New "Pricker"

Over the last few days, Kacey's lancet--or "pricker" as she calls it-- has started to act up. It was getting harder and harder to press the button and once she pressed it then sometimes it wouldn't even stick her finger. I had several boxes of glucose machines since my sister-in-law works for Endo. She got her hands on several different ones for us just to keep as spare back ups. You never know when your glucose machine is gonna die and you need one. So I pulled out the One Touch, Accu-Check, Accu-Check Aviva, Contour and Breeze 2.

The One Touch lancet was very similar to the Freestyle ones. She's been using the Freestyle machines since she was diagnosed. In the hospital, they gave her the Freestyle Lite and we used that until she got Herbie and there is a Freestyle machine attached to Herbie so that's what we've always used. She had 4 lancets, all the same thing. Over time, two of them stopped working so she was down to two. She carries one in her purse that she takes everywhere with her and then we keep one at home for testing in the house so she doesn't take her lancet out and then leave the house without it (she's done that before!) Last night, she came to me and said "Mom, I think my pricker is broke." She kept trying to push the button and it wasn't working right.

I set the One Touch box aside and opened the Accu-Check. That one was connected to the machine so that wasn't gonna work. I opened the Accu-Check Aviva and that had a Multi-Clix with it. I was thrilled because I'd wanted to get her one of them after hearing everyone rave online about how nice they were. Whew! I'm glad I didn't buy one! She didn't like it at all. Not because it hurt but because it was bigger and made a loud --CLICK!-- when it released. It startled her when she pricked her finger and she said it reminded her of the ones they used on her in the hospital. She didn't like the push top and small button to press. After all, she's only gonna be 10 years old and she has to use whats comfortable for her! We set them aside and I opened the Contour. Ohhhhhhhh! Her eyes lit up! It was a lancet like she'd never seen before. It was different, it was new, it used the lancets she's used to, it had a small end where she could see where on her finger she was placing it and most of all...she was excited about it!

We took it out of the plastic and she ran to get a new lancet. We loaded it and I watched her stick her finger....not once...but TWICE with it! Just to see how it works.

It's called a Microlet 2. It's small and thats what she likes about it. That small little it so much easier to see where you're going to stick your finger. Another nice thing is on the tip there are little blood drops. One small, medium and large. There are no numbers! I remember Kacey getting so upset when we had to move her lancet number from a 1 to a 3 because her fingers were getting tougher. This shows the drops so there are no numbers to upset her. She tested with the small drop first and didn't get any blood. I'm guessing thats about a 1-2. Then she used the middle drop and got a perfect drop. So thats probably a 3-4. She laughed and said she didn't need that large drop! ;)

When I opened up the Breeze 2....there was the SAME lancet!! So we replaced the one in the house and the one in her purse with new ones. She was so excited! Sadly, I wasn't feeling the same thing. I was happy that she found one she liked but it made me really sad to watch her prick her fingers 6 times trying to find out which one she liked best and then it not phase her at all that she'd just pricked her fingers that many times. Like my D-Mom's said on FB...it's "Bitter-Sweet". In the end, I'm just happy that she's happy. It's like a "new toy" and the excitement of trying something new for a change.

I'm anxious to see how long these hold up? On an average...we've had these lancets last only a year. I guess thats good considering they get used 10-12 times a day! We will see!

Where Have We Been?

Holy cow! I can't believe it's been 2 weeks since I've blogged! I know that I've kept most of my D-Moms updated by Facebook but I guess it's time to catch everyone up here on whats been happening!

My carpal tunnel has been acting up again and thats been keeping me from typing too much. I had that EMG done a while back and they tried to talk me into surgery but I just wasn't ready! I've already had CT surgery on my left hand and I know how difficult that was and so this is my right hand that needs to be done and I'm a dominant right handed person so I am NOT ready to go through all of that right now. The only way to get it to settle down is to take a break from all the typing ;)

Virginia got slammed with snow last week. We got 9-11 inches of the nasty white stuff! It completely shut down our county for a few days and the kids have been out of school since last Friday. We're hoping to get back in the swing of things tomorrow. All that being said, the girls were THRILLED to see all the snow and Kacey couldn't remember playing in snow this deep so she had a ball. I posted pics on FB for you all to see.

