Ahoy there me hardies

Well shiver me timbers, a bunch of skallywags told me today that if I learned to talk like them, I could be a pirate too. Bekah's class attended the musical version of "How I Became A Pirate" today. It was held in an ornate theater in P-town. D-behaved (mostly due to the strep throat Bekah is getting over so her numbers might have been on the low side but throw in that illness and numbers were a little above the range I like to see). All in all we had a great time! David got to spend the afternoon with grandma and grandpa (my parents). They don't often get to watch him because they both work. Mom is gearing up for retirement and taking more days off and Dad is suffering from a pain in the neck (not me) and waiting for surgery so he was home and happy to bide his time with his grandson.

Here are some pictures of the trip...

Mrs. M reading the book to the class while we waited for the buses

me and my girl, we are wearing matching flowers in our hair

Bekah and her best bud on the bus

this fine young lady is actually a chair, can you see her nose?  it made from a faucet, good thing she didn't have post nasal drip (groan)

Don't look now but I think the sun might be shining

you actually get a better view when the very brief sun break went away this is in the ceiling at the theater

this is the set, they wouldn't let me take photos once the play started

It has been a while since my last post so I have a few things to update.  Bekah's ears got re-examined and she was able to see the audiologist.  The audiologist checked to make sure her ears were indeed healthy and not full of wax, then tested to make sure there was no hidden fluid in there.  Bekah then went in to a sound proof booth and her hearing was tested.  She passed!  The only sound she couldn't hear was the lowest tone and that should not have an affect on her learning and gives us a base line if her hearing seem to get worse. 

David is on the fast track to potty training.  I really wanted to wait until summer to push the potty training.  I hate potty training!  If I could give my kids to someone else for a season that would be the one I would pick.  Bekah was easy peasy but everything with Bekah has been easy peasy (except that she is my D kiddo).  Josh and I went round and round and I thought I was going to have him graduating high school in diapers or lose my sanity or both.  I made every mistake in the book.  I screamed and yelled a little more than I am proud to say.  With the girls I just let it go until they took the lead.  I was planning on that with David.  He took an interest at about 16 month old.  1 year olds pee too much for me to have the desire to go completely diaper free at that point.  He has peed and pooped in the toilet many times, sometimes many times in one day but I had not bought any unders for him.  He got some money for Easter and I went out and bought some unders with his Easter money.  I counted our diaper stash on Wed and was down to 10 and really didn't have the money to go buy more.  So out came the "underwears" on Thursday.  He did fabulous!  Only a couple of dribbles in the unders and then when he got tired one pee and that was on the kitchen floor so it was easy to clean up.  He "made snakes" (poop) in the toilet and got lots of little prizes (candy from my low stash) for listening to his body and doing his business in the toilet.  When I told him not to poop in his underwear, he said "that would be disgusting!"  (keeping my fingers crossed that he doesn't try it) Today becuase he was at my parents house I put him in diapers so they didn't have to deal with the messes.  Tomorrow the unders will be back on his little hiny.  I'm not sure I am ready for him to be growing up so darn fast! 

The puppy needs to learn a thing or two from David.  She has not once pooped in the house but every time I take her out of her crate, she pees on me.  I think it has to do with a tiny bladder and submissive peeing so I am using a towel to grab her or opening her crate door and calling her over to the door (she is in too much of a hurry to squat on the carpet).  She will be going to puppy kindergarten soon so I am hoping we can work it out with the trainer then.  Josh is still doing amazing with her.  I need to get some new pictures becuase she is growing, fast!

Endo appt is next week.  This one is not going to be fun.  Ear infection followed by strep throat less than two weeks later.  We have been cranking that temp basal but still having numbers in the 3 and sometimes 4 hundreds.  I didn't like the A1C of 7.2%  last time but I think that would be beautiful this time.  Oh well, I can honestly say I have done my best.  The other night Bekah's BG went down to 104 and I sat up checking every half and hour to make sure she didn't crash but wanted so badly, especially being that she is sick, for her BG to hang out there for a while.  It stayed between 104 and 108 for a few hours and then went up to 112 and I decided to catch some sleep.  An hour and a half later it was back up to 210.  For a little while I have to hope that a lot of healing was taking place as her body was not having to fight HBG along with the infection.  You win some, you loose some and this A1C probably won't be her best but Tuesday we get to wipe the slate clean (sort of) and hopefully spring will finally come and we can be out doors more and more active to keep those numbers in a healthy range. 

I couldn't say it better...

So many of my friends both IRL and around the DOC are going through struggles or have had some tough days as of late.  You know who you are and this is for you. Thank you God for being there with each one to hold them through the darkness, the fear and the faith stretching things they are each facing.

