11.06.2009
2.24.2009
Quiet is a Good Thing
It's 9:43 and I'm sitting in the house alone. Quiet. No tv, no radio, no talking, fighting, screaming, whining, asking, asking, asking, asking... I like quiet.
Janie and Jacob are at school. Mark's at work. I should be at the gym, but I'm at the tail end of yet another round of crud, can't go three minutes without blowing my nose, lovely. This makes three times so far this year, another sinus infection. Blech.
Pumping is going well. Janie enjoys having the pump, really enjoys it. All the extra checking and tweaking is worth it for her and I am so happy about that. She loves not doing injections and is handling the site changes so well. Again, she shows me how much crap she can deal with. We are changing her infusion site every two days, we'll do it when she gets home from school today. Mark and I are getting faster at doing them, it's not quite so foreign anymore. I'm in touch with Dr. W every two or three of days... tweak this, change that, up this, bump that down. One day soon we'll get it figured out, her numbers will be great and and then it all change - that's how diabetes is. But, I'll know better what to do on my own by then. We were tweaking MDI (multiple daily injections) by ourselves before starting the pump, and we'll be tweaking the pump ourselves soon.
I am tired. You think this has anything to do with being sick three times in seven weeks? It's hard to do anything around the house, hard to motivate myself to do anything other than what I HAVE to do - get the kids to school, pick them up, take care of Janie, bathe, do clothes when absolutely necessary, provide something to eat. I made a sour cream noodle bake last night and it was a hit, mostly, so that was good. Jacob didn't like the chopped green onions that were in it. I have been making a point to get to bed earlier, but I'm still up three of four times a night checking Janie. I'm not up long, but I'm up long enough to keep myself from getting good deep sleep. Things should settle down in a week or so. After we get pump settings tweaked I shouldn't have to be checking so much during the night. Will probably always check at least once, though.
Happy stuff... Mark and I are going on a date this weekend! It's Restaurant Week here in the Denver area. We're going to watch Elizabeth's kids Saturday while she and Tristan go out. Sunday she's going to watch J&J while Mark and I go to Elway's downtown. Janie's a bit nervous, we haven't left her with anyone since diagnosis. We're going to ask Elizabeth to pick up McDonald's for dinner. We know carb count and how she reacts to the food. Janie can test and operate the pump. I'll go over emergency stuff w/ E. It'll be good getting our with the Hubby Man for a bit.
Janie and Jacob are at school. Mark's at work. I should be at the gym, but I'm at the tail end of yet another round of crud, can't go three minutes without blowing my nose, lovely. This makes three times so far this year, another sinus infection. Blech.
Pumping is going well. Janie enjoys having the pump, really enjoys it. All the extra checking and tweaking is worth it for her and I am so happy about that. She loves not doing injections and is handling the site changes so well. Again, she shows me how much crap she can deal with. We are changing her infusion site every two days, we'll do it when she gets home from school today. Mark and I are getting faster at doing them, it's not quite so foreign anymore. I'm in touch with Dr. W every two or three of days... tweak this, change that, up this, bump that down. One day soon we'll get it figured out, her numbers will be great and and then it all change - that's how diabetes is. But, I'll know better what to do on my own by then. We were tweaking MDI (multiple daily injections) by ourselves before starting the pump, and we'll be tweaking the pump ourselves soon.
I am tired. You think this has anything to do with being sick three times in seven weeks? It's hard to do anything around the house, hard to motivate myself to do anything other than what I HAVE to do - get the kids to school, pick them up, take care of Janie, bathe, do clothes when absolutely necessary, provide something to eat. I made a sour cream noodle bake last night and it was a hit, mostly, so that was good. Jacob didn't like the chopped green onions that were in it. I have been making a point to get to bed earlier, but I'm still up three of four times a night checking Janie. I'm not up long, but I'm up long enough to keep myself from getting good deep sleep. Things should settle down in a week or so. After we get pump settings tweaked I shouldn't have to be checking so much during the night. Will probably always check at least once, though.
Happy stuff... Mark and I are going on a date this weekend! It's Restaurant Week here in the Denver area. We're going to watch Elizabeth's kids Saturday while she and Tristan go out. Sunday she's going to watch J&J while Mark and I go to Elway's downtown. Janie's a bit nervous, we haven't left her with anyone since diagnosis. We're going to ask Elizabeth to pick up McDonald's for dinner. We know carb count and how she reacts to the food. Janie can test and operate the pump. I'll go over emergency stuff w/ E. It'll be good getting our with the Hubby Man for a bit.
2.13.2009
Is this thing on?
I'm not even going to try to explain, well, I guess with these words I am trying to explain, maybe not explain... maybe excuse?? ANYWAY... How's it going? Long time no see. 3 months? Wow.