Frankie started his new job on Monday. W-O-W! What a difference it makes! A difference in attitude was the best part. He said it's NOTHING like the company he used to work for and thats in a good way. He said they aren't yelling at him all the time and they aren't blowing up his phone. Then when you drive 34 miles to work vs. driving 78 miles to work (ONE WAY) ...it makes a HUGE difference!

Yesterday was an exciting day at our house! I took Kayleigh to get her belly button pierced. OUCH! Well I say "ouch" but Kayleigh said it didn't hurt at all :) She's still so skinny and petite so it looks so dang cute!

Things are pretty stable on the diabetes front. The new ratios and basal changes seem to be working. She's had a few lows but nothing under 50 so it's ok. LOL I say that like 50 is an ok number! She feels the lows long before the 50's but we just deal with them, right?

Been thinking alot lately! This time two years ago, Kacey was getting really sick. She had a cold we couldn't get rid of and her teacher was on her about leaving the classroom to get water all the time. Little did we know, she had her diabetes onset. We're getting close to the 1 year pump anniversary and the 2 year diabetes anniversary. It's hard to believe how far we've come!

Thats all for now. Can't type too much but I'm hoping that once this CT settles down then I can get back in the swing of things. Sorry that I haven't posted to many blogs. PLEASE know I'm thinking about all of you and I'm keeping updated as much as I can :)

Results Are In

Today has been more chaos than I thought it would be!

Last week, Kacey's Endo office called to reschedule her check up appointment because on the 18th, there was a conflict with several doctors using the same office at the same time. So the receptionist asked if we could come on the 19th instead. I agreed the 19th would be better because at the time she was going to the dermatology appointment as well and it would only be one lost day of school. This morning, the NP that we were scheduled to see called my cell phone and asked me if I'd like to take one of the appointments at the Newport News office (40min drive) tomorrow instead of the Norfolk office (1hr 30min drive) today. Ummm....NORFOLK OFFICE?!?! We changed appointments and they scheduled us for the wrong office! :( I'd already taken Kacey out of school for the day and so we decided to keep the Norfolk appointment and just make the drive. This meant we had to rush around because it was already 11:30am and we still needed to get ready!

We made it to the hospital at 1:42pm....the appt was at 1:45pm!! Whew! I got Kacey registered in and we only waited about 5 minutes before they called her back. Why, oh why, did I have this knot in my throat? I knew her A1c had gone up but I wasn't prepared for HOW MUCH! They took her stats...everything perfect. Her height and weight are in sync and there's nothing to be concerned about. She's growing fine and developing as she should. This is the first time the nurse gave Kacey the clip board and asked her to answer the first 3 questions at the top by herself. WOW! Kacey was so excited to do a "big girl" thing. Here are her questions and answers...

We sat and looked over her pump settings and she tweaked those overnight basals some more because I'm still correcting those 2am sugar checks. She said her sugars during the day are wonderful compared to what they were prior to the carb ratio and correction factor changes so we're going to leave those alone for now. I did ask to speak to someone in more detail about using the Extended and Combo dosing. We've been at this pump thing for almost a year now and we always use the straight bolus and when she eats the pizzas and pastas, her numbers are out of control and I think thats whats causing her to keep those highs. We were thrilled to hear that our favorite CDE was working and she popped in to see us. She sat with us and explained how to use those boluses in more detail and I think I'm confident enough to start using them.

The results of her A1c..... 8.6%

YUK!! I'm so disappointed! I know I shouldn't be because I couldn't control what happened to her body the last month, but I am. I tried not to let Kacey see how much it upset me. Our NP explained to Kacey that she went through ANOTHER growth spurt... 1/2 inch so she's now 56 1/2 inches tall and she also started her period so that made her hormones go crazy and so it was expected for her A1c to go up. She told us we were still doing a great job and to keep testing and trying to keep her sugars as in range as we could. ***sigh***

Before we left, we had to go to the lab for more bloodwork. We stopped off at the restroom first because Kacey was so nervous that she had to go. When we got into the lab, the first thing they did was hand us a pee cup....HAHAHA! I knew she wouldn't be able to go so they did her bloodwork first and then we tried again. Nope! Nada! Nothing! I tried running the water. I danced around the bathroom trying to make her laugh so she would have to pee....still NOTHING! So we had to pass on the pee test and they'll just have to deal with it ;)

So there ya have it....up ONE FULL POINT since October! We have until May to bring it back down...fingers crossed!