Happy Easter!

What does Easter mean to me

Easter to me is more than cute little bunnies and eggs made of chocolate.  Easter to me is more than a day to feast on ham and celebrate spring.   Easter to me is more than cute new spring dresses and suits.  Easter to me is more than a Sunday to dress up and go to church.

Easter to me is a celebration of love.  It's a day to remember the most love filled act ever done for me (and for you).  You see God is crazy about me (you too).  He loves me (and you) so much that He couldn't bare the thought of eternity with out me (or you) so He gave His one and only son so that I(we) might have a life eternal with Him.  That when my days (yours too) on this earth come to and end, I (you) will be greeted in paradise and get to live there for all eternity with Him.

I am a good person.  No matter how good I am though, I can never measure up to God's standard of perfection.  To compensate for my imperfection, God sent Jesus who was perfect and He took the penalty of my sin on Himself, dying a brutal death on the cross.  Then He overcame sin and death and miraculously rose from the dead.   

This video may be a little hard to watch but it is a good picture of the reality of what happened. The whole time He was thinking about you (and me) and this act of love is one that no one can ever replicate

Jog-a-thon

Bekah's school decided to do a jog-a thon as a fund raiser for the PTA.  When I first got the information sheet that said she would be running for 20 min straight I started to panic.  Then my self talk began (the good kind) "You can do this, you rock PE and the last illness, this is a piece of cake".  Those of you with more active children than my docile little Bekah are probably busting a gut a the idea of 20 min of activity stressing me out. (it's ok, you have earned it) You live it EVERY-SINGLE-DAY.  Bekah does play around and get pretty active with her siblings and the puppy but running for 20 min straight is a bit different.

Here is how it went down.  Lunch bolus left 10 carbs uncovered.  Check BG 30 min prior to jogging to make my plan. 222 was the # that the meter shared with me.  A nice even number and now my plan was not to lower her basal but to check again right before the run and if she was above 200 then do nothing and below give juice.  BG check exclaimed 210.

I was probably quite the sight as I walked in a zig zag pattern on the inside of the track with a toddler on one hip and a juice box in hand "chasing" my daughter around the track.  We decided that she was to give me a thumbs down sign if she felt low.  She ran 11 1/8 mile laps in 20 minutes and never needed the juice.  A post exercise BG check showed a 108.  Thank-you very much!  I got a little cocky I think as I patted my self on the back.  The kids each got a freezer pop when it was done (6g carb left uncovered to hopefully keep that 108 stable).  I'm still thinking "heck yeah I rocked this".  I headed back to the class room to return all of the supplies I had taken out to the field with me. 

As I was about to walk out the door I decided we should do another BG check to see if she was going to need a snack before going home.  67...crap! (it had been less than 15 minutes and she had even eaten a freezer pop) I didn't rock it, I suck.  Next time I will do something different not sure what but this didn't work as lovely as I had hoped.  Luckily one treatment of 4 Starbursts brought it back up to a nice 104 and then I had her eat a 15 carb uncovered snack of cheese and crackers.

Unfortunately I was too busy playing pancreas to think about taking any pictures.  The sun was out (mostly-we did get some sprinkles) and it was a fun event!  David was super cute too  as he cheered his sister on.  "Go Bekah!  Go Bekah!" was heard echoing out of David's mouth from the center of the track as we raced back and forth after our girl.

What do you do with that bunny?

Easter was the first holiday post dx for our family last year.  Jelly beans and chocolate bunnies among other confections have always made their way into Easter baskets and a part of Easter breakfast (Easter all daylong really) at our house.  We had an education appt the week prior to Easter.  I was quite concerned about what to do with Easter candy.  Was it even allowed? The CDE said you just bolus for it and make sure that her hands don't have any sugar when you check her blood glucose level.  Really?  It's that simple?

I asked Bekah what 2 kinds of candy she wanted the Easter bunny to bring.  Jelly beans and a chocolate bunny was her answer.  The jelly beans I knew had 1g carb each and I could stash the rest for lows, but the bunny.....yikes!  When my husband and I finally went shopping there were two sizes left the HUGE ones and the tiny ones.  The practical me said get the tiny ones.  We got the HUGE ones.

Easter morning came and the kids were thrilled with their bunnies (I wish I had a picture, they had the longest ears I have ever seen on a bunny).  There was no way Bekah was going to eat the whole bunny or even half at one sitting so now what do we do with this bunny??   I didn't have a scale at the time and we were still on MDI.

