Find A CURE!

It's that time of year again! It seemed to come a little bit early this year....

It's time for Wendy's Frostys and helping to "Find A Cure For Diabetes". Just purchase these cute little books for $1 a piece and receive 4 FREE Frosty coupons inside! Sounds like a WIN-WIN to me!!

Day 7 D-Blogging- Diabetes Hero

Click for the Diabetes Hero - Sunday 5/20 Link List.
Let’s end our week on a high note and blog about our “Diabetes Hero”. It can be anyone you’d like to recognize or admire, someone you know personally or not, someone with diabetes or maybe a Type 3. It might be a fabulous endo or CDE. It could be a d-celebrity or role-model. It could be another DOC member. It’s up to you – who is your Diabetes Hero??

Well, this one was a no-brainer! Who is my Diabetes Hero? - 

Well, Kaci, of course!

She is 10 years old.

She has been living with diabetes for almost 3 years.

She was diagnosed on July 28, 2009 at the age of 7.

 

Here we are just weeks after her diagnosis at the beach. As scared as I was to take her on that trip- I knew that I had to do it. It was planned months before she was diagnosed and her Endocrinologist insisted that unless she was sick- I was not allowed to cancel! We went on the trip with my parents, my sister and her family. Clint has to stay home to work. I was the only one who knew how to give her her shots. Water play can drop her sugar like a brick- so can the hot sun. I was scared a lot.This is one of my most treasured pictures. It stirs up so many emotions in me! She was only 7 years old.

 

This is Kaci on her 8th birthday. It was her first sleepover party. Diabetes wasn't going to stop us.  I climbed over all the sleeping girls to do her 2 a.m. check!

 

Here is Kaci at age 9. She was all dressed up and ready for a Christmas brunch at her friend's house. I stayed until she had checked her sugar and made her plate. Ran to the Outlet Mall for about 30 minutes and then returned to give her her shot. Then- it was back to the Outlet Mall for me while they finished up the party. D-Mamma's- you understand!

 

Here she is at age 10- ready to attend Wicked with her Uncle Chad. They went out for Italian food before hand and even shared a piece of chocolate cake. She figured her own insulin and gave herself her own shot! Diabetes has never stopped her. It never will.

 My other Diabetes Hero is Uncle Chad. He also has Type 1 Diabetes. Always there when I need him. Many days and many nights he has answered my questions, calmed my fears and shared his stories. This is my favorite picture of him and Kaci!

Day 6- D-Blogging- A picture is worth a thousand words!

Click for the Saturday Snapshots - Saturday 5/19 Link List.
Back for the third year, let’s show everyone what life with diabetes looks like! With a nod to the Diabetes 365 project, let’s grab our cameras again and share some more d-related pictures. Post as many or as few as you’d like. Feel free to blog your thoughts on or explanations of your pictures, or leave out the written words and let the pictures speak for themselves.

I am a picture freak! Just ask anyone that knows me. If there are not at least 50 pictures of any given event....it must not have happened, or I wasn’t there! I love taking pictures. I am not a photographer, nor do I claim to be! – But I do LOVE to take pictures of EVERYTHING! Every picture that I have ever taken is now labeled in my mind “before” or “after.” I can look at a picture and in an instant remember if it was taken “before” or “after” my daughter, Kaci was diagnosed with diabetes. Weird, huh?

Well, here are just a few D-related pictures (in no particular order) that I would like to share with all of you.

 This is the postcard Kaci made for the World Diabetes Day Postcard Exchange in 2011. Click here to learn more about it and join for next year  http://www.wddpe.com/

 This is Kaci's entry for the FORD Customer Service Division JDRF car design in June 2011.
This contest raised over $43,000!! Kaci's car raised $2,255.00! Amazing!

 Here are the beautiful canvases Kaci painted for the JDRF Hope Ball auction this year 2012. Her canvases were connected with 23 other canvasses painted by children with diabetes. It sold for $3,700 to help find a cure for diabetes!

 These are the beautiful mosaics Kaci and Bailey volunteered to make this year as gifts for past JDRF board presidents.

