Thanks to all of those leaving messages, I do get them, I do read them, and I do appreciate them. I hope to start actually being active in replying too - but like I said, my time here is somewhat fleeting between the two kids right now. I really do love reading your responses and notes for us, though, so please don't stop if you have something you'd like to say!
We're moving into 'month 2' (just barely) with our Animas Ping.
As with most things diabetes, having a continuous 'great' streak doesn't always seem to work out. Though I genuinely do believe the pump has leveled the playing field a great deal, there are still good days and bad days. Sometimes consecutively one way or another. We've had a few more ups and downs lately, but I think her overall averages are more predictable now than they ever were before.
I'm becoming very comfortable with pump functions, with the ablities given to us like temp basals (where you can temporary increase or decrease the continuous 24/7 drip amount at any given time for xyz hours by xzy%). I think temp basals are helping Sierra get more sleep on those nights when I check her at 2am (which I do, every night) and she's a little under 100 and I want to ease off on her amount for an hour or an hour and a half to let her come back up WITHOUT waking her and making her coat her clean teeth with sugar pills.
Since our last post we've had two, I guess you could call them, mini-victories.
The first was our first bout with a fever. A high fever (102.5-103) for about 24 hours. Sierra caught hand food and mouth from her little brother and it was a little nerve wracking knowing ahead what was coming. But after reading some helpful forums filled with advice from other parents of t1 kids and sickness, I learned that to battle the high numbers she was facing as a result (fevers/dehydration cause highs, which can be really difficult to get down since you can't really force-hydrate a 4 year old all night) with - you guessed it - temp basals! Just in the other direction :) I upped her dose about 30% for 4 hours here and there and we did pretty well. We made it! She was a trooper despite eating being a little difficult with her throat being sore for a few days. I was really worried but she was great.
Our second 'first', was Sierra being a flower girl in a friends wedding last weekend! Not really a diabetes related first, but taking her to a wedding (just she and I) and guessing at buffet food carb counts (right? good luck!!!) and - yep - CAKE! plus dancing and the nervous energy of walking down the aisle by herself... well, turns out it was a good mix for her, because she stayed between 90-150 ALL DAY.
Awesome. So awesome. And seriously, how cute was she in her dress?
She forgot to throw her pedals but the fact that she didn't 4yroldFREAKOUT on not having me walk with her was pretty epic on its own. I was very proud of her, she was a great date that night.
And not to leave Max out, he's started picking up on our habits with Sierra (she asks "Can I eat now?" pretty much every meal after her pump 'motors' as she calls it), and is pretty consistently saying "I CAN EAT!?!?" He's very curious about her kit, but knows not to mess with it's contents, which I think is pretty cool for a 2 year old.
Speaking of Max, for a moment, as he gets older I start to wonder about what it will be like for him in our little family and growing up with a diabetic older sister. I think a lot of good, solid character will be built in the long run, hopefully a caring, able little guy. But I guess the mom part of me worries about the juggling of attention, and how to let him know and always help him remember in the mix of the craziness that he, too, is important and loved. I don't doubt we'll do our best to show him, but I also know how easy it can be to get lost in the day to do juggle with all there is to do for our little diabetic. It is pretty consuming, and it does require pretty frequent attention and it does make certain things 'different'.
I just hope he doesn't ever feel too lost in the shuffle. That'd be such a bummer. They're both special kids.
Those of you without diabetics may wonder if we worry about Max being diagnosed at some point.
Hell yes, we do! But, not overly. Though his percentage of likelihood goes up slightly due to Sierra's diagnosis, I think worrying too much about it defeats the now. We are doing an annual test for anti-bodies in Max (and myself until I'm 40) to see if we may develop type 1, and so far we're both clear. It's a relief, at least for now, to know we can focus on this big learning curve and life change without the additional child thrown into the mix. It's not unknown for some families to have 2 or 3 children with the same diagnosis, which is daunting but I imagine much like we have for Sisi - you just keep calm and carry on. What else is there to do? It'd definitely add more complication to our daily lives, but it's sort of like adding a second child. At least we'd know what we were doing and that's half the battle.
(Well, ok, SORT OF know what we're doing, sometimes it's still a huge guessing game, but hopefully a few years from now we'll have an even better handle on more situations as we experience them).
For now, though, we'll just go with the flow and keep our eyes on the horizon.