I added up the total carbs in said bunny and becuase Bekah was on MDI and allowed some free 15 carb snacks I divided it by 15.  I can't remember now how many I got but then I took a knife and made hash marks in equal sections so that each section was about 15 carbs. (I also didn't know about carb factors at the time either- I was very green)

This is kind of what Bekah's bunny looked like (hers was much more well endowed in the ear department though):

Bekah was able to enjoy her bunny and I didn't stress about it.  Her BGs didin't seem to be to off, I think I SAWGed it pretty good especially for a newb =)

The game

I'm sure you are all familiar with it.  Running around the house, doing jumping jacks, bouncing on the trampoline, drinking lots of carb free fluids.  The rules change but the objective is the same, getting that BG# < 200. 

Last Friday, the school called informing me that Bekah's BG was 378 and she was looking like she wasn't feeling well.  I went to pick her up and once we got home did another BG check obtaining a 410.  We have rarely had site failures but this was definitely one.  I checked her for ketones, and she had none.  We changed the site and insulin, did a correction on that HBG and then I gave her the go ahead to RUN, JUMP and PLAY.  We did BG checks every half an hour.  We even did a temp basal increase of 50% for 4 hours. We corrected again and finally at 8:30 she was able to eat dinner. 

As Bekah lives longer with T1D, I have found that I can be a little more restrictive about what and when she eats with out crushing her spirit.  She doesn't feel as defeated when D tries to win the game anymore.  She is stronger now and ready to take on the challenge.  This was the first time that I said no carbs until BG is under 200.  Normally when she has a HBG, I just keep fighting D and let her add fuel to the fire becuase she is a kid first and I don't want D to be too intrusive in her life.  It usually takes close to 24 hrs to get that HBG down to where I'd like to see it when I play the game that way.   It took longer than I had hoped but I am glad that I had her on my team this time as we worked together to get that number down.

Attention whore

In my world D seems to be a bit of an attention whore.  Every time I go somewhere or try to accomplish something with out focusing on D it has to pop out it's head and demand "look at me!" 

I went to get my hair done and D took center stage, I took David to get pictures taken and D tried to mess up the fun.  I could go on and on. It's become kind of a joke.  I have come to expect a call from school when I go to Costco or try to meet a friend for coffee.  If I stay home (where I am more likely to be thinking about D) then all is well.  No pump problems, no weird BG numbers, no bolus questions, usually at home I get nothing.

Even my anniversary, my husband took me to a movie and I missed part of it standing in the lobby talking the gracious friend who was watching Bekah and David through a pump issue. 

This week took the cake.  D managed to not just annoy me with it's antics but it actually pissed me off a bit. 

I have a dear friend who is going through a really rough time. I went over to her house to try to help, or even just listen to what was going on and let her vent.  I just wanted to be there for my friend.  The school called 2xs during the time I was there.  I had to cut our visit short and go pick Bekah up from school.  The me before D would have been there most of the day helping with kids, laundry, running errands and wouldn't have left until I knew there was a hot meal waiting for her family.  Instead I could barely even concentrate on our conversation becuase I was worried about Bekah.  My friend understands but she shouldn't have to.  I am sick of everyone having to sacrifice because of this beast to manage disease! 

I know I am not alone in this, most of my readers deal with the same stuff.  I just needed a to vent.  I feel better now, thanks!

The downside of making BG checks fun

I always try to make things fun for my kids especially the not so fun stuff.  I have made every effort to make BG checks more fun.  I put pokers (with out the needle) and extra meters in the doctor kit for the kids to play with.  Bekah got stickers and prizes at first to help ease the sting of those first several checks.  We named the devices that we use,  "hokey pokey", "mator the meter" and "tips the strips" are pictured above.

I had gestational D when I was pregnant with David.  I keep an extra meter and a few strips around for me to check from time to time to keep tabs on my BG becuase having gestational D puts me at high risk for T2. (the ones pictured in the photo above are what I use, they are what Bekah used before switching to the pump and the One Touch system) I had been feeling particularly thirsty so I decided to check my BG.  (I got a 117)  I then walked away from the meter (I placed it back up on the counter which I thought that David couldn't reach) and went to go do something else leaving Josh doing dishes and David playing near by.  I hear the two talking about something and it sounded interesting so I went in to check on them.  Josh told me that he had looked over at David with the lancing device in his hand and his finger bleeding like crazy.  David  was insistent that he "check" so Josh helped him, obtaining an error message.  (Josh has never wanted anything to do with BG checks and in fact is the only one of my children who had not been poked with "hokey pokey" and had his BG checked)  He decided after watching David do it with tons of blood and no tears that it must not hurt so he was game to do a check.  His check obtained a 92 from the meter.  My big strong teenage guy was reeling a bit from the pain though.  He couldn't believe that it really hurt that bad. 

