The strength of other families never ceases to amaze me. Something else that amazes me is that our hearts seem to cry out in unison. I read through blogs where other parents have typed the words I thought and felt as though we were one and the same and our heartbeats were synchronised. (Even though our children may have been diagnosed ten years apart at different ages.) Its a dreadful disease that never lets up on the emotions.
BETA BUDDIES: The Hidden Truth: "And, Once again we are left with the raw, unsettling reality. Sadness doesn't begin to describe ... A heavy heart doesn't 'cut it'... A..."
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Saturday, February 12, 2011
Oh the Drama
Why is it when a man is sick he needs tender loving care? His head has to be propped by a plumped up pillow just so. He needs a wet washer on his forehead and warm chicken soup. He needs sips of fluids held up to his parched lips. He definately needs the airconditioning set to 21 degrees celcius. Hmmm, he also needs a vomit bowl perched at the correct distance from the bed and a bottle of room temperature water. When my husband vomits Im sure the neighbours hear him. Its loud. Its dramatic. Its terribly woeful! I must admit hes pretty sick this time - theres no foxtel in sight and hes really in bed resting!
When I am sick? I have to suck it up. Even with gastro I scrub vomit off the floor and tend to my sick kids. I get up all night rubbing their backs and moistening their hair, checking temperatures and blood sugars. I have insulin to administer and honey to rub onto his cheeks to try and prevent hypos through the night. I have dishes to do, clothing to wash as naturally my vomitting kids yes all three of them have vomitting and diahorrea in addition to my husband have managed to cover every blankie and doona, pillow and towel - with vomit. Theres vomit on the legs of my ironing board! They'd be off to London for the games based on these performances.
Its tough isnt it? All you mummies know what Im talking about. We are silent heroes in so many ways. We keep everyone as comfortable as we can to our own personal detriment often times. (Can you say, self indulgent whinge?!)
What do you do to get away?
I like a cold glass of white wine.
I like going to the gym and sweating copiously for a few hours or
swimming at the pool; following that black line up and down as I ponder the meaning of life, or that bandaid stuck all the way down the deep end.
I like to 'pretend' Id prefer to mow the lawn just for some peace and quiet
I love flicking through a good cook book, looking at recipes I know I will never make because the family wont eat salmon...
Providing that is, after a break Im back at the reins!
What it is Im feeling? Importance.
I like comforting my crying children in a big squishy hug
I like admistering that panadol after a high thermometer reading
I love to sssshhhhh them and stroke their hair
I love tucking them into their beds and saying sweet dreams
and yes
I guess I love babying my husband as well. I mean, how is he to know that his socks live in the actual sock draw?!
When I am sick? I have to suck it up. Even with gastro I scrub vomit off the floor and tend to my sick kids. I get up all night rubbing their backs and moistening their hair, checking temperatures and blood sugars. I have insulin to administer and honey to rub onto his cheeks to try and prevent hypos through the night. I have dishes to do, clothing to wash as naturally my vomitting kids yes all three of them have vomitting and diahorrea in addition to my husband have managed to cover every blankie and doona, pillow and towel - with vomit. Theres vomit on the legs of my ironing board! They'd be off to London for the games based on these performances.
Its tough isnt it? All you mummies know what Im talking about. We are silent heroes in so many ways. We keep everyone as comfortable as we can to our own personal detriment often times. (Can you say, self indulgent whinge?!)
What do you do to get away?
I like a cold glass of white wine.
I like going to the gym and sweating copiously for a few hours or
swimming at the pool; following that black line up and down as I ponder the meaning of life, or that bandaid stuck all the way down the deep end.
I like to 'pretend' Id prefer to mow the lawn just for some peace and quiet
I love flicking through a good cook book, looking at recipes I know I will never make because the family wont eat salmon...
Providing that is, after a break Im back at the reins!
What it is Im feeling? Importance.
I like comforting my crying children in a big squishy hug
I like admistering that panadol after a high thermometer reading
I love to sssshhhhh them and stroke their hair
I love tucking them into their beds and saying sweet dreams
and yes
I guess I love babying my husband as well. I mean, how is he to know that his socks live in the actual sock draw?!
