Hawaii has come and gone and after a good month of parental stress regarding traveling with a little diabetic I couldn't be happier to report a fantastic trip with pretty darn good numbers to show for it! Truthfully, for the first 4 days of our 7 day trip she was almost NEVER out of our desired 100-150 range. It was crazy. That never happens four days in a row, nevermind with me having no true idea of how many exact carbs we're looking at during the breakfast buffet and random bread sizes etc we experimented with the whole trip. I'm feeling pretty proud right now, a moment of 'pat yourself on the back' if you will. I think we had one bottle of lantus go bad due to heat (although I carried an icepack in our insulated lunch box that we use for her supplies, I think one day at the pool it just didn't cut it). She didn't have any lows under 60 - which is wonderful for us, and that didn't even show until day 5. So awesome. We did start to see some pretty high numbers when the Lantus petered out, but that was easily remedied with our backup! Preparation paid off!
This was truly a redemption trip of us, for those of you following (or new), you'll maybe remember that our last trip to Hawaii (Kauai) was October of 2011. That's right, the week before she was diagnosed and was clearly off. She looked thin, was drinking ridiculous amounts of water, and hardly sleeping. So... while I know we had a good trip and I wouldn't take it back - it's absolutely overshadowed by the whole coming back, finding out she was diabetic and spending 3 days in PICU thing. I see photos and know we were enjoying ourselves but think "oh, that was when she was pretty sick and we had no idea". This trip made up for it, Hawaii redeemed :) Like it's Hawaii's fault right? Hah!
I started the pump-obtaining process (Animas Ping) about a week and a half before I left. Theoretically we should've had it a few days ago so that we could get started and attend a pump start appointment on May 17th - sadly, it's still stuck with insurance so I don't have that pump in my greedy little hands just yet. I had to postpone, hopefully no later than mid-June but I'm waiting to hear back. I'm going to wear the pump for 7 days during the saline trial, then transfer it to Sierra for the remaining 3 days only (who wants to be the one to explain to a NOW 4 year old that we're going to wear the pump but still have to do shots for 3 days? Cruel I tell you! I get it, but cruel none the less). That way I get used to pushing the buttons and doing a 'set' change (which is what they call when you put in a new tube/needle and fill the pump w/ new insulin). You typically only change every 3ish days, assuming all is going well, so that will be a big benefit assuming we do it correctly and don't have trouble with kinked tubes or other things I hear about. We'll hope for the best, it's going to be frustrating at times, as are shots - though I feel like I have a pretty good handle on those these days - but it's a learning curve and I'm prepared to take it on.
An interesting point out of left field for you - I still get up 95% of nights between 2-3am to do Sierra's blood sugar, often she now sleeps through the pokes (thank goodness), and she's great when I have to wake her for the random low so she can consume some sugar - but I think my body is sadly adjusted to never getting a full nights sleep. I'm used to just being tired, and maybe once or twice a week it completely catches up with me and I feel like crying when I have to roll out of bed, but I do it, and life goes on. Funny how you adjust, isn't it? Sometimes I just say up until midnight and if her number looks good I'll let both of us sleep a full 7ish hours, which is FABULOUS, but I try not to do it too often because then it's even harder to get up the next night at 2 again. I think the hardest part of sleep deprivation (even when adjusted to it) is the 3pm hour. Right when Max is getting up from his nap and I'm 100% ready for one. Ah well. What are you going to do, right? Those friends of mine out in the non-virtual world, if you ever wonder why I look so damned tired or 'busted' (as Frank and I lovingly put it) at times this is why ;) Makeup can only do so much some days! I'm usually ok though. We're adapting pretty well, I suppose.
And now? A virtual slide show!
Until next time... Aloha!
Glad you guys had a good trip! It looks like it was fun- and you deserved a great time to make up for the last few crazy months!
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