Progress

It looks like we've made some progress in the D arena. Logan seems to be more interested in making sure he's doing what he needs to. He is over the 'vacation' - he doesn't like to be micro-managed, I guess.

Blood sugar checks are at least 6 times a day for the past few days. He goes low after dinner/at bedtime. He wakes up high in the morning. I made some adjustments in his basal rate and although he still woke up in the 160s at least it wasn't in the 200s like it has been. We're still battling the lows at bedtime, though. One more adjustment and maybe we'll have it taken care of.

All in all, things are a little bit better. Stressful? Yes. Time consuming? Yes. Worth it? TOTALLY!

Storage

For 15 months now, I've struggled with where to store all the supplies that a D child needs. There are meters (ketone and regular), test strips (ketone and regular), syringes, lancets, infusion sets, reservoirs, biohazard box for the needles and the many other miscellaneous things that tend to accumulate. In the past, we've stored everything in the closet (in the hall - I don't store medicines in the bathroom due to the moisture) but it's a pain to pull it all out to change a site - all those boxes are just awkward to pull out all at once. This is my solution for the time being.

I asked for a bread box for my birthday. I can leave this on the counter - easy to access - and Logan doesn't mind because no one can see what's in it (he doesn't like to bring attention to his 'difference').

In this box, I have put one month's worth of site change supplies separated into Ziplock baggies for individual site changes. There's also his "inserter" that we call R2D2 and extra lancets and test strips so they're easy to access when he/we need them. The rest of his supplies are in the adjacent room in a cabinet in case we need them.


In each baggie, there is one infusion set, one reservoir and one IV Prep wipe. If Logan grabs the insulin on his way to the counter, he's all set to change his site (he's a pretty independent kid and likes to do it himself).



When the site change is over, we've been putting the baggie inside the bread box inside just one baggie so they're not a mess and we can reuse them when we get ready to load the box for the next month. Granted, it's only been a few weeks but this seems to work very well for us so far.

A Vacation from D

Logan is going to take a vacation from D. I'm taking back control over all things diabetic. I will be checking Logan's bg and recording his numbers for at least the rest of this week. He'll continue to use his pump but I will be responsible for it instead of him.

We had another meltdown tonight when I realized that Logan is lying to us about his numbers. He's not checking his blood as often as he should and when he eats, he's not taking the correct amount of insulin. With a pump, this is actually probably harder than just taking care of himself but it's the way it is. I think the poor kid is just overwhelmed. He's being very hard on himself for all the lies and the damage he's doing to his little body.

I've made arrangements to have my next door neighbor (my mom ;) ) check Logan's blood at lunchtime since I'm working but I'll take over when he's at home. No more of him worrying about numbers and no more lies! I'm taking over.

This is not a punishment...this is my last ditch effort to care for Logan the way he needs before I take the pump away and go back to injections. He doesn't want to go back and neither do I but I want him to be as healthy as possible and if we can't get the pump to work in our favor, we'll go back to the way it was when his A1c was 6.1 even though that means 4-6 injections a day not to mention the many finger pricks.

I can't imagine how hard it is for these kids. As a parent, it's hard to watch your child have to deal with D daily but as a child - especially one that remembers a time before dx when there were no injections, no insulin and they didn't know or even care what a pancreas is...a time of innocence and health without all the effort. I'm going to try to give a bit of this "before D" time back to Logan.

Our HOPE

Here's our family sportin' our HOPE FOR A CURE FOR TYPE 1 DIABETES! A Day of Hope

This is actually a sort of breakthrough for our family. Logan never wants anything to do with diabetes and never wants to participate in anything having to do with it. I was able to get him to do this with us, though. :) Both kids had fun. How often does your mom encourage you to write on your hand?

Touching

I work from home. I supervise other people that work from their homes. I've been in my position for the past two and a half years. My employees are my friends and I care for all of them.

Tonight, one of them (who moved to Chicago to care for her ailing mother) called to tell me she'd had her new baby girl...and then she told me what she did with the umbilical cord blood. My employee, my friend with whom I cried when Logan was diagnosed, donated her cord blood to a company that uses stem cells to research Type 1 Diabetes.

The reason she did this? Because when I took time off to care for Logan in December when he got home from the hospital and before he went back to school, I told all the ladies (and the few gents, too) why I had been gone and what was going on with my family. Considering I have nearly 100 "employees" it wasn't a small announcement.

My friend in Chicago thought of my son when deciding what she wanted to do with her cord blood and the stem cells therein...a 10 yo thousands of miles away whom she's never met...and all the other children in the same situation that I mourn for each day. I think she's absolutely amazing.

Shade Your Eyes!

Lexi, Daddy and I helped Lexi paint ONE wall in her room a bright pink. We rearranged her room, got her new sheets and a comforter plus some wall stickers - all in Littlest Pet Shop.

Here's how it all turned out:

FYCD Camp!

I sent Logan off to a week-long diabetes camp, begrudgingly on his part, on June 21. We celebrated Father's Day the day before and we went shopping for all the things he needed for the five days I'd be handing my baby over to very smart and experienced but virtual strangers.

In the end, Logan had a blast and can't wait to go back.