Adventures in Wisdom Teeth, Part Deux

So far, so good!  We made it to the oral surgeon's office on time AND in the blood sugar range he wanted.  What are the chances of that happening??  The procedure went well, and we are back home.  We were gone from home just about 2 hours.   Crazy, right?  Feeling is coming back, blood sugar is coming back down.  Hopefully, recovery will be smooth.  As much as I hate this painful part, the sedation/surgery itself is the most worrisome part for me.

Adventures in Wisdom Teeth

Tomorrow marks another new adventure with type 1 diabetes....wisdom teeth removal.  Jason and I have both had ours removed, as has our older son.  But this is the first time we've experienced it with diabetes.
The oral surgeon was awesome at our consultation.  He had a plan for insulin management for the day: he wants Seth over 150 tomorrow morning, regular Lantus tonight but no Humalog in the morning (duh, no food), and they will have a glucose drip handy for his IV just in case. He also thought Dexcom was really cool and saw that it would be a useful tool during the procedure.

I've been to the store, so I think we have all the soft foods on hand that we may need.  Mashed potatoes, yogurt, cottage cheese, tuna, ice cream, popsicles (regular and sugar free), pudding, jello (regular and sugar free), and Powerade (regular and sugar free).  We've picked up his antibiotic and pain pills from the pharmacy.  What have I forgotten?  If you notice anything, please comment!  We still have tonight to pick anything up.  Otherwise, I guess we're ready for tomorrow.  Ready to KDA in yet another new area.

Finding humor in type 1 diabetes

Seth is taking anatomy and physiology this year.  One of his assignments this past week was vocabulary on the endocrine system.  He decided to put a little humor into the assignment.  Here are some examples:

Nice to know his sense of humor isn't located in his beta cells.

Expiration date

Expired Glucagon means we haven't had to use it. That's a great thing.

Memory lane

Often on Saturday mornings, I lie in bed all alone and enjoy the quiet.  I catch up on reading blogs, Facebook, etc. For some reason yesterday, I took a stroll down memory lane via Facebook back to the weekend that Seth was diagnosed.  It was quite an emotional journey!

If you have read his story before, you may remember that we first noticed he was sick on the morning of his Eagle Court of Honor Ceremony.  That was on a Sunday.  Wednesday, I took him to the doctor and he was diagnosed with mono.  By Thursday night, he was critical.  We decided to take him back to the doctor the next morning.

Here's a portion of my stroll down memory lane:

I wondered why I was taking this little stroll on a random Saturday morning, then I realized that Monday will be 18 months since his diagnosis date.  18 months.  It seems like a lifetime ago.  Most days are pretty "normal" now, with the addition of blood sugar testing, insulin injections, carrying around a bag of supplies everywhere....well, you get the idea.  It's hard to remember what life was like without all those things.  It was definitely easier then, more carefree.  But life is still good.  Seth still participates in all of the same activities and is enjoying a busy senior year.  He's thinking about college options for next year, and what he wants to do with his life, just like every other senior.  Sometimes I tend to share more of the things about our new life that are hard and different.  I need to share more successes.  I will try to make that the focus of my blog posts this spring...to share more positives, more times that diabetes took a back seat.  More ways that we KDA every day!

Ignorance is Bliss

In the days leading up to Valentine's Day, there have been some "jokes" making their way around the internet. Jokes like this:

These "jokes" aren't funny, they are ignorant and mean.  The people that make these jokes are blissfully unaware of what life is like with diabetes (either type).  They seem to think it's ok to poke fun, because the people brought it on themselves.  Guess what?  They didn't.  Yes, even type 2 diabetes.  

Am I saying that diabetes is completely off limits for jokes?  Nope.  We joke about it all the time in our house.  Humor is one way to deal with the overwhelming nature of this disease.  But there is a line and most people that are unaffected by diabetes have no clue where that line is.  I'll tell you where the line is - anything that blames the PWD for their disease.

Even though ignorance is bliss, it is only bliss to those that are ignorant.  It can be incredibly painful for those of us who are all too aware of this disease and its potential for devastation. 

For the record, several people in the awesome DOC replied to the person who posted this and he tweeted an apology.  It seems I may have helped educate and raise awareness. One person at a time.

Here's how some other wonderful bloggers have responded to these "jokes," in case you are interested. 

http://www.sweetlyvoiced.com/2014/02/snickers.html

http://whatsyourtypeoperationawareness.com/2014/02/10/what-about-bob/

http://inspiredbyisabella.com/teachablemoments/

Quarterly checkup

Seth had his quarterly checkup this week.  We knew his A1C would be up just a little bit, because it was crazy low last time. His endo even said that, "It's probably lower than mine." (Endo is non-d.)   He may see that range again one day, but I think it's pretty unrealistic to expect a teenager to stay in that range consistently. Or any PWD, for that matter.  It did indeed go up a little bit, but still was excellent. He doesn't mind at all for people to know what his A1C is, but I know that's a touchy subject in the DOC.  He wouldn't want to make anyone feel bad about their own efforts/results.  I'm so proud of him.  He works hard, and consistently, to keep his numbers in range as much as possible.  Does he have highs and lows?  Yup. Big swings throughout the day sometimes?  Yup again.  Does he make poor food choices?  Absolutely.  He is a teenager!  But he takes it all very seriously in general and makes decisions accordingly.  Some decisions are proactive (careful carb counting, pre-injecting insulin before meals, taking exercise into account) and some are reactive (treating highs and lows, again taking activity, active insulin, and other factors into account).

It's been almost a year and a half since diagnosis.  From the beginning, we have tried to remember to fit diabetes into life, not life into diabetes.  Some days are harder than others, but I feel like it is getting more routine.  I don't think it's easier, exactly.  Just more routine.  Part of life that isn't going away.  It makes me proud and sad at the same time.

He also passed his driving test and got his license on the same day as his checkup. We finally got rid of that awful picture that was taken about a week before his diagnosis.  Then he went on his first date with him driving the next day.  It was a nerve-wracking couple of days for this mom!  But like everything else he tackles, he did it well.  Diabetes isn't going to stop him or even slow him down very much.  He only slows down to test and treat as needed.  Otherwise, he is going to do what other kids his age are doing.  KDA every single day!