Dreaded Report Card

Tomorrow is our D-report card day! Kacey goes to the Endo at 1:45pm and I'm REALLY not looking forward to it...wait...I never am! It's just a reminder of how rough those sugars have been and I really don't need to be reminded. I was sitting here thinking earlier....it was this time ONE YEAR AGO that we were making the decision for the pump and getting the green light for pump class. Amazing! It's hard to believe that Herbie will be celebrating his 1yr birthday in just two months. Heck, it's even harder to believe that Kacey will be celebrating her 10th birthday in less than 2 months! For those of you out there that are still torn on whether the pump is right for you....take the leap! It will be the best decision you ever made for yourself or your child. It's a scary process but it's a process that I'd go through again in a heartbeat. We LOVE Herbie and I can't even begin to think about taking Kacey back to shots!

Kacey was also scheduled to have the warts burned off her feet. Well, I was just getting her into the bath and I asked to check her feet. Ummm....the place we put the medicine on is peeling off and where it was all inflamed is all dried up. I got a nail file and gently buffed where the warts were and I can see the black part!! Something inside me is saying "Cancel the appt and don't go with the burning!" You know what happens when you get that naggy Mommy voice inside. So I think I'm gonna cancel the appt and see how this heals up and if they go away. I'm scared to mess with her feet and burning a wart causes a sore, right? Diabetics shouldn't have sores on their feet! So yeah, the naggy voice is winning and if I need to make her another appt then I will.

More on sleepovers....Kayleigh's friend, Kerri, ended up staying another night with us! They were off of school today and she brought extra clothes. She didn't bring them with the intent on staying but since she had them and because she was such a joy to have around, I told Kayleigh she could stay one more night. All 3 of the girls were like kids in a candy shop! This is the first friend that Kayleigh has invited over that actually included Kacey in what they were doing and didn't mind having her around. Usually the other girls tell Kayleigh to kick Kacey out and then it all ends in tears. Maybe thats why it was such a joy! I was laying on the couch with Frankie last night watching TV and we couldn't believe how well the girls were getting along. They played hide and seek though the house, played games on the laptop and even made dinner and dessert! Since they had the day off and we didn't meet my Mom on Saturday for breakfast like we usually do, we decided to do that today and take Kerri with us! She was shy at first but she quickly warmed up to my Mom and was calling her "Nae" by the end of the afternoon. We went to breakfast and then out shopping like usual. It was like having a 3rd daughter along for the ride and Mom couldn't believe how well mannered she was. It was SOOOOO much fun! We even took the girls in a store called Plato's Closet. It's a thrift store that sells nothing but gently used brand name stuff (Aeropostle, Hollister, American Eagle, etc). They had a ball! :) We didn't give Kerri back until 3:30pm today and it didn't even feel like we had her for 48 hours. LOL! We all giggled because this is the first friend that Kayleigh invited over that I didn't rush out the door at 10am the next morning.

What a wonderful 3 day weekend for us! It's back to normal schedule for Kayleigh tomorrow and Kacey get's one more day to relax :) I'll update after the Endo appointment!

Sleepovers!

Tis the season for....SLEEPOVERS!

With the holidays behind us and the newness of all the toys wearing off, it's time for friends again! Both my girls are total opposites when it comes to being social. Kayleigh has always been very quiet and holds just a few close friends, while Kacey is my social butterfly and she's friends with everyone.

Kayleigh started having sleepovers when she was about 7-8 years old. All her birthday parties would end with girls asking their Moms to stay or they'd just bring their stuff to stay because they'd have so much fun playing that they wouldn't want to leave. She used to have a very close group of friends that came over a few times a month during her middle school years. As she got into high school, she quickly found out that those friends were not her "true" friends and they drifted apart. The sleepovers dwindled and the house was quiet. This year has been a trying year for Kayleigh with friends. She's now very aware that there are some people she doesn't want to hang out with for one reason or another and she's becoming very choosy about her friends. She doesn't want her name mixed in with the wrong crowd and I'm thankful that she's able to see that at such a young age. She began to talk about a select group of "new" friends. One girl in particular named Kerri. They have the same lunch block and so they eat together every day. They're also in Culinary together so she's been an ear for Kayleigh. Kerri moved here this year, she's kind of quiet just like Kayleigh, shares the same interests as Kayleigh and doesn't have many friends either. In fact, before they knew that they had lunch together, Kerri ate with one other girl. I remember how difficult it was to make friends in high school and things are even harder in this day in time! Kids are so cruel! So, when Kay and Kerri started talking, it was instant friendship! She's been talking about her alot and she asked if Kerri could come over to visit. So we arranged for her to come over.

