Sunday...

Sunday morning my little brother Hunter boarded a flight home; well to Orlando. It was his very first flight ever. Did I mention that his flight left at 7-so we were at the Indianapolis airport at 6? Oh yes, we were! The airport is about 3 hours from our apartment and 2 hours from my in-law's house; so of course we stayed Saturday night at their house...making us get up around 3:45am instead of 2:45am. Good decision? YES!

After getting Hunter through security and giving him detailed directions on what to do next, The Mr. and I headed back to him parents house with dreams of climbing back into bed. I.WAS.EXHAUSTED! We were able to get back into bed around 9:30am, which was about the time his parents were leaving for church...I had set the alarm on my phone for noon thirty...

What happened next (that I remember) I blame on sheer exhaustion and maybe a little on a high blood sugar that I might have over corrected for. I did not wake up when the alarm went off once, or twice. I can imagine The Mr. reaching over me and hitting snooze just thinking that I was still passed out sleeping. That I was! What really was happening was an extreme low or hypoglycemia. It is a horrible feeling...I woke up not knowing where I was and completely helpless. Once The Mr. calmed me down enough to check my blood sugar he knew what he needed to do. The reading was 40 mg/dl. He ran downstairs to get some much needed juice and returned with a large glass of apple juice. This juice tasted SO good, possibly the best ever. Upon drinking guzzling the juice I started to feel better and recognize my surroundings and realized what had happened. I remember The Mr. asking me if I was okay and me responding with "I just returned from a parallel universe". He laughed, I laughed; all was well. Well, all with the exception of my sweat soaked pajamas. Yes folks, diabetes is sometimes not a pretty and glamorous disease. It is nasty and brutal...so I head to the shower.

Events like this do not happen often, that goodness. I really believe this episode was induces by over exhaustion and just plain being tired. I worked all week and stayed up late playing with Hunter and The Mr. They were able to sleep until 11am each morning while I rose for work around 6:45am. Thus my tiredness.

*Mom and Dad got me this book for Christmas and I was SO excited about it. I am on Chapter 8 now and am loving reading all about the history and how brutal diabetes was in the early 1900s. It really is inspiring and makes me think about how blessed I am to be living now, when diabetes is totally controllable and not a death sentence!

So what did I do on Sunday? After showering and getting ready we went to a yummy Mexican lunch with The Mr.'s parents then returned to their house to work on laundry...we had A LOT of it! I had good intentions on reading my new book I got for Christmas but fell asleep not far into the 3rd Chapter. So yes, I slept for most of the day on Sunday. It was glorious!

This week we have plans that include a little bit of relaxing, eating, movie watching and taking down the Christmas decorations. As sad as I am to take them down, I know in a blink of an eye it will be time to put them up next year and who knows what that will bring :) Hope everyone has a great day!

Diabetes

I am by no means a diabetes blogger. Yes, I blog almost daily, yes I read Six Until Me along with other diabetes blogs daily, and yes I have type one diabetes but my blog posts are not limited to diabetes related topics. Diabetes is a HUGE part of my life, so huge that some people without a chronic illness/disease may not understand. Diabetes is part of me and who I am, but it does not define me. Okay, rant over... :)

Lows are part of life with T1 Diabetes...they come daily usually and can be treated with a simple juice box or a coke. Thankfully most of my lows are able to be self corrected without help of people around me. They are easy to determine because the symptoms are easy to notice: dizziness, sweating, numbness in the mouth, irritability, hunger, and confusion...just to name a few. The problem is that sometimes...there are no symptoms!

For example: this morning while my husband was getting ready for work I got up to use the restroom. This is unusual for me, as usually I sleep fine until 7am. Keep in mind that I felt fine at the time, I just needed to use the restroom and climb back in bed as quickly as possible. I decide to check my blood sugar since I am awake at this time that is not part of my routine. So, I sleepily walk into the kitchen where my new pretty green One Touch is on the counter and prick my finger...5 seconds later I get the reading that alarms me so much that I gasp and my husband runs to check on me. My blood sugar was 27 mg/dl. if you are unfamiliar with diabetes care, 27 is LOW, too low-and I did not feel bad at all, no symptoms! I grabbed the strawberry juice (Nature's Nectar...love it!) from the fridge and started guzzling sipping the juice down with some peanut butter crackers. Twenty minutes later I retested and was up to 69 mg/dl and rising so I decided to go back to bed.

This whole experience was scary because well, what if I had been driving or alone shopping with no juice or snack when this extreme low snuck up on me symptomless? Thankfully I was at home where we are always stocked with items to treat lows, but I am not always so prepared. Events like this make me think a little more about getting a Continuous Glucose Monitoring Device (CGM) like the Dexcom even though insurance will not cover the costs because it is not 'medically necessary'. Maybe I can hold out just a little while longer since Animas is working on a combo pump and CGM :) Dear Animas and Dexcom, could you please hurry up on that project? Thanks!

Hopefully there will be no more lows today...we will see!



Diabetes Awareness Month

November is diabetes awareness month, and in honor of this I thought I would reminisce and tell the story of my diagnosis of Type 1 Diabetes. Some diabetes info for you first:

1. There are two types of diabetes, types 1 and 2.
I have been blessed with type 1.

2. Type 1: people with this type of diabetes produce very little or no insulin. People with type 1 diabetes require daily injections of insulin to survive.

3. Type 2: people with this type of diabetes cannot use insulin effectively. People with type 2 diabetes can sometimes manage their condition with lifestyle measures alone, but oral drugs are often required, and less frequently insulin, in order to achieve good metabolic control.

4. At least 171 million people worldwide have diabetes; this figure is likely to be more than double by 2030.

5. Around 3.2 million deaths every year are attributable to complications of diabetes; six deaths every minute.

6. Diabetes is a chronic condition that occurs when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin or when the body cannot effectively use the insulin it produces.

It all happened the summer before I started 6th grade. Looking back on that time all my family members now recognize the warning signs and symptoms of diabetes such as frequent thirst, urination, and weight loss. At the time my parents and family attributed them to the fact that it was summer in Florida, and always 100 degrees outside. Playing outside in that heat for hours would make any kid thirsty, right?

A few weeks before school was to start back we were going to have our last hooha of summer. We planned on going to my Aunt and Uncle's lake house about an hour away from home and spend the weekend. I was SO excited. I always loved that lake house and the time we all spent there! We went to the lake and the first night after eating McDonald's I became violently sick. I remember sleeping on the mattress on the floor in the spare room trying so hard NOT to throw up. I lost the battle and cried out for Mom. Mom stayed up with me all night. We had no idea what brought this on, perhaps something bad in my happy meal earlier?

I do not remember all the details, but I am sure my Mom does! All I know is that I was very, very sick. We went home and Monday Grandma came to stay with me while Mom and Dad went to work. Monday was bad. I remember being so tired from throwing up, that I could not walk to the bathroom to throw up anymore. I felt so exhausted and just wanted to be a normal kid again. No child should ever feel like this! When Mom came home from work I was crying and could not stop. There was this odd pain, I remember it vividly. I told Mom my heart hurt in between gasps for air. At that point we rushed to the hospital.

Upon entering the ER, Mom told the story, gave them my symptoms and so on. Blood and urine was taken for tests, and immediately a diagnosis made with my blood sugar over 800-I had type 1 diabetes. I needed to be taken to the nearest Children's Hospital which was about an hour away. I was taken via ambulance with Mom following. I remember asking the drivers if they were the men who came to take care of my Great Grandma when she was sick, though Mom says I was completely out of it...so maybe I was dreaming. There was a fine line between me and a diabetic coma, and I was very close to crossing it!

Next thing I remember is waking up in a dark hospital room with Mom sleeping in the chair next to my bed. She woke up when she heard me and told me that everything was going to be okay, that I was sick but would get better. I had diabetes, type one diabetes and would have to take insulin shots. WHAT? The only thing I knew about diabetes was that Stacey from the Babysitter's Club had diabetes. My best friend Keri and I loved reading Babysitter's Club books and they frequently mentioned Stacey and diabetes. I was not alone, because not many people in my family were familiar with the disease; non familiar with Type 1 and a 12 year old who has it. I did not have that many visitors in that room in ICU, but when I was moved up to the 5th floor I did. Family members were always there visiting and Dad and Hunter too!

So now the training classes start, for about a week we had several classes to go to. We had to learn everything; how to measure food, how to count carbohydrates, how to determine the amount of insulin to inject, how to give insulin injections, how to check my blood sugar, when to check my blood sugar, what to do on sick days when I could not keep any food down, how to monitor blood sugar during exercises...and much more. We needed a lot of information, and we got it fast!

I am so grateful for my outstanding family who was there with me every step of the way. Thank you all for learning how to care for me, and letting me know what I was not on this journey alone. I do not know where I would be without the support and love of my family and also the knowledge of the staff at Wolfson's Children's Hospital and Nemours Children's Clinic. Their classes and helplines were helpful for years!

I remember many things about those days in ICU and that week on the 5th floor! I remember asking to call Keri (my BFF and Maid of Honor) but not telling her I was in the hospital. Her mom gave her the news after our phone conversation. I remember Aunt E bringing me some of Mandi's clothes so I did not have to wear hospital gowns. I remember Uncle Chuck offering to have his nose pricked with a needle when I was crying because they were going to prick my finger and I was scared. I remember the activity room and all the crafts that I got to do there! And, most of all I remember our diabetes Educator Pamela telling us not to let diabetes run our lives and reminding us that everything is written on paper with pencil-not on stone.

That is my diabetes story, well most of it-all that I could remember! Promote diabetes awareness this month and contribute to your local diabetes organizations. Together we can find a cure to this disease!!