Monday, July 27, 2009

Update

Last week, Kacey's blood sugars went a bit whacko. She went from low to high and then back to low. I felt like a ping pong ball! She ended up with a cold. She had a runny nose that was causing a cough. I'd gotten my newest copy of Diabetic Living the day before and I picked that up in the middle of the night since I was awake with Kacey. It had an article with suggestions of different OTC meds for different symptoms. I'd tried Triaminic Night-time and that knocked her out but I knew I couldn't use it during the day. The article suggested Sudafed PE (Non-drowsy) so the next morning, I went right to Walmart and picked it up! Within about 6 hours, Kacey was already perking up. Amazing! I didn't give her the full 2 pill dose. I gave her one every 4 hours. Because of her weight, I knew she could handle taking one pill but was too scared to try two. For the last few days, she's been on it and still has a little cough but nothing like she had.

My Mom and I took Kacey over to Chuck E. Cheeses as a special treat last week. She had such a good time! With all the running around and games, her blood sugar dropped and we treated with some good ole' ice cream. She had so much fun but she really missed her sister being there. When we've taken them to Chuck E. Cheeses before, they always play the games against one another. This time, my Mom and I tried to make up for it but she still missed Kayleigh!Yesterday we worked out in our pumpkin patch all morning. The plants are starving for water, the ground is so dry and we just need tons of rain or we're going to lose the whole crop. Around 1pm, we came inside because the temps were near 95F and it was REALLY hot and humid. We had some lunch and cooled down. Around 5:30pm, we started to hear some rumbles of thunder. Could our prayers have been heard? While I was weeding, I kept asking Granny to send us some rain. The wind started picking up and before long, it was pouring. It rained for about an hour and then the sun came back out. Here is a picture of what we saw....
It may not have meaning to anyone else, but for us it was like Granny telling us "You're welcome!" This sunlight didn't last long. About 30 minutes later, we had a really bad storm roll up. Heavy winds, dangerous lightening and down pours rocked our small town. There were suspects of a few small tornados that touched down not far from us. Our power flickered all night and some friends of ours had a tree fall right through the middle of their house. It stormed all night long and then about 4am, it had passed and things cleared up. Thankfully we didn't have any damage and our pumpkins got plenty to drink!
Yesterday was also some exciting news with the baby birds in the grill. We check them every day and they seem to change so fast! When we checked on them yesterday morning, we noticed they now have some brown feathers coming in and their beaks have changed AND they're eyes are open! Of course, in the pic below, they were sleeping sound so they must have been fed! No matter how much I jiggled the grill lid, they wouldn't wake up. It's been so exciting watching them grow.
Today was the start of Vacation Bible School at church. Kacey found out last week about it and she's been so excited about going. A friend of mine is teaching the 5th-6th grade class and I knew Kacey would be in the 4th grade class. She didn't want to switch classrooms so they were kind enough to leave her in there. (LOL! She's as big as those kids anyway and shes mature enough as well) I wasn't sure how Kacey would do once we got there. She kept asking me not to leave. She's still not comfortable with strangers caring for her and after that bad low last week, she's not left my side lately. I completely understand her fear and I'm not going to force her into it. She had a really fun time today. Here's a pic with her looking up a verse in the bible.
For once, Kacey was in with 14 other kids and only 2 of them knew she had diabetes (my friends kids). She wasn't treated any different. She didn't have to tell anyone she had diabetes. Herbie was proudly worn in her Tigger pump case but not a single child asked what it was. It wasn't until snacktime at 11:40pm that anyone was even aware of her diabetes. She sat down to the snack table where the snack was already layed out....a glass of pink lemonade, a cup of animal crackers and a "termite hill" (mound of chocolate covered pretzels). She quietly sat down, pulled out her lancet and Herbie, tested her blood sugar and was putting Herbie back in her case when a woman frantically ran over to the table and shouted "SHE CAN'T EAT THAT!" With wide eyes, I looked at her and said "Excuse me?" She'd scared Kacey and also gotten the attention of the entire class. She proceeded on about how Kacey couldn't eat the snack and offered to give her ham & cheese. I nicely explained that I was her mother and she was fine. We had a snack in her bag if she didn't want that snack. The lady apologized and went on back to the kitchen. Kacey sat there a bit embarrassed and asked to eat the snack we'd packed. I sat next to her and she said "Mommy, that lady scared me! She said I can't eat that?" Ugh! I told Kacey if she wanted it then she could eat it, we'd just dose for it. But by that point, she just wanted her snack. Two things stuck out here..... the first is......I'm thankful they were on top of knowing WHO Kacey was and that she's diabetic. The second is....the ignorance between Type 1 and Type 2 is still out there! YES, Kacey CAN eat it if she wants. It's so hard to explain to people that she CAN have sweets if she so chooses to. They immediately think if you have diabetes then you can't eat it and how do you sit an explain to them without taking about 30-45min? It's hard! I know she meant well and I'm thankful but I wish she would have done it a bit more private. This is the first time in the last year that I've felt the need to be private about diabetes. I'm not sure why? I guess it's because we were in with a bunch of strangers and I wanted Kacey to have the feel of not being treated differently....unless she HAD to be because of a low or a high. I didn't want diabetes to be the first thing people thought about when they saw her. Not that we're hiding it, I just wanted to be....well.....normal. Anyway...it went well and Kacey is excited to go back tomorrow! :)

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