Holy Smokes Batman! Are you wearing stilettos?

STOP!   (are you singing hammertime in your head and seeing images of mc hammer dancing across your minds eye in those atrocious pants?)

I have something to tell you.  

I want you to know that you are okay just as you are!  

There are right now a bunch of people who wish they were more like you but too afraid to tell you!  We tend to look at other people and wish for what they have and admire things that they are.   During this process we often de-value ourselves and our life experiences.  We are all so different and for a very good reason.   Wouldnt the world be a boring place and would we ever learn anything along the way- if we were all the same?   

I have to accept my oldest son and his competitive and stubborn nature.    Hes a natural talker who is BOUND to be a politician when he grows up.    Hes also very good at sports and super sociable.    My daughter and middle child is an entertainer who inherently knows what is funny.   When under pressure she pulls out the cute and hilarious card and plays it for all its worth.   She is eccentric, loyal and really into animals.   Im thinking she may be a vet.    Im going to do whatever is in my power to help them become all they are meant to be.   I think its great when they are experimental and unashamed and wish I could be more like them.

If I jump ahead a zillion steps with Reuben I really wonder what his life will be like, the battles he may have to fight because hes different to his brother and sister healthwise - and diabetes will inevitably be there (3 monthly visits to the endocrinologist at the paediatric diabetes clinic a constant reminder of his 'targets'.)    I tear up when I hear Evander say he will look after Reuben at school and make sure no body is mean to his little brother. (Who incidentlally will be in grade 5 by time Reubs begins prep the first compulsory schooling year here in Queensland).

Be who you are and come to a place of acceptance that you are great just as you are.   This is what Im going to be teaching Reubs.   Hes perfect to me, diabetes and all.   Yeah we will have challenges. Kindy, school, maybe starting an insulin pump, camps, sleep overs, parties, alcohol, moving out of home,  marriage, kids of his own.   All issues beleive it or not Ive already worried over as his Mummy.  

I have to wrap up this post prematurely as Danger Dad is at it again, i hear one of the kids crying after fanging it around the back yard in a motorised car!

I also hear him complaining 'Im out there in the back yard living it, and you are in the study blogging it!'.....

The saddest part - Sweet Mary-Kathryns story

This morning I ventured into the cyber type 1 community where constantly Im struck by the 'togetherness' you feel with people you have never really met IRL (in real life).    Fact is, nobody really understands what you go through until you are living with the disease.   My six year old son and three year old daughter can get the accucheck mobile blood glucose meter going and test Reubens blood sugar.  

 They are both aware how important Reubens diabetes is even at their ages.   Evander did a talk for his class all about diabetes and looking after Reuben.   From what I heard it was a quite sophisticated for a 6 year old child!   This leads me to my next point.   



I came across this story while posting on a forum for parents with diabetic children.    I wanted to share it with you but please get tissues and sit first.     The fact is, Diabetes is pretty silent with obscure symptoms.   In our own experience I begged the GP on the 13th and final visit to his clinic to 'check Reuben for broken bones he screams all night long'.  We were prescribed thrush drops :(      He didnt have temperatues but did vomit on and off for a week.   This included reduced activity, lethargy, inability to have sound sleep, extreme thirst and heavy nappies, plus a weird sweet acetone smell coming from his skin.      Anyone who has a child vomitting assumes tummy bug, right?   At 6 months unsettled sleep can mean teething.. You can explain away the symptoms until full blown Diabetic ketoacidosis where you are admitted to the hospital emergency department and usually have to be transferred to intensive care.

It gets to this point because GP's dont do regular routine blood glucose tests on children.   Type 1 diabetes can be detected before the child gets this sick.   The link - and Mary-Kathryn's tragic story couldve been prevented with GP education and a quick finger prick.    I cried and could barely breathe as I read it.   Then I signed the petition.   I hope you will do the same. xx

http://www.squidoo.com/jdrf/Juvenile_Diabetes

Diabetes 101

Lesson 1 - GET TRUCK LOADS OF SUPPLIES!!

Its simple.   We havent been doing this long but I do know this -  people with diabetes need to be organised. The key is to be prepared for the worst case scenario,  be prepared for emergencies, prepared for long trips, short trips, trips where you will be active, trips where you may miss a bus, trips where you might want to eat more carbohydrates than usual.   

Im aware this reads slightly like a Dr Seuss novel.   

Be prepared for trips that may be too hot for your insulin (because it cooks when temperatures are over 30 deg out!) rendering it useless in lowering blood sugars.   You get the drift, be prepared for when you may not be quite prepared enough!!  And finally once you have all your supplies ready to go - throw in a bit more. Just in case. You can never be too prepared :)

Heres some of our supplies thought it may be interesting for diabetes beginners -

This is a stash of insulin we've accumulated in the fridge after 3 changes of regime.   It has to live in cold temperatures to store and room temperature when insuse.   Cold insulin stings to inject apparently. When youve removed it from the fridge it has to be used within 30 days as insulin has a pretty short life span.

