2010... Bring it on

Happy New Year! and Happy New Decade! So much has changed since the last new decade. First, the world didn't end because of the Y2K bug (I work in the IT field, so this was discussed A LOT leading up to well, nothing:-)), then Adele was born in the early part of the decade. Then, Adele got sick and diagnosed with Celiac Disease, then I got diagnosed with Celiac disease and felt better even if I didn't really know I was sick then, Adele got sick again and got diagnosed with the ultimate multi-tasking game called Type 1 Diabetes, we were forced into playing this game including holding down your own child to give her a needle in the very first week (not much easing into this one and we even got to practice this fun needle exercise 4 times every day in the beginning), then we learned how to play using an insulin pump and even this year we got our hands on a new game weapon called a Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM). Some things about the Type 1 game have not changed much since we started, but other things have evolved quite a bit thankfully. So, what's in store for this new decade that we have just begun? Better Type 1 tools? A cure? Adele will be 19 years old at the end of this decade. What will her life be like in 2020? Hopefully we can be a positive influence on her and are able to give her the necessary tools and knowledge to enable her to thrive and survive independantly... It's gonna be a long climb!

We've been on a CGM vacation this past week. Adele was with either myself or my wife (or both) pretty much the whole week so we (actually Adele) decided to go sensorless. Her skin is so "raw" because of all of the itching that we're starting to worry about running out of insertion spots. Skin real estate is at an all-time low! It felt good to let her skin heal by reducing the number of foreign objects inserted into her epidermis from 2 to 1 (as well as the accompanying sticker to hold the hardware in place). The weird thing is that the week without the CGM was actually the best as far as blood glucose control that we have had in a long time. She had a few lows mostly in the 3's (from 54 to 70 in US units) and not many highs. This winning streak was not due to us doing a better job. The body suddenly starts to cooperate and becomes "predictable". It just happens some times, kindof like a streak of nice, beautiful weather. You can't plan for it to happen, but you sure as hell appreciate it while it does.

We inserted a new CGM sensor Sunday evening in preparation for back to school. After a day of good readings, Adele's low blood sugar alarm went off a few times this morning during her Phys. Ed class. I have the feeling that she's going to voice her frustrations with the system when we get home tonight. I'm still not sure about the CGM, on the one hand it does give us a head's up before a low or high occurs, but it is soooo frustrating when it's off. Arrrggghhh!!! Today's highlights are:

January 5th, 2010 (during and after Phys. Ed)

9:00 am -> CGM reading was 6.5 (117)

9:25 am -> alarm went off, CGM reading was 4.5 (81) with on arrow down, gave a juice

9:45 am -> alarm went off again, CGM reading was 4.0 (72), meter was 8.7 (157)

10:25 am -> alarm went off again, CGM reading was 3.6 (65), meter was 7.5 (135)

This past weekend we were over at friends for supper. After the meal, one of their children just walked up to the fridge, opened the door and poured herself a big glass of chocolate milk. She drank the entire glass with no clue whatsoever of all of the complex work that her body (pancreas) was about to do to maintain a normal blood sugar. She didn't know what her blood sugar was before drinking the milk, how much active insulin that she had in her system, how many carbs were in the chocolate milk or what insulin to carb ratio that her body needed. She didn't care (and didn't need to), she just wanted a glass of chocolate milk. The parents didn't quite seem to notice or care either and just kept doing what they were busy doing. For most people this whole series of events is very normal and would go unoticed. A 12 year old girl who pours herself a glass of chocolate milk and drinks it, what's so exceptional about that? For me and my wife it made us really miss the days before the Type 1 game. We both noticed it as it was happening, and talked about it later when we got home when Adele was asleep. Since Adele is an only child, this doesn't happen in our household even if she is technically old enough to be able to prepare her own snacks without supervision. No one realizes all that their body does to keep their blood sugar in check until it doesn't anymore. The start of a new decade is a time to look forward and work towards a positive future, but damn that very, very simple act that most people take for granted made me miss the days before Diabetes...