4 years

Wednesday was Seth's 4 year diaversary. I asked him on Tuesday night what he wanted to do. Pause. "Oh yeah, I forgot that was tomorrow." It has become such a part of who he is that he doesn't even think about it anymore. That makes me happy and sad. Acceptance is a good thing. That we must accept it is the hard part.  Me? I will never forget that day. It still makes me emotional to think about, even though life is good.

On Wednesday night, we went out to dinner as a family to our favorite local Italian place. We ate bread and pasta with abandon. We talked about all kinds of things, except diabetes. 4 years ago, it consumed us. Now, it's still there but mostly in the background. How can that be, with 3 of us now diagnosed? I don't know, but that's how it is. A blip, a nuisance,  but not front and center.

On Friday, we celebrated with our dear friend Rachel, who met us at the emergency room that morning, and went with us to Children's. This time, we indulged in Mexican food followed by Sweet Frog. Again, our conversations really didn't include diabetes, which thrilled  me. We talked about school and Pokémon Go, and various other things. We again just celebrated life.

4 years of KDA. In a few months, we will celebrate life again with Jason's 4 year diaversary. Some people choose not to recognize the day at all, we choose to celebrate life and how far we've come, both individually and as a family. Is there really anything better than that?

Pre-bolus backfire

Diabetes doesn't like to play by the rules. Even when you do everything right, it doesn't always work the way you think it should.  This weekend was a perfect example of this. 

Friday night, I made a soup that has pasta in it. Typically for my guys,  pasta needs insulin after eating.  This time, however, injecting after he finished eating resulted in double arrows up on Dexcom for Jason. He didn't go super high, just higher than he likes and got there pretty fast. He was back down in range by bedtime, so everything was ok.

Saturday for lunch, we had leftovers of the soup. Since the timing was off Friday night, both guys decided to inject 15-20 minutes before they ate, which they try to do with most meals. We were guessing there wasn't enough fat in the soup to cause a delayed rise in blood sugar like most pasta. So they tested (both around 110), calculated their carbs, injected, and waited about 15 minutes to eat. Halfway through lunch, Jason's Dexcom started buzzing low, and falling. Seth had just pulled his sensor that morning and was waiting until after lunch for a new one, but he said he felt low too. It wasn't long before they were both shaking and sweating.  I sat there not knowing what to do because THEY WERE EATING!!  How the heck do you go low WHILE you're eating?? And since when do both of them have the same reaction to the same meal??

Sorry for the poor quality.  Dexcom receivers are hard to photograph!
This is from a different low...I was way too flustered to take a pic during that fiasco!

As I was contemplating what to do (quick carbs?  Glucagon?), I noticed I was shaking and a little sweaty myself. It only took a few minutes for them to start feeling better as the carbs from their lunch kicked in, but those few minutes seemed like a eternity to me. It may be a while before we have that soup again, but next time we'll try something different. Inject right before eating,  maybe? It's just trial and error, really. But eating shouldn't be that hard, and the error is just unacceptable.  We are learning every day, but there is so much left to learn for us to KDA.

Quarterly check-up

Friday was Seth's quarterly check-up with the endocrinologist.  This visit was with the nurse practitioner,  not his awesome doctors. We sure do love both of them.  I was a little bit apprehensive because the last appointment with the NP wasn't awesome.  This time, however, it was great! She was engaging and helpful, as well as very complimentary of how Seth is tackling this awful disease. His numbers have been all over the place lately, and she affirmed that a) summer is even harder and b) the changes we have made were the ones she would have suggested. She noted that even though his numbers have been crazy,  none have been incredibly high so that was a good thing. His A1C was down 0.2 from last time (Yea!!). Even though it's not a report card, it sure felt like an A! Numbers aside, the compliments on how well we are doing were really a confidence booster! Our daily fight is worth it, and it's really really nice to have that recognized by a professional.

Seth has decided he wants to try pumping. Not gonna lie, I'm a little nervous about it. I feel like we have shots down, at least as much as you can with anything diabetes-related. It will almost be like starting over.  But you know what parents do, right? We do whatever our kids need. So we scheduled pump class and I asked other D parents in the area what the pump homework is. We plan to turn it in when we go to the class so we can speed this thing up. He has researched and decided on the Tslim pump. Of course, all that will coincide with the start of school, and me at a new job. Isn't that how it always works? Wish us luck!

After the awesome appointment,  we celebrated with carb-o-licious Mike Anderson's BBQ. Seth has decided to take advantage of our trips downtown to try out a new restaurant every time. If you have suggestions,  we'd love to hear them!

I really love watching this kid eat. It's a thing of wonder....it makes you wonder where he puts it all!

A drawer full of cheese

Cheese has become a staple in our house the last 7 months. Virtually no carbs, it makes a perfect snack. A week or so ago, I bought cheese at Costco. Lots of cheese. It should last about a month.

A whole drawer in the fridge is dedicated to cheese, right below the drawer of insulin. 

They eat cheese plain, but they have also come up with some other ideas for low carb snacks.  One of the favorites is chipless nachos.  Sliced cheese with a jalapeno slice, baked at 400 for about 7 minutes. Yum! The inspiration came from this blog.

Cheese, meat, eggs, sugar free jello....those are about the only carb-free foods, so we keep plenty of all of those on hand.  Veggies are mostly low carb, but even some veggies with dip require an injection, depending on the veggie, the dip, and the amount.  All fruits require an injection. So I try to keep plenty of carb free snacks on hand.  Growing boys need lots of food, and shouldn't always have to take a shot to eat it.  Carb free snacks help my guys KDA every day!

Food

Food is a somewhat controversial topic in the type 1 community. Some people greatly restrict carb intake, others don't. We are in the 'don't' camp. We just make sure we are eating healthy meals with lots of veggies (those have carbs too, by the way) and count every carb! The insulin must match the carbs. Even then, it's no guarantee they will stay in range. Diabetes really has no rhyme or reason, nor does it play by any rules. The same exact meal can produce different results on different days. Jason and Seth tend to react similar to the same foods, but not always. It hurts my logical brain some days. Ok, most days.

Here's an example of a meal. Keep in mind Jason is 6'9" and Seth is a 6'6"ish growing teenager, so it's more food than most people eat.

When there is a special occasion or event, Seth eats cake, ice cream etc. Just like every other kid. His pancreas doesn't work, and it's not his fault.He just has to inject the insulin that other kids secrete naturally. Jason watches sweets more carefully, as all adults really should, but he isn't super restrictive either. It's such a change for him from the days he thought he was type 2! More difficult in most ways, easier in a few.

There are some food that are more off-limits. Regular soda and juice, especially at a restaurant, are almost impossible to calculate so they drink diet soda. We also keep sugar free jello cups on hand all the time. Otherwise, regular food. We just have to count Every. Single. Carb. I'll write more later about the calculating process and also how we order in restaurants.

Something that will blow your mind...a banana has about the same number of carbs as a cupcake. From an insulin standpoint, they are equal. Obviously they aren't from a health standpoint, but still. It's crazy that they need to inject the same amount of insulin for healthy fruit as a cupcake. But that's the way it is.

Ok, I think that's all I have for today. More next time! Until then, we will keep doing our best to KDA.