Sometimes he calms the storm, sometimes he calms the child....

That line is from a song I recently heard while surfing the DOC (diabetes online community) I don't think I've ever heard it before, (see my playlist below to listen to the song.) It sure hit home for me this week. It has been a tough week here in the 2 with type 1 house. We placed sensors on the boys due to increased high blood sugars and readings that were all over the place. Let me tell you that I have a love/ hate relationship with sensors. I love the info and trends you can see, thanks to sensors we found that Caden's glucose has been tanking at about 3 am (caught in 60s-70s twice this week) but the flip side is the lack of sleep takes a huge toll, those alarms are sounding about every 1/2hr some nights it seems. The lack of sleep runs me ragged, emotionally, sadness seems wrapped around me when I get this tired. Fighting D is never ending.. the burden of trying to replace a broken body system is immense and our very best is not enough so much of the time. Yet seeing my boys growing, smiling, never complaining, never letting it get to them, keeps me getting up to silence the alarms, jab the fingers, fumble the pump buttons in the dark.. night after night. But I am feeling weary, so I pray.. Jesus calm the child, if your will is not to calm the storm, please calm the child. Amen

I know how to save a life ...

Sure, folks saw me get up and quickly walk out and then return to my seat during our Sunday church service. What most didn't know is that I was in the process of saving my 8 yr old sons life at that very moment. You see, he was having an insulin reaction/ low blood sugar and his blood sugar at the time was in the 40's. Now without glucose the body will lapse into unconsciousness, seizures and possibly death. Most of the time this type response has become so normal for us that we give it little thought, when their blood sugar plummets we quickly give glucose, without a bat of the eye; and every minute of the day we are supplying them with insulin. Even a few hours without insulin and the body begins to slip into a process that can lead to death within days. But once in a while it hits me how this truly is life saving, the day to day actions we do are life support. Up until insulin was discovered in the 1920's, diabetes was a fatal disease. And I am grateful for the insulin, but it is not a cure by any means, Insulin and quick sugars allow my boys to live, and life is good and I thank God for it, but have no doubt, it is a life lived on life support. Insulin dose not fix diabetes, it does not control diabetes, what it does is prevent death and it allows you to have some management over the control of blood sugar, and if you learn all the tricks and play the game well you just might avoid losing your feet, legs, eyes, kidneys and life, at least at an early age. So thinking about these things prompted me to have a tee shirt made at the fair ..

front



back


I want a cure for diabetes, I want it to come in my son’s lifetime. I will educate and advocate, and until a cure is found I will continue to save lives....

Numbers that scare me..

I am not a person that is worried about numbers for the most part, I don't really mind my age number, I don't get to worked up about the number of dollars made/ spent (you can't take it with you ) Even the random high blood sugar of 300 or 400's doesn't shake me much, cause I know we can get it down.. but some numbers do upset me..
Today I was sitting at my computer surfing some cool home school sites when from the living room I hear.... uh! Mom come now! I'm 39!!!

Fear was in that voice, and fear sprang in my heart, because this 39 happened while hanging out on the sofa playing x- box with his brother, it came out of nowhere.. numbers this morning have been good, no extra activity to account for it, no decreased appetite or illness to blame it on.. lunch was pizza which tends to cause highs, not lows... So if for no reason at all we plummet to 39, my brain begins to wander... what ifs.... what if he had been at the lake, swimming in the deep... what if he were driving, ( it won't be long) what if it was 3:00 in the morning and I hadn't bothered to get up and check his sugar ( some nights I sleep through nighttime checks) .... was he close to having a seizure? or losing consciousness or worse?
Lows are scary, they are scary for the person having them and for the people witnessing them. They are also a part of our life, and for the most part we manage them without much fuss. Funny how saving the life of your child becomes so routine, when I heard 39, I jumped up grabbed the dextrose tabs and pixie sticks and within mins his blood sugar was back up to 77, within seconds of hearing, "come now" I had mentally reviewed where the 'BIG RED" (glucagon ) kit was and the cake icing (just in case). Numbers like 39 will continue to haunt me and keep me up at night, because numbers like 39 do scare me.

Wendy at Candy Hearts is giving away some great D prizes to kick off the new year. Would love to win some of this great stuff.

For all children with Type 1 diabetes....


T'was a Type 1 night before Christmas, by Lisa Lewis


T'was the Night before Christmas at our house this year
Mom, Dad and the boys were full of good cheer.

Both of the boy's blood sugars were stable
Diet soda and beef jerky were spread on the table

When what to my sleep deprived ears do I hear..
"mom, I don't feel good...my pump site's out I fear"

He dashed to the bathroom, to throw up a bit
While I searched through the house for the blood sugar kit

His ketones are large, we place a new site
and give extra insulin this christmas eve night.