Lesson learned, my 2 year old can reach the counters now so it is important to make sure the meter is put away and not just left on the edge of the counter.  It's not going to stop me from making the yucky stuff a little more fun though =)

I'm still here...

I'm still here.  The (dark, cloudy, very rainy) weather has me feeling down making it hard to even have the desire to blog.  I am a NW girl through and through and love the rain but it is really getting to me.  (I apologize for the Eeyore tone to this blog post, it's just where I am) 

I did get all 4 kids in to the doc for various reasons this week. 

David had a well child check. I mentioned my concerns with his BG (we have had a couple of fasting 130s but then every other time it has been in the low 90 or high 80s) and the night terrors. We decided to wait for the results from the trialnet study before doing any further testing. The night terrors seem to be linked to drinking cow's milk.  Overall he checked out great! 

Bekah had a recheck on the ear infection and it looked good so we scheduled an appt with the audiologist for Thursday. (I'll keep you posted)

Meg had another sore throat and turns out strep again.  (that is the 3rd time this year) I thoroughly disinfected her room and every surface she had touched (the whole house), got new tooth brushes and tried and different family of antibiotics.  I also kept her home from school for 2 extra days to rest so hopefully she won't relapse again.

Josh was back at the GI specialist for a follow up and he has been released!  No more follow ups etc.  His tummy issues are better.  He took nexium for a couple of months and started drinking significantly more water. 


I have to say that this year of seeing specialists for both Josh and Megan along with all of the trips in for strep throat and ear infections not to mention Bekah's stuff has me a little tired of doctor's offices.  Gone are the days when I only see the doctor for well child visits. I didn't realize how good we had it.  I took for granted  having healthy kids.  I know many of your kids see multiple specialist and I feel for you.  It takes up so much of life to manage and continue to consult specialists when you have health challenges.  I am so thankful though that we live in a place where we are able to see specialist to get the answers and help we need to keep our kids as healthy as possible. 

Spring break wrap up

Today is the last official day of spring break here for my kiddos. The weather has been crappy.(March we hit a record of 18 inches of rain for the month-I contemplated building a big boat to take me to some place sunny) This week we have had rain-lots of rain, hail, thunder and even a little snow. Friday though was glorious! When I pray for good weather, I always ask God for a sunny day with a few little puffy clouds in the sky. (Just one of my little quirks) I asked for at least one nice day over our spring break and we got it! Not one drop of rain fell on Friday. The sky was blue with just a few little puffy clouds and the temperature was in the upper 50s.(It could have been a bit warmer but I am NOT complaining) We spent a few hours at the park that day along running a few errands. (I didn't take any pics that day becuase I was too busy soaking up the fun and the sun)

We got to have some cousin time as my sister and her kids come to visit for a few days. We went over to CHAP (Children's Healing Art Project).

We found a new cool kids salon and David got his hair cut. One of my good friends did his first few cuts and then she moved to another state. I have taken him to a place (just a little nicer than Super Cuts) and didn't have good luck with the cowlicks. I researched and found a place tailored for kids that had recently opened on the other side of town. Bekah has been growing her hair out and I gave her the option of buying some new clips to keep her hair out of her eyes or getting it cut and she chose the clips. That was until she saw this cool place. She wanted in on the hair cut action as well. (She is super shy and doesn't like adults that she doesn't know well) She was totally in to it and even picked a new look from a book.

David loved the police car and he got to watch "Buzz and Woody" while getting his hairs cut

Here is Bekah before

and after =)

Miss Kihembah (pronounced kimba) took up most of our spring break. Josh is doing a great job with her. I have to say there is not much cuter than a 2 year old playing with a puppy. Border Collies and Australian Shepherds are herding dogs. Being a mix of both our little gal is a master herder at only 8 weeks old. At first we thought it was cute that she was herding David but now we realize that we need to nip this behavior in the bud. (pun intended) She is one smart puppy! She is pretty much house trained after a week. We only had one poopy in the house and that was in the first 24 hours after bringing her home. She has even rung the bell that we put on the door for her and then went out and made a poop in the yard. Good doggy! She has a tiny bladder and has trouble holding it from her crate (up in Josh's room) down the stairs and across the living room to out side. We carry her so we have been doing lots of laundry as well.

Josh taking a nap with his pup

Isn't she a cute pup? 