Kacey on the other hand, has never had a sleepover. With the diagnosis of diabetes happening around the time that she'd start having friends come over, it's not been something we've really ventured into. Kacey is about 10 times more social than Kayleigh! She's the child that walks down the hallway at school and everyone waves to her or they're yelling "HI KACEY!" She's got many friends and they've come to visit but none that we've ever asked to sleep over....until now! Kacey has become really good friends with my friend Jill's daughter, Elaina. Jill and I met when we were in high school. We both played softball and traveled in the same circle of friends but we never hung out together then. It wasn't until Kacey started playing softball that we met back up. Jill's oldest son is the same age as Kacey and they ended up on the same team. Yes, the team she was playing on when she was diagnosed *sad*. Jill's husband and Frankie have been friends since they were little so when we all met back up, it was one of those "AH-HA!" moments. Our families meshed well! Jill and I went through the sub class together and we're both sub's in the school system now. So Elaina and Kacey ended up becoming really good friends since we've started hanging out together and they've been planning a sleepover.

Last night, both girls invited their friends over. Kayleigh invited Kerri and Kacey invited Elaina. I doubled the girls in the house and can you believe there wasn't a single agrument! They were all occupied and having tons of fun! I knew as soon as we met Kerri that she was a sweetie! She's much more quiet than the friends Kayleigh had come over before so for a while I was having to check on them because it was so quiet. She's so polite and those little "thank-you's" go a long way in our house! This morning, the girls got up and we all had breakfast. Frankie and I cooked for them all. After they finished breakfast, they all got dressed and they wanted to take some fun pictures. Kayleigh and Kerri went to do their hair and when they came out, Kerri was thrilled about being able to use a wide flat iron on her long hair. She said she had one of those skinny ones and because her hair is so curly, it takes so long to make her hair straight. They went into the other room and I could hear them in there acting all giddy about how pretty her hair was. I was sitting on the couch with my coffee and Frankie was kicked back in his recliner. I looked over at him and asked, "Do you think I should give her my old straightener?" His reply....YES! I called Kayleigh into my bathroom without Kerri and asked her if she wanted to give Kerri the straightener because we had a really good one and that one was collecting dust in the drawer as a "backup" and I thought she could use it more. I thought Kayleigh was gonna cry! She started jumping up and down and took off running into the other room where Kerri was. She gave her the straightener and I could hear the giggles and excitement all the way in the living room. Kayleigh came running back in and said Kerri LOVED it and was so excited because she didn't have the money to buy a bigger one and the one she has is just a cheap one from the dollar store. *sigh* So why does my heart feel like it's about to bust? She's such a nice girl and getting to know her over the last 24 hours just proves to me that some kids have such a tough life but she's striving to make the best of it. It's also proven to Kayleigh that she needs to be greatful for what she's got because she's got so much more than most kids could ever have! It also showed Kayleigh...if you've got something that you're not using but someone else could use then give it away!

It's 1pm here and this is the first time I've never rushed their friends out! I'd have to say....thats a GOOD thing!

EGG-stra Special Conversation

OK...this is another TMI post so if talking about period bothers you then stop reading now!

I've tried to educate Kacey as much as I can about her period without actually going into too much detail that would scare her or confuse her. I've got another period funny that I have to journal for her so she can laugh later when she grows up. For now, we can be the ones to laugh!!