 This is Kaci in 2010. She stuffed over 1,000 JDRF School Walk folders.

 Kaci in 2011 stuffing more folders. 3000 this time!

 Kaci and Bailey on the morning of their JDRF School Walk at their Elementary School- 2011

 The beautiful canvases Kaci painted in 2011 for the Hope Ball auction. This piece raised over $4,000.

 Kaci giving herself her first shot.

 Our team poster for our first "Say Boo to Diabetes Walk" in October 2009.

 Kaci on the first week of school just a month after her diagnosis. This is her wonderful nurse, who we miss dearly, Mrs. Scott.

 Mrs. Scott and Kaci at the "Say Boo To Diabetes Walk" 2011

 Lenny the Lion with Kaci- her friend, Grayson- and her brother, Bailey at the walk 2011.

 Me getting a site put on at the Doctor's office to show Kaci it isn't all that bad. I wore it for 3 days- minus the pump, of course!

 Our walk team in 2009.

 Kaci just 6 months after she was diagnosed. She wrote this out with coins that we later donated to JDRF.

Kaci and the first person she met that also has diabetes.

 Kaci before her photo shoot in 2010. She was on the Hope Ball invitation that year. (which is know beautifully framed in our home)

Me and Kaci on her 8th birthday party (a sleepover) Didn't realize until later that I was holding her shot in this picture. This is right after cake!

School Walk folders 2012. She stuffed 5,000!!!

 The Wendy's Frosty booklets we buy every year to support JDRF. Just $1 per book and you get 4 FREE frostys! Yes....we eat them....and Kaci does too!

A close up of our sharps container.

A picture really is worth a thousand words. These are just a few of my favorites!

Day 5 of D-Blogging- ONE Thing

Today’s D Blog Topic is “What is one thing you would tell someone that doesn’t have diabetes about living with diabetes?”. Let’s do a little advocating and post what we wish people knew about diabetes. Have more than one thing you wish people knew? Go ahead and tell us everything.

When I saw this topic the first thing I thought was....WOW! I could write for days on this one. There is so much that people don’t know about Type 1 Diabetes.

Let’s face it- I used to be “one of those people” too!

My brother in law has Type 1 Diabetes. For years I didn’t understand why if he was supposed to watch his sugar intake-I would sometimes see him shoving down candy bars or drinking a glass of orange juice like it was a shot in a bar!

I always knew he had to give himself a shot after a meal- but I had no idea that each time he took a shot he had to calculate the amount of insulin he was taking according to the amount of food he ate and his blood sugar reading before the meal.

This could be the part of diabetes that fascinates me the most. All the math involved- All the thinking, and counting and weighing. All the adding, and subtracting and dividing. There is a post I wrote a year ago that is the perfect post for today’s topic. Click on the following link to see the post I wrote back on February 9th, 2011

http://andrea-randomthoughts.blogspot.com/2011/02/arithmetic-is-where-numbers-fly-like.html

If for some reason, the link does not work, you can read the post below.....

 

If you know me....you know I hate math. Welcome to my world of numbers.....

Wake up and check Kaci's sugar at 6 a.m. Her meter reads 108. Perfect...no correction! A great morning reading is between 80 and 130. She wants a smoothie for breakfast. Weigh the banana on the carb scale....it is 23 carbs. Add 1/2 cup of milk...that is 5 carbs. Add a yogurt cup .....that is 13 carbs. Put 3 strawberries in...they are 4 carbs. Add that all up and the total is 45 carbs. Breakfast insulin coverage is 1 unit for every 8 carbs, so I divide 45 by 8 and that is 5.625- Round up and that is 6 units of insulin.

She is taking her lunch today, so I have to write all the carbs down for the school nurse. I am making her a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Each piece of bread is 10 carbs, a tablespoon of peanut butter is 7 carbs and 1 tablespoon of sugar free jelly is 5 carbs. She wants to have pringles...they are 12 carbs. A pickle pack is 0 carbs. She is having water with sugar free add in and one cookie for dessert...it is 15 carbs. So add all those together....59 carbs. Her insulin coverage for lunch is 1 unit for every 