of the pump system, but she will also show us various functions that the new pump does above and beyond what are current pump can do. We're quite excited!

We had a good Type 1 game day today. Actually, the entire week was pretty good really. Like I had already mentioned, it's not because we're doing a better job than on the not so good days, it's just that Adele's body seems to be cooperating. I have been having a few problems with her breakfast though. This week she started eating 2 toasts instead of the usual 1. I totally agree with the 2 toasts, since 1 small toast seems like hardly enough to keep her going and ready to learn at school. The problem with the second toast is that it is causing her sugar to go up 1 to 2 hours after she eats. But then the sugar crashes during the 3rd hour. If I give more insulin after breakfast to avoid the rise in blood sugar, she will likely crash lower during the 3rd hour which is not good. Less insulin will cause the blood sugar to rise even more, which is also not good. I tried giving her more insulin via her basal before she wakes up to try and give her an insulin head start before her breakfast, but she was waking up in the 4's - good numbers, but also a bit too low which may get even lower if she suddenly becomes more sensitive to insulin (this occurs very often) or if she decides to sleep in (like on the weekend). Not sure how or if I can fix this? Adding protein to the breakfast menu would likely help, but we're dealing with a typical 8 year old who is a picky eater. She likes bacon, but I'm not too crazy about feeding her bacon every morning...

Here are a few game highlights from this week:

Monday, April 27th, 2009
7:05 am = 8.9 (highish, but still pretty good before breakfast - 2 gluten-free toasts w. Nutella and milk)
8:30 am = 13.3 (high)
9:20 am = 4.2 (she ate 15g carbs, no insulin to try to avoid low)
9:50 am = 3.9 (still went low before her morning snack)

Tuesday, April 28th, 2009
7:00 am = 4.6 (very good before breakfast - 2 gluten-free toasts w. Nutella and milk)
8:50 am = 10.6 (still too high)
9:50 am = 5.0 (before her morning snack, she ate 12g carbs, no insulin)
10:50 am = 4.9

Wednesday, April 29th, 2009
6:50 am = 5.9 (very good before breakfast - 2 gluten-free toasts w. Nutella and milk)
8:45 am = 11.2 (still too high)
9:55 am = 4.6 (before her morning snack, 17g carbs, no insulin)
10:50 am = 5.5
We'll see what the next few days bring... Thanks for reading

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