We found out that she is not alone in her school. There are three other girls in her grade that have already started and so now she doesn't feel so alone. Yesterday, her school nurse gave us the "packet". You know the one you get with the samples of pads, coupons for free pads and the wonderful little booklet that tells you all about the arrival of Aunt Flo and body hair. Yep! That one! I was excited to get it home and actually share it with her since I knew it would be written in terms she could understand...NOT! We started the book with "sweating" and all the stuff that goes along with that. Then the book went into changes in your breasts. Ok, we can handle that. We're doing good! Then the big chapter...Starting Your Period. Ahhhhhhh...the diagrams! So it shows a diagram of the female parts. Kacey sees "eggs" and immediately has a "freak out" moment! "MOMMY! I have eggs inside me???" (scared look on her face) Ohhhhh brother! I can tell where this is headed. So I explain that she does have eggs but they are not the same as chicken eggs. She immediately wells up with tears and asks "Are they gonna hatch?" OK...this is the very moment that as parents we have to laugh and cry at the same time. I literally busted a gut!!! I knew I had to stop because I had to be sensative to her feelings. She was SERIOUS! I wanted to explain this to her so she didn't feel "weird" but yet she had some sort of understanding.

Whew! I wasn't expecting that curve ball, Dear Lord! I've always said God gave me Kacey to keep my sense of humor in check. :) LOL! Boy did she do that this last week!! I've laughed more with her about things she's said and done than I have in a long time. Between all the giggling and questions...one thing is for sure...I've established that there is no such thing as a stupid question and she should never be afraid to ask me what anything means if she's confused about her body. So she smiled at me with this cute little grin and she says, "So Mommy, is a vagina the same thing as a cootie?" *sigh* HYSTERICAL GIGGLES!!!! I give up!!!

For those of you with little girls.....see what you have to look forward to? LOL! And to those of you with boys...I don't know how you're hold a straight face when you finally have the "boy talk" with them?!?!

Period.....HELP!

Boy, oh boy! I'm really needing some help with period questions and diabetes. More TMI....but this is MY blog and if you don't have anything nice to say to help me then STOP reading!

I've really forgotten what it's like to be a little girl with a period and I have no clue how diabetes affects these things. Kacey has been an emotional mess and she ended up home from school today because she's still having some cramping. We're on Day 3 and she's got hardly any bleeding now but I can tell that her body still doesn't know what is going on. Her numbers are a mess! She's gone from 45-300 and then back down again.....and NOT FEEL THEM!!! She told me that she feels crappy but she doesn't know if it's her blood sugars or her period. *sigh* I'm feeling pretty helpless at the moment and I don't know how to make it better. I've tried Motrin and that only seems a temporary fix. I don't know if she can have things like Midol because of her age?!?!

I contacted her CDE and we go back to the end on Jan 19th. I let her know that she started and sent her most recent week of blood sugars by email. With the aggressive changes her blood sugars were not as high this past week and her average was 161....good I guess? Her CDE said not to make any changes and we'll see what happens with her numbers over the next week. She wants me to start charting and looking for trends before/during her periods.

Those of you that are older can probably help me with this! What happened to your numbers when you started your period? How do you deal with the crappy feeling of PMS combined with the crappy feeling of sugar swings? Did any of you start early? How did you handle it?

I contacted Kacey's school nurse this morning and let her know why Kacey was absent today. I told her to give Kacey's teachers a heads up and let them in on whats happening. She doesn't think there is any other girls Kacey's age that have started yet so there isn't another peer that Kacey can turn to yet. I've explained to Kacey already that this isn't something you go blurt out to your classmates because many of them don't even know what it is yet and I know none of the boys understand either. I told her if she has a problem at school she can go to the nurse or to her teachers because they all know. Ugh!

Thats the best way I know to handle it.

JDRF Awards

CONGRATS TEAM DIABETES SWEETIES!!!

Last night was the JDRF Awards Ceremony. It was a beautiful set up, once again! This year, we had my Mom & Brian there along with Kacey's lifelong friend, Hunter and my friend, Jill and her 3 kids. It was nice to have enough people there to fill one of those huge 10 seater tables (plus a chair)!

Our team raised a total amount of $3059.00!!!

Kacey raised a total of $2698.00!!!

We're so thankful to everyone that donated and were so generous with their time to help us raise this money. We couldn't have done it without you!

Kacey received 3 awards. She got the GOLD level award for teams that raise $2500-$5000. She also got the Golden Sneaker Award for raising over $1000 on her own. And.....we won the t-shirt contest!!! They gave her the framed picture in the above pic I took. It was AWESOME!! They matted the picture so we could have everyone from her team sign the mat. How cool is that?!?!

I'd like to take this moment to thank everyone at JDRF for all their hard work putting this event together. We are every thankful for our awards and the gorgeous banquet you provided for us.

I'll post all the pics up on Facebook when I get a chance :)