Mark and Janie survived their trip to Alabama, as did I. LOL
I missed them a ton, but it was nice not having diabetes on my mind 24/7 and even better spending lots of time with Jacob. We rented movies, snuggled on the couch and ate junk food. It was during this weekend that Jacob's love for Wall-E developed. It's a long suffering love, he actually just walked up to me with the DVD case in hand, puppy dog eyes and all... "Mommy, can I watch Waaaalllllll-EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE?" Nope, Janie and Daddy are playing Madden football. Sorry, son.
Christmas was good, but lacked in the extended family aspect. Everyone on my side of the family stayed put. Janie's #1 gift - Mia, the American Girl of the Year, 2008. Jacob's #1 gift - although he loves his Swim to Me Puppy & Rollin' to the Rescue Tigger, his favorite gift is probably his Wall-E Leapster game. Thank you, Aunt Juju!
We welcomed 2009 and said a very happy farewell to 2008. Bad year! Bad, 2008!
My snister turned 44 years old on 1/18!
Janie turned 8 on 1/27.
My parents came out for Janie's birthday. We surprised her on the 27th by picking them up at the airport. She had no idea, it was totally awesome. I told the kids that I had to pick something up near the airport, that there was supposed to be an exit near the terminal. I pretended that I couldn't find the exit and I kept circling the arrival area waiting for them to come out. I finally stopped when I saw them, saying I was going to ask one of the security guys where the exit was. I brought Nanny and Granddaddy to the van just as Janie opened the door to ask me something. SQUEAL! They both went nuts (the kids) and just loved the surprise.
Janie had an American Girl Mock Sleep Over on 1/31. It was a really fun party with 9 friends, plus Jacob. Her Grandpa and Grandma Mo sent her a dress that matches one of her dolls' dresses. It's very pretty, she wants to wear it during her Easter Choir Performance at church. Mark and I, along with my parents gave her a "real" camera - a Kodak EasyShare C913.
My brother turned 40 on 2/4. Crap, ya'll know what that means. I'm not far behind.
Now that I've caught ya'll up on most things, let me step back to December again...
We finally decided to pursue an insulin pump for Janie. We took the first two required pump training classes in early December and scrambled to obtain approval for, order and receive the Deltec Cozmo Insulin Pump before the end of the year to take advantage of our as of then untouched Durable Medical Equipment allowance for 2008. We received the pump on December 29th. Phew!
We scheduled the next two required training sessions for mid-February. Janie's saline start was 2/10. The saline start is a dress rehearsal. She wore the pump for three days, it was attached to her via an infusion set, she pumped saline... we operated it as if it were pumping insulin.
Today was her insulin start. We met with our trainer for a couple hours and then with one of the endocrinologists. They did a complete work up on her... her A1C was AWESOME at 6.8! Her cholesterol is good now, weight is 70lbs (has gained 8lbs since diagnosis), height is 54 1/3". We left with a pump full of insulin and a very happy girl who knew she wouldn't have to have a Lantus injection tonight.
What does the pump entail? She's hooked up to it 24/7 with the exception of occasional disconnects for showers and certain activities. Insulin moves from the pump through a small tube into an infusion set. The infusion set is made up of adhesive tape, a cannula and a connector to attach to the tubing.
The infusion set is either inserted manually (Comfort Short) or by using an insertion device (Cleo 90). We change her infusion set every two days for now, rotating sites to avoid scar tissue, infection and other nasties.
The pump is programmed with Janie's:
- target blood glucose (BG) number
- insulin to carb ratios (how many units of insulin she needs per gram of carbs)
- correction factor (how many points 1u of insulin will reduce her BG)
- duration of insulin action (how long insulin is active in her body)
There are more things programmed, but these are the big ones. She still has to poke her finger several times a day to check her BG. For the next two weeks that will be around 12 times a day.
When she eats, she enters the number of carbs she'll be consuming. The pump calculates how much insulin she needs to cover the carbs (bolus), how much insulin she needs to bring down a high BG level (correction) and whether it needs to reduce insulin due to the amt of insulin currently on board or a recent low BG reading. The pump has a BG meter attached, so when we take her BG reading, the pump automatically knows what her reading is.
The pump considers all these things and suggests an amount of insulin. Janie oks the amount if it's appropriate, and the pump administers the insulin through the tubing, into the cannula and finally into her body.
Besides amounts of insulin given when eating and when high, the pump administers basal insulin every three minutes. She gets .25u every hour. This basal, or background, insulin is intended to keep Janie's BG numbers even - meaning if she goes to bed with a blood glucose of 133 with no bolus insulin on board, she should wake around 133. The basal insulin should hold her BG levels steady. It will take a few days to see if this basal rate is correct.
There are some things that are not set correctly right now because her numbers are all over the place. BG was 383, I corrected according to the pump's suggestion and she went low. I gave her a snack and she went a bit high. I corrected the high and now she's low again. We've been treating highs and chasing lows all day.
It's very frustrating right now, but we'll get it figured out. Below is a photo of Janie, showing her pump and infusion site. The pump lives in the Bama pouch.