Well tomorrow is back to the grind.  I have enjoyed our lazy days of sleeping in and just hanging out.  BG wise it's been quite odd and I think Bekah's pancreas may have kicked the bucket.  There have been times when I thought she had come out of the honeymoon phase but I am quite convinced now.  Since her ear infection she had one day of absolute bliss.  BG levels went from 93-127 ALL day long.  24 hours of this, I thought we had reached some sort of BG nirvana.  The next day was HBG all day long so I set a temp basal increase of 30% for 24 hrs and then again 24 hrs later.  After three days of this and still having trouble keeping her BG numbers in a decent range I went in and pushed her basals all up a notch in the pump.  We will ride this out for 3 days (tomorrow being day 3) and then begin doing some basal tests to see where her basal needs are falling right now.  She could be growing,or that infection could be back.  I guess it's mostly just watch and wait to see if her insulin needs are increasing. 

Opening weekend!

In February I was blessed to get invited to a sneak preview of the movie Soul Surfer. I did a blog on my review of the movie. (I was not paid or even asked to do the review. I did get to watch the movie for free and was given a t-shirt and a few other promo items) I wanted to re-post that review today because this is opening weekend. If you get the chance to hit the movie theater this weekend, make sure to watch this movie!

Last night, I was invited to attend a preview screening of the movie, "Soul Surfer", that comes out in theaters on April 8th.  "Soul Surfer" is the story of Bethany Hamilton, a teen surfer who was heading toward  a pro career when she was attacked by a shark and lost one of her arms. 



The movie is the story of how Bethany and her family faced this trial and through their faith in Jesus, got back up again.

Helen Hunt plays Bethany's mother. As I watched this story unfold, there were so many parallels that I found in my own life as I have faced the dx of T1D in my daughter. Bekah didn't lose her arm in a shark attack and is not a surfer but she did lose the main function of her pancreas due to her own body's attack on itself and life as we knew it before, will never be the same. I bawled like a baby as I watched the ambulance carry Bethany to the hospital and her mom praying to God "please don't take her". There were so many phrases that Helen Hunt said in the movie that resonated with me as I have faced this past year and a new normal in our lives, in fact many of them I have said or thought myself. 

There is a scene in the hospital cafeteria where you can see the struggle in Bethany's older brother that is so much my own son Joshua and how he has dealt with Bekah's dx and our new normal. Bethany's determination and fight, remind me a bit of Bekah. Bekah won't let me do a lot of her care because she is determined to do it herself. The strength the movie portrays Bethany as having, reminds me of Bekah and her strength and determination.

I don't want to give away the whole movie but I do encourage you to go see it and if you can, go to the opening weekend on April 8th. This is a beautiful movie that has an inspiring story and is appropriate for pretty much all ages. There is no gore or swearing and even the beach scenes are done modestly. Unlike a lot of movies with a Christian theme to them, this movie is not cheesy. If you are not a Bible thumping, Jesus lover, like me, I think you will still take away so much from this movie.  Here is the trailer:

Spring Break

It's spring break here for my kids!  That means I'm taking the week off of blogging (and facebook) and I probably won't be reading or commenting on any blogs either.  I am going to try to just shut down my computer for the week and hang out with my kids.  Have a great week all!

But first meet our new pup

Happy Anniversary!

April 3, 1992, I said "I do" to my best friend and the love of my life.  It was the best decision I ever made.  Here's a little montage of the last 22 years (we dated for 3 years before we got married)  I'm sure you'll get a kick out of my hair (can you say big hair era).  I have been with Jason longer than I was ever alive with out him.  I am so thankful for such an amazing man to call mine!

I fooled 'em

Happy April 1st!  I wanted to share with you the lovely trick I played on my family.  They were all unsuspecting becuase I had not been feeling well and I am not nearly as good at pulling pranks as my jovial husband.  When dinner came around I served them this:

It looks innocent enough.  A pot pie and a cupcake.  Actually looks pretty good huh =)  It was delicious!  The trick was that the pot pie was pudding with starburst shaped into peas and carrots and hershey's cookies and cream bites as the "chicken" in a graham cracker crust covered with a regular pie crust and then baked.  The cupcakes were actually meatloaf with mashed potatoes for the "frosting". 

here is the pie before the top crust went on, you can see the yummy "carrots and peas"

once the crust is on, you never know what is inside

the final baked pies (they leaked a little so I probably filled them too full)

un-frosted cupcakes (meatloaf)

yummy pink "frosting" actually mashed potatoes

finished cupcakes

Now for Bekah's reaction (I had done this for the older kids before but they were awesome to keep quiet and go with my trick)

she has never had pot pie before and is actually kind of picky

first bite

yummy!

 

 

 

I hope you didn't fall for any April fools day pranks!  Or if you did it was all in fun.  Happy April fools day!