Then tuck into bed and a wish for sweet dreams
and "don't worry, cause I'll check your sugar at three"

Then from down the hall another small voice
who says he feels low and quick sugars a must

The accucheck says 50 we must get something sweet
a small candy cane is the perfect christmas treat

He gets a small snack to keep blood sugars stable
while mom clears the used test strips from off of the table

So this Christmas eve one thing is for sure
What we want most for Christmas is ... a DIABETES CURE!
__________________

What not to say to the mother of a type one diabetic...

I found this on the children with diabetes website...

I am the mother of a type 1 diabetic. People say some pretty weird things to me. Here is a complilation of the greatest hits condensed into one conversation.


I noticed you were checking your son's blood sugar. Does he have diabetes?
Yes, he does.
Wow, he is so young, and skinny. Is it the bad kind?
I was not aware that there was a good kind of diabetes. he has Type 1 diabetes. he was diagnosed when he was only 7 yrs old.
I guess he probably shouldn't have had so much apple juice when he was a baby.
Actually, I used to force sugar down his throat just for the fun of it.
My Great Aunt Trudy had the bad kind of diabetes. She went blind and they had to cut off her leg.
That was such a nice thing for you to share with me in front of my child. Thank you for that.
I read in a magazine that there was a type of moss found growing on the Southern exposure side of the Kapok tree in Brazil that can cure diabetes. Have you tried it yet?
Like stupidity, there is no cure for Type 1 diabetes.
If Halle Berry can cure herself, why can you not cure your son?
Halle Berry was cat woman. Cat woman can do anything. My son is not cat woman.
I saw that you gave him a piece of candy a few minutes ago. Should he be eating that?
It's o.k. There are only two things my son cannot eat. Poison. And cookies. . . . made of poison.
Do you have to give him shots?
Yes, he gets at least three shots a day or wears an insulin pump attached to him 24/7.
I could never do that to my child?
You are right, it would be so much better if they died a slow, painful death.
I guess it is good that he got it so young. That way he'll never know anything else.
You are right. I am sure he will never notice that his sister does not have to poke herself ten times a day, get shots, or weigh her food. It will not occur to him that his friends can eat whatever they want, whenever they want, without having to count the carbs or get a shot. Maybe if he were as dimwitted as you seem to be that would be the case.
It has been nice talking to you. I hope he gets better soon. See if you can find out about the moss. I bet it will help.
O.k., and if I hear anything about a cure for stupid, I will let you know. Bye, bye.

Happy New Year & guess what?.....

I WON!!

The contest for the subscription to The Old Schoolhouse magazine. I am so thrilled, I love this magazine and I had not been able to renew my subscription this past year when it ended. This is the best homeschooling magazine I've found. There are still give aways to be won at Tamara's blog at Branch of Wisdom, so go sign up.

We are getting ready to start the second 12 weeks of homeschool. We made it through the last 12 weeks, but are a bit behind where we should be. I knew going into it while taking 4 college classes that it was possible we would not be able to keep up. We will have to make up time in geography, and science. I am looking foward to getting started again.

In other areas - Autumns mood has been awful the past 2 days. She is cutting again, one night was so bad I had to take her friend (was here for a sleepover) home at midnight and we had Autumn sleep on a mat beside out bed, after talking with the on call mental health therapist. We suspect this stems from problems with her 'boyfriend' or others. It is a very long and winding road we are on with her... we continue to pray and ask for prayer for her and for us in our way of dealing with her issues.

Blessings, Lisa

What deer meat does to blood sugars..........

Z got his first deer today, he is so proud. However I will say that the thrill of the hunt wrecked havoc on his blood sugars. He ranged mid 300s during the hunt and after the kill even with multiple corrections. I knew that adrenaline can increase blood sugar but I never knew how much it can affect them. Hopefully he won't battle lows tonight from all the activity and extra insulin. We're so proud of our little hunter..

November is national diabetes month so to help raise awareness of what life is like living with this disease I have made a short film about Zach's story. Please watch his story and please keep praying for a cure to be found. thanks Lisa

The stomach bug...


Yuck.. 3am this morning Z starts vomiting, this always wrecks his blood sugar and we are likely to need to go into the hospital for IV fluids. I have meds to help but so far they haven't worked. His sugar was 378 when he started and we have gotten it down to 169. Hope we don't get low while unable to keep anything down. Diabetes nurse has us bump up his basal rates a tiny bit.. I'm worried about lows..

11:50 update - keeping sips down, no ketones, BS 196, seems to feel better. Maybe we have licked it ! yeah!!
Today dd goes in for therapy, She was feeling better last week from Tuesday through the weekend, has been a little edgy again since Sunday. Got sent home Monday for smoking at school, sneaky and lying here at home. Seems 'restless and looking for trouble'. I am holding my breath. We go to court Thursday and hope to hear if RTC placement is approved in the next few days.
College classes started yesterday, I am very busy with all the reading and notes I take. Caden is back to lessons also. I will try to post my schedule soon.