Mark and Janie survived their trip to Alabama, as did I. LOL
I missed them a ton, but it was nice not having diabetes on my mind 24/7 and even better spending lots of time with Jacob. We rented movies, snuggled on the couch and ate junk food. It was during this weekend that Jacob's love for Wall-E developed. It's a long suffering love, he actually just walked up to me with the DVD case in hand, puppy dog eyes and all... "Mommy, can I watch Waaaalllllll-EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE?" Nope, Janie and Daddy are playing Madden football. Sorry, son.
Christmas was good, but lacked in the extended family aspect. Everyone on my side of the family stayed put. Janie's #1 gift - Mia, the American Girl of the Year, 2008. Jacob's #1 gift - although he loves his Swim to Me Puppy & Rollin' to the Rescue Tigger, his favorite gift is probably his Wall-E Leapster game. Thank you, Aunt Juju!
We welcomed 2009 and said a very happy farewell to 2008. Bad year! Bad, 2008!
My snister turned 44 years old on 1/18!
Janie turned 8 on 1/27.
My parents came out for Janie's birthday. We surprised her on the 27th by picking them up at the airport. She had no idea, it was totally awesome. I told the kids that I had to pick something up near the airport, that there was supposed to be an exit near the terminal. I pretended that I couldn't find the exit and I kept circling the arrival area waiting for them to come out. I finally stopped when I saw them, saying I was going to ask one of the security guys where the exit was. I brought Nanny and Granddaddy to the van just as Janie opened the door to ask me something. SQUEAL! They both went nuts (the kids) and just loved the surprise.
Janie had an American Girl Mock Sleep Over on 1/31. It was a really fun party with 9 friends, plus Jacob. Her Grandpa and Grandma Mo sent her a dress that matches one of her dolls' dresses. It's very pretty, she wants to wear it during her Easter Choir Performance at church. Mark and I, along with my parents gave her a "real" camera - a Kodak EasyShare C913.
My brother turned 40 on 2/4. Crap, ya'll know what that means. I'm not far behind.
Now that I've caught ya'll up on most things, let me step back to December again...
We finally decided to pursue an insulin pump for Janie. We took the first two required pump training classes in early December and scrambled to obtain approval for, order and receive the Deltec Cozmo Insulin Pump before the end of the year to take advantage of our as of then untouched Durable Medical Equipment allowance for 2008. We received the pump on December 29th. Phew!
We scheduled the next two required training sessions for mid-February. Janie's saline start was 2/10. The saline start is a dress rehearsal. She wore the pump for three days, it was attached to her via an infusion set, she pumped saline... we operated it as if it were pumping insulin.
Today was her insulin start. We met with our trainer for a couple hours and then with one of the endocrinologists. They did a complete work up on her... her A1C was AWESOME at 6.8! Her cholesterol is good now, weight is 70lbs (has gained 8lbs since diagnosis), height is 54 1/3". We left with a pump full of insulin and a very happy girl who knew she wouldn't have to have a Lantus injection tonight.
What does the pump entail? She's hooked up to it 24/7 with the exception of occasional disconnects for showers and certain activities. Insulin moves from the pump through a small tube into an infusion set. The infusion set is made up of adhesive tape, a cannula and a connector to attach to the tubing.
The infusion set is either inserted manually (Comfort Short) or by using an insertion device (Cleo 90). We change her infusion set every two days for now, rotating sites to avoid scar tissue, infection and other nasties.
The pump is programmed with Janie's:
- target blood glucose (BG) number
- insulin to carb ratios (how many units of insulin she needs per gram of carbs)
- correction factor (how many points 1u of insulin will reduce her BG)
- duration of insulin action (how long insulin is active in her body)
There are more things programmed, but these are the big ones. She still has to poke her finger several times a day to check her BG. For the next two weeks that will be around 12 times a day.
When she eats, she enters the number of carbs she'll be consuming. The pump calculates how much insulin she needs to cover the carbs (bolus), how much insulin she needs to bring down a high BG level (correction) and whether it needs to reduce insulin due to the amt of insulin currently on board or a recent low BG reading. The pump has a BG meter attached, so when we take her BG reading, the pump automatically knows what her reading is.
The pump considers all these things and suggests an amount of insulin. Janie oks the amount if it's appropriate, and the pump administers the insulin through the tubing, into the cannula and finally into her body.
Besides amounts of insulin given when eating and when high, the pump administers basal insulin every three minutes. She gets .25u every hour. This basal, or background, insulin is intended to keep Janie's BG numbers even - meaning if she goes to bed with a blood glucose of 133 with no bolus insulin on board, she should wake around 133. The basal insulin should hold her BG levels steady. It will take a few days to see if this basal rate is correct.
There are some things that are not set correctly right now because her numbers are all over the place. BG was 383, I corrected according to the pump's suggestion and she went low. I gave her a snack and she went a bit high. I corrected the high and now she's low again. We've been treating highs and chasing lows all day.
It's very frustrating right now, but we'll get it figured out. Below is a photo of Janie, showing her pump and infusion site. The pump lives in the Bama pouch.
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