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Wacky Wednesday
Wacky Wednesday has always been one of my oldest sons favourite books. He would squeal in delight and point out the strange incongruous things going on in the pictures like shoes on the ceiling and babies pushing their mums in prams. Theres garden sprinklers that work despite missing segments of hose. Weird and wonderful things. My favourite is a house with no front door. Totally useless! Heres yesterdays real life version -
JULES: Hi Dr. How are you? Reuben is the patient today, I need to replace his insulin I think its gotten frozen.
DR: But you have insulin.
JULES: Yes its frozen. It wont be any good will it? We cant use it.... can you write us new scripts. I also need one for glucagon, the old hypokit is about to expire it would be good to have a spare script for it.
DR: Ok. What are his doses?
JULES: Lantus 9 units once a day.
DR: When, morning or night?
JULES: Once a day, AM.
DR: Oh. (Looking on data base for an eternity)
JULES: Its the solostar pen.
DR: Penfill? (still scrolling through her database - its obvious she doesnt know what shes looking at).
JULES: The disposable pens, not the cartridge. (The dr begins huffing and its clear shes annoyed at me).
**Im beginning to panic, I cant bear the thought of an incompetent GP giving my son the wrong medicine.**
JULES: Do you want to see his book or something?
DR: OK OK. What was the other thing?
JULES: Novorapid, the 3ml.
DR: What dose?
JULES: Its variable.
DR: What d o s a g e is he on?
JULES: I said it depends, on what he eats.
DR: He has to have a dosage!
JULES: Its variable - it depends on what he is eating. It might be 0.5 - 1 unit at a meal up to 3-4 times a day. *Somedays he has none*
DR: Yes Yes I KNOW that.
*If you know it why are you asking*
DR: The penfill? 3Ml. *She begins typing away huffing some more. Clearly clearly annoyed. By this point I have NOOOO confidence in her she is typing 0.5-2u x 3*
JULES: Its only 0.5 through to 1 full unit per meal
DR: I know that. What is this other thing. I havent .....
JULES: Do you want to see it? *Im taking no chances and get the glucagon out of the bag to show her....*
Even after all this when I got to the chemist I had the pharmacist show me the items so I could be sure it was the right things she wrote the script for.
Theres a huge problem with healthcare for diabetes. We see an endocrinologist once every 3 months at the Diabetes centre and in between we are supposed to see a GP - whom we clearly know more about the disease than because we manage it everyday!
I also discussed a health care plan where you can consult with diabetes educators and dietitians prior to going on an insulin pump. To obtain one I need a General Practitioner referal. She asked me to come back another day.
Im wondering if its because of all the paperwork or because she wants to familiarise herself with the procedure first!
Besides this shes not a bad dr (Ive never been to a better one),
shes usually quite friendly and
shes does an okay pap smear....
JULES: Hi Dr. How are you? Reuben is the patient today, I need to replace his insulin I think its gotten frozen.
DR: But you have insulin.
JULES: Yes its frozen. It wont be any good will it? We cant use it.... can you write us new scripts. I also need one for glucagon, the old hypokit is about to expire it would be good to have a spare script for it.
DR: Ok. What are his doses?
JULES: Lantus 9 units once a day.
DR: When, morning or night?
JULES: Once a day, AM.
DR: Oh. (Looking on data base for an eternity)
JULES: Its the solostar pen.
DR: Penfill? (still scrolling through her database - its obvious she doesnt know what shes looking at).
JULES: The disposable pens, not the cartridge. (The dr begins huffing and its clear shes annoyed at me).
**Im beginning to panic, I cant bear the thought of an incompetent GP giving my son the wrong medicine.**
JULES: Do you want to see his book or something?
DR: OK OK. What was the other thing?
JULES: Novorapid, the 3ml.
DR: What dose?
JULES: Its variable.
DR: What d o s a g e is he on?
JULES: I said it depends, on what he eats.
DR: He has to have a dosage!
JULES: Its variable - it depends on what he is eating. It might be 0.5 - 1 unit at a meal up to 3-4 times a day. *Somedays he has none*
DR: Yes Yes I KNOW that.