The big boxes you can see with the grey pen on top is Reubens current insulin called Lantus.   It is a long profile basal analogue he gets one shot a day (in the buttocks).   To prep that pen you screw on a needle top 4mm in length, dial up the dosage and squeeze the button on the end.    When he eats he gets another quick acting insulin called novorapid.   As the name suggests it peaks rapidly. Infact it begins working within 15 mins of the injections at meal times and fades out its action after 5 hours.    It corrects a high blood sugar and also covers the carbohydrates he is going to eat.

Next is a medical alert bracelet.   We got ours over the internet
after searching jewelery stores without much luck, settled on one from a company called level living.   They seemed to remember that children get diabetes also. 

 Its a soft quick dry fabric for little hands and most importantly has a tight clip and a medic alert plate that reads - INSULIN DEPENDENT - In Emergency call 000.   Imagine something happening to me - and nobody knowing Reuben had a bunch of insulin in his system and was needing his next meal within 30 mins....

It has cute colorful trucks printed on it.  Awwww.

I couldnt deny Reubs a pic since hes such a gorgeous patient kid :)

Next is his hypo kit.   He needs carbohydrate foods to be administered if his blood sugar is low anywhere anytime.   Heres some examples of what we have in it.   I keep this packed in the refrigerator so its ready to grab and go.     If he is under 5mmol/l we give lucozade or honey and follow up with a biscuit.   Just enough to bring his bloods back into range without a yo-yo effect.  Being a toddler hes pretty fussy at times so the key is variety.    One day he loves Ribena juice next he spits it at me!   If Reuben is having a hypo with symptoms (like shaking and confusion) solids cannot be given.   More on this later.

Every diabetic should own a few blood glucose meters and a record book. It helps you recall where you were, look for patterns and to adjust insulin doses.  

Plenty of people plug the meter into a pc and download them on a program.   Maybe someone who does this could comment or do a guest post for me!!  

The long gray pen looking thing is the lancet (has 6 needles inside much like a gun barrel).  A lancing devices pricks your finger at adjustable depths to get a good droplet of blood to put onto a test strip.   The little meter shown here is our 4th.   We have the performa, optium exceed, accuchek mobile and this the freestyle light.   I like them all for different reasons.  This one in particular I would recommend to people with diabetic children as it takes a miniscule amount of blood!  

Supply overload!   Needles for pens, plain old syringes, ketone urine strips, ketone blood strips, spare strips for 4 blood glucose monitors, glucodin glucose powder (useful to mix with juice and milk when young kids dont want to drink large quantities.)  4 lancing devices and 3 spare meters.    4 tubes of glucose gel, each tube is 15 grams of glucose.  Honey, syringe for the honey or lucozade, finger wipes, spare lancet refills.   In his carry about case we have antiseptic hand wash, a needle clipper to take the end off the sharp so they can be disposed of minus the needle, his lantus and novorapid pens, spare needle tops and syringes, glucose tablets and orange glucagon case (for unconscious hypos where food cant be taken by mouth).


That was a big post but before diabetes I had NO idea about needles and such... so perhaps it was of help to someone!

**NB Id love to see pictures of other diabetic's supply stashes.   I bet someone could prove that my stash isnt so big afterall!

  

Zoom in, Zoom out

On Sunday morning the preacher discussed zooming in and out because your focus on a situation can stop you from going forward.  Sometimes we look so hard at diabetes care and miss the bigger picture, at others try to be too general and miss finer details.    Im convinced we need to do diabetes care as a team.  

Let me explain something about my husband and I.  Weekends we spend plenty of time with the kids, running around in the back yard.    Since the weather is so hot it usually involves the kiddie pool or hose.  Im sure this is an outlet for my husband who at times appears to be a having a second childhood.    We have affectionately nicknamed him "DANGER DAD". Imagine him in blue lycra with red cape and Yellow "D" emblazoned on the front.   (Well maybe not.)     He runs around squirting the kids with water guns and filling up water balloons.   This is what I like to call phase 1.   Theres no danger element so he has to come up with a better idea.   How about we set up the slip and slide?  Phase 2.  Hose connected and plastic spread out the length of the yard.   Hmmmm, not dangerous enough.   Lets spray the kids with CRC or cooking oil so they slide better.   By this point Im begging him to stop...   I see potential risk, he sees potential fun!  Phase 3.   He considers the physics of the operation and to get greater velocity the kids have to fall from a greater height.  Phase 4.   Kids have become human torpedos.    The kiddie slide is hooked up to a pole so they can first slide down this (with the hose and sudsy detergent streaming down it) and onto the slip and slide and fly all the way into my garden bed at the end.  Phase 5.  Someone cries from being hurt and we all pack up and go inside.

Good thing we are different. Its all about focus.   My husband sees things in diabetes care that I dont.   He invented the hypo treatment of honey (which Reuben cannot spit out!)  delivered via a 12ml plastic syringe.  Perfect!   When it comes to planning alarms to wake to test him through the night, Im your woman.   Not so inventive like my husband, but reliable and predictable.  Hahah and maybe more trustworthy.