Tuesday, September 29, 2009

In Progress.......

Finally, after life getting in the way of switching Jada's Lantus dose from morning to night, we got it done this morning. She took 2 units of NPH this morning in place of Lantus at about 8 am with breakfast. I was nervous at first because you have to be on such a strict schedule with NPH, but by midmorning, I wasn't concerned about lows, because she wouldn't come out of the mid-300's!! Obviously, the NPH dosage wasn't enough. After her lunch time shot, she has slowly come down and at 4 pm was 205. She hasn't had numbers like that in such a long time and she obviously didn't feel well. We'll see how her numbers do the rest of the day. We'll give her the Lantus dosage tonight at bedtime and we should have better numbers tomorrow.

I'll let you know.........

Sunday, September 27, 2009

What a Day!

Today was to have been the day that we switched Jada's Lantus to an evening dosage. I had hoped to do it on Friday, but our dr. was out of town and she wanted to be available if there were any probems. Have I mentioned that I really like our new dr.? :) So, we agreed that today was it and that Jada would wake up and have a dose of NPH to get her through the day until bedtime, when we would give her the usual dose of Lantus. However, Jeff quickly reminded me that there was just NO WAY we would be able to make the switch today- because we were crazy busy! So what did we do today?

Two birthday parties, a wedding and a celebratory dinner for a friend who has accomplished one year of sobriety! Whewwww.........yes I'm tired tonight! Plus, we sold a vehicle and Jeff sold and delivered one cord of wood before we headed to the wedding.

Eli and David headed off to a birthday party for a friend from church. Swimming and waterslides at a local pool (obviously indoor!) then pizza and cake. Jeff and I didn't attend this one, but obviously, I had to drop them off and pick them up- just adding some craziness to the day.

Then- the girls and I took the van (we sold it because Jeff needs a truck) to the buyer's house where Jeff was unloading the cord of wood we also sold to them. Then off to the wedding.

At church last week, my friend Donna pulled me aside to tell me that she and her fiance had got their marriage license and that today would be the big day. I felt so honored because she was inviting just a few of her friends to witness the exchange of vows. So- I got to keep a wonderful secret this week! And at 1 pm today, I stood outside with Donna and Jim, a few of their friends and Donna's children and watched them become life partners. We were on the Parks Highway at a lookout over the Tanana River Valley. It was 30 degrees and snowing but I wouldn't have missed it for the world!

Mary Beth and Jada were invited to our neighbor girl's birthday party. It was held at the bowling alley on the campus of the University of Alaska/Fairbanks-- we got there late but had a great time. We love our neighbors and feel so blessed to have good ones! Jada's blood sugar cooperated well and I was so glad that I could let her have pizza and cake without fretting about how her numbers would end up later Jeff and I ended up playing a game of bowling and I discovered that I should just really stick to bowling on the Wii! :)

Then, tonight, I was priveleged to attend a dinner at my favorite restaurant (The Pumphouse!). A bunch of gals from church gathered together to celebrate one year of sobriety for our friend Theresa! What a privilege to celebrate her victory and affirm her!

It was an incredibly busy day, but it was oh-so-good! I'm amazed at the people that God has brought into my life and feel so blessed. And...Jada's Lantus switch is on the docket for Monday now! :)

Friday, September 18, 2009

A1C, New Dr., Some Changes

I was at McDonald's with Jada this afternoon when Jeff called me and said, "6.8". My first thought was- earthquake??? We have had some shaking going on here lately, but I would have noticed an earthquake of that magnitude!!! He repeated himself and said rather loudly--"Jada's A1C!" I almost dropped the phone! I wasn't expecting THAT! I was thinking it would be somewhere in the 7's. So- yes happy with the A1C- and Dr. W overall was very encouraging, but said that she would like to see her more in the 7-8 range because she is still so young and those low blood sugars can be so hard on a little body.

Speaking of Dr.'s- we obviously have a new one. We'll call her Dr. W. Being as we live in a "remote" area, there are no endocrinologists in Fairbanks and no pediatric endos in Alaska period. The closest endo is 6 hours away- which could be an option for us if we weren't happy with our options here. Dr. W is a pediatrician who has taken on Type 1 Diabetes as her "specialty" and she really impressed me on our first visit. She's very thorough- asked me lots of questions about our life, routine, eating habits, and very carefully looked through Jada's blood sugar logs. I was SO glad to see that she loves what she does and takes it very seriously. She was great with Jada, too. Jada is always shy in new situations and Dr. W took it very slowly with her.

We are making a couple of changes that I'm excited about! We are going to start doing her Lantus at night rather in the morning. One of my frustrations has been our middle of the night checks. If Jada isn't at last 200 at midnight- she'll wake up dangerously low. She may be 271 or 300 at midnight and still wake up only at 70. If she is under 200 at her midnight check, I give her a juice box, because it would be disastrous if I didn't. Her daytime numbers are overall very good, so Dr. W didn't want to change the dosage- just the time she takes her dose of Lantus and hopefully, it will help in the way that she is peaking and falling quickly. In order to do the transition, we'll have to do one day on NPH. I'm going to pick a day next week that we don't have a lot going on and do it then, because I am little nervous about it- just because it's "change"!
We are also going to start using the NovoPen Jr. for her Novolog. Dr. W gave us a NovoPen and I should be able to start using the pen after I pick up all of Jada's prescriptions in the next day or two. It's going to be so much easier to just "dial" the right dose and move on. Fewer syringes to deal with, too!

Last but not least--the pump!! I talked with Dr. W about it yesterday and she was in agreement that Jada would do great on a pump. She would like some time to get to know us and Jada before she'll go ahead and prescribe one- which is perfectly okay with me. She indicated her time line would be in 3-6 months. I guess it's time for me to start doing my research on pumps-- at last! :)

So- I'm feeling pretty good tonight. I LIKE knowing that my sleepless nights and frustrating days are paying off. I LIKE knowing that Jada is doing great and that even though those numbers tend to bounce around ALOT- that she is, over all, a healthy little girl. Most of all- I LIKE knowing that we haven't let diabetes control our life. My little girl is a testament to that!


In Wendy's words--- "TAKE THAT- DIABETES!!" (whack)"AND THAT!" (punch) "AND THAT!!!!" (karate chop)




Friday, September 4, 2009

Silly Paranoid Rant

So...lately I've been paranoid that Jada has celiac disease. I know it's quite common among Type 1's and maybe I just feel like I'm waiting for the hammer to fall somewhere else. She's never had a screening done and I really think we need to.
Now...I'm not seeing any signs--all of her BM's look "normal" (sorry if I gross anyone out), she doesn't get bad tummy aches but I think what got me to thinking was her rate of growth. And of course, I've compared her to Mary Beth, who is built different and has grown several inches in the past couple of months. Jada has been wearing the same size of clothes FOREVER (4T) and I have kept wondering when the heck she was going to get a growth spurt. About a month ago, I had her try on a pair of 5T jeans and they were way too long. Tonight, I had her try them on again and they fit- perfectly! Finally. I was so relieved.
So...I know this all sounds pathetic and obviously, I can't diagnose her by looking at her poop! I'm just amazed at how my mind can take something and just run with it! All this to say, she has an appointment (finally!) in 2 weeks with our new doctor and I'm going to ask them to do a screening-- just so I know for sure and I can either get it out of my mind or deal with it if I need to.
Okay. I feel much better.

Kind of.