*If you know it why are you asking*
DR: The penfill? 3Ml. *She begins typing away huffing some more. Clearly clearly annoyed. By this point I have NOOOO confidence in her she is typing 0.5-2u x 3*
JULES: Its only 0.5 through to 1 full unit per meal
DR: I know that. What is this other thing. I havent .....
JULES: Do you want to see it? *Im taking no chances and get the glucagon out of the bag to show her....*
Even after all this when I got to the chemist I had the pharmacist show me the items so I could be sure it was the right things she wrote the script for.
Theres a huge problem with healthcare for diabetes. We see an endocrinologist once every 3 months at the Diabetes centre and in between we are supposed to see a GP - whom we clearly know more about the disease than because we manage it everyday!
I also discussed a health care plan where you can consult with diabetes educators and dietitians prior to going on an insulin pump. To obtain one I need a General Practitioner referal. She asked me to come back another day.
Im wondering if its because of all the paperwork or because she wants to familiarise herself with the procedure first!
Besides this shes not a bad dr (Ive never been to a better one),
shes usually quite friendly and
shes does an okay pap smear....
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Troubleshooting the mystery highs...
Amongst the weird and wonderful things we all do as Mummies to little people I have to figure out why we seem to get unexplainable high blood sugar readings. There are a few reasons I know of thus far in our diabetes journey.
I look at his numbers and some are crazy - and dont seem able to be brought down.
We start at BGL 14. He needs novorapid to correct that back into range. He eats 15g of cereal, he needs another unit to cover what he eats (and a little less for what he feeds to the dog or plays with and spreads through his hair and a little more for what he steals from his sister/eats from the fridge when im not looking and how the heck do you carb count the handful of Eukaneuba dog food he scoffs?) So, its a really good guess.
Okay we wait, we play blocks and some computer games. Sendentary games are best when trying to see what effect rapid insulin has as exercise interferes in the equation. I think Great, its testing time lets see what the novorapid has done. Nada. Nothing, zip. INFACT Reubs BGL is higher than before. Hes now in the 20's. Ketone check. Clear. Figured so as normally I can smell them.
So I've corrected heavily at breakfast, heavily again at lunchtime. Hes eaten very little today and done very little exercise.
I examined the tiny bit of snot on Reub's left nostril. Nope, not green dont think hes got an infection. Sickness is notorious for elevating blood sugars.
I think back to the mornings Lantus injection. No bent needles, no droplets of insulin left so Im guessing he got the full dose.
Its been very hot - maybe the insulin has been cooked.
I go to the fridge to check expiry dates - all in order.
Then I see it. The glass bottles holding the insulin seem f r o s t y in the refrigerator. I check the insulin and it looks frozen! I think a trip to the chemist is in order to replace our whole supply ! Drats and double drats.
I look at his numbers and some are crazy - and dont seem able to be brought down.
We start at BGL 14. He needs novorapid to correct that back into range. He eats 15g of cereal, he needs another unit to cover what he eats (and a little less for what he feeds to the dog or plays with and spreads through his hair and a little more for what he steals from his sister/eats from the fridge when im not looking and how the heck do you carb count the handful of Eukaneuba dog food he scoffs?) So, its a really good guess.
Okay we wait, we play blocks and some computer games. Sendentary games are best when trying to see what effect rapid insulin has as exercise interferes in the equation. I think Great, its testing time lets see what the novorapid has done. Nada. Nothing, zip. INFACT Reubs BGL is higher than before. Hes now in the 20's. Ketone check. Clear. Figured so as normally I can smell them.
So I've corrected heavily at breakfast, heavily again at lunchtime. Hes eaten very little today and done very little exercise.
I examined the tiny bit of snot on Reub's left nostril. Nope, not green dont think hes got an infection. Sickness is notorious for elevating blood sugars.
I think back to the mornings Lantus injection. No bent needles, no droplets of insulin left so Im guessing he got the full dose.
Its been very hot - maybe the insulin has been cooked.
I go to the fridge to check expiry dates - all in order.
Then I see it. The glass bottles holding the insulin seem f r o s t y in the refrigerator. I check the insulin and it looks frozen! I think a trip to the chemist is in order to replace our whole supply ! Drats and double drats.
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