Adventures in Sunday School

I never know what Jada's blood sugar is going to be during Sunday School. Church starts at 10 am and part way through the service, the kids are dismissed to another theater (yes, our church meets in a movie theater!) for Sunday School. I always check her before she leaves and there have been times that I need to give her a snack before she goes in. However, you've heard about the times that she has dropped to some crazy lows during Sunday School after she had been on the high end of her range just before I sent her in. Today was another story!! :)

Her Sunday School teacher, Michael, is a great guy! He's also an EMT, which makes me feel a little more relaxed. They don't have snacks every week (which is just fine with me), but when they do, he always checks to see if Jada can have one. He never just assumes anything, which we really appreciate. Like, last week, he had cheese sticks (perfect!) and even though he knew it was a free snack, he wanted to make sure. Today, just as the kids were being dismissed from church, Michael walked in and briefly sat down next to Jeff. He had Christmas treats for the kids and was checking to see if Jada could have any. Well, she had been 289 about 10 minutes prior to his asking, so I was doubtful, but told him I would check her again. So, I went to the next theater and wouldn't you know, she had already dropped to 220 and I told him she could have a few pretzels with almond bark on them. He went to get her some water and I went back to church. I wasn't sure if I had done the right thing, but I couldn't fathom her sitting there while the other kids were eating cookies and other treats while she had a bottle of water. NOT happening!

So, I pick her up after church, and found out that she had a juice box with her treats and my stomach sank! What was that lunch time number going to be??? We've been dealing with so many highs lately, that I thought for sure she would be in the 300's. And when we got home and checked, wouldn't you know- 200 on the mark! The very upper end of her range. Isn't it amazing what a number can do to your day?? I was almost giddy!!

Catching Up

Well....we've been busy here in the far north. Christmas is coming....my secret santa gift is all put together (finally!) and ready to get in the mail. Our shopping for the kids is nearly done...mostly stocking stuffers is what we have left. We've begun our holiday baking- I say "we" because Jeff really gets into this time of year and enjoys all that comes with the season. The kids are done with school on Friday!!! I am SO excited to have them home for a couple of weeks. We'll be heading to Anchorage on New Years Day for the weekend.....excited for my family, but NOT excited about the 6 hour drive to get there. It's not the 6 hours, but the fact that we will only have a few hours of daylight for travel, so most of it will be done in the dark and there's always a moose or two lurking around. You don't want one of those coming through your windshield! Also, weather changes so quickly here and road conditions change with them. There are a few small towns along the road, but it's pretty remote. The good thing is, it's a well traveled road, so if something happens, help can arrive quickly. Geesh....can you tell that road freaks me out a bit????

Jada's doing ok. We've been lingering on the high side lately-- the low 200's have kept us company lately. She does have a slight cold, so that may be why. If I don't see a change in the next day or two, we'll have to do some adjusting, most likely to her Lantus, because she does come down after a meal correction, then bounces right back up again. We'll get it figured out!

Well...the snow has been falling beautifully all day- big, fat, fluffy flakes (trying saying THAT 5 times quickly). I could sit on my sofa all day and watch them fall with nothing but the tree lights on. However, there is laundry to fold, dishes to do and bathrooms to clean. All that, plus some holiday baking to do. I had better go.

D-O-N-E DONE!

DONE DONE DONE! I am DONE with insulin pens. I don't think I'm doing anything wrong with them. I'm following the instructions. I'm counting to 20- yes- TWENTY- after injecting her to make sure it all gets in her little body and insulin is STILL spilling onto her arm. And we are having horrible- awful- high numbers. Last night, she hung out in the 400's and woke up at 285. She came down to 155 at lunch, but after lunch she was 430! And...insulin spilled onto her arm even after I dosed her for half a unit more than she needed just in case that happened. We gave her a correction at snack time and she was down to 180 at dinner. What am I supposed to do...guess how much insulin made it inside and try to make up for it???
Sorry for my rant, but there is no NEED for these numbers. And it's NOT good for her. So there. That's it. I'm DONE.

It's the Weekend

Whew......made it through this week! Jeff has started his new job....working 8-5 Monday through Friday which is a huge change for us. In our 12 years of marriage he has never once had a Monday through Friday job! Do I miss the restaurant business??? NOPE! Not one bit! :)

I've also had a change in my routine as well. I'm now watching 2 sweet little ones....a little girl (age 2 1/2) and her baby brother (4 months) during the week. It's been a welcome change for me...I didn't realize just how much I missed having a baby around!!! So, I'm getting my baby fix and Jada has a playmate during the day while everyone else is at school!

On the D-front, things are just so-so. This last week hasn't been as frustrating as the week before, but she is consistently high- like really high- at her midnight check- which is what we were trying to keep from happening. I really wish we would just go back to how we were doing things, and we might. Jada has a well child check in two weeks and we'll be discussing that!

So, talking about those high numbers- last night was the worst she's had since I don't know when! I checked her at 11:30 and she was in the mid-200's. I decided to go to bed and then set my alarm for 2:00 am. I woke up at 1:30 to Jada at my bedside telling me that she's thirsty. So, we check---- 550!!! What???? I'm not sure what happened. We had pizza for dinner--so that may have done it. She's not had a problem with pizza in the past, but maybe it's something I need to be more careful of in the future. So, I gave her a correction and sent her back to bed. She woke up at 70...but has been tired and crabby all day. Funny.....so have I. ;)

In other news, the last few days we've had spectacular weather for October in Alaska. Nearly 60 degrees today...not too shabby for just being about 180 miles south of the Arctic Circle! We'll take it...because once it's gone....it's gone until the end of April.

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.........

Seasons, Numbers and Change

The lazy, crazy days of summer in the north are over and FALL! Yes- fall has already arrived. Our leaves are changing and our highs most days barely make it to the lower 60's. Lots of rain. And I'm loving it! Yes, summer is short here and our fall is way shorter than most, but after a summer of smoke and record heat, I'm happy about it.

Summer here is crazy- sunny, late nights and little sleep make for wacky blood sugars! I have dealt with what seems like a TON of late night low blood sugars.....like in the 40s and 50s and we are suddenly dealing again with a mid-morning spikes that are just way out of range. The late night lows I think are due to eating dinner too late, then is too high to have a snack before bed and then when I check her at midnight, she's too low. Her mid-morning spikes have occurred for a variety of reasons. Sometimes, she wakes up on the low side and starving, so we don't always wait 20 minutes before she eats. That will do it nearly every time. Or we've woken up late, breakfast late and then is spiking when it's time to eat lunch. This summer has been a huge reminder to me how important a schedule is in order to keep Jada's numbers in range.


Change has occurred in a big way for our family this year! We have mostly homeschooled our kids- with the boys doing both public and homeschool. The plan had been for David to go the our neighborhood elementary school, Eli to private school and I would homeschool Mary Beth.

The week before school started and I was beginning to work on Mary Beth's curriculum, I just had the biggest knot in my stomach. I just didn't feel right about it- which is strange to me. So, I began to pray about it and just was not feeling any peace about it. I think my long days of being home alone with the kids have finally caught up to me and I am desperately needing a break. There's a whole lot more to it than that, but that's all I'll say for now. :)

So....with the instability of Jeff's job, it was quickly decided that private school for Eli wouldn't be the wisest financial decision that we could make. All three of them are in our neighborhood school and so far, we very happy with our decision. I miss them SO much, but they are doing great!

That's the short of it. With our schedule getting back on track, hopefully more blogging will come along with that. Be on the look out for more pictures of our beautiful Alaska summer in the next few days!

Chena Lakes

Yesterday was hot enough- for Alaska- to go to the local beach! Yep- folks- a whopping 74 degrees here and people head for the water! The kids and I headed over to Chena Lakes rec area for an afternoon of sun and sand. As usual, when recreating, I worry if the d-monster is going to behave or decide to act up. Upon arrival, I checked Jada and she was 69- a little low, but nothing to panic about. I gave her a 100 calorie snack pack (those come in so handy!) and had her sit for a little bit before playing in the water. My mind went elsewhere while they were playing and I managed to forget to check her! Bad mom- I know- but obviously she was fine! By the time we left, she was at 112 and still full of energy. Jada fell asleep on the way home and by dinner she was 189. After dinner, we headed out for ice cream and she was at 212. The novolog just hadn't had the opportunity to work yet- but I knew that it would. We went to a local ice cream place called "Hot Licks" and they did have a sugar free pistachio ice cream. We got her a little cup and I crossed my fingers and hoped that we weren't setting her up for a high. We ran to Walmart, and then came home and got the kids ready for bed. After Jada brushed her teeth, she came to me saying she was "SO firsty mama!". Crap. I just knew she was high. Checked her- and what do you know- 79. And by the way she was acting, falling pretty quickly. So- I gave her a piece of bread and butter- brushed teeth AGAIN- and sent her off to bed. At her midnight check she was at 167 and she woke up at 180 this morning.
Here are some pics of our fun yesterday:

Eli being overly dramatic about "starving"- after he had eaten an entire bag of chips!

Gettin' some fuel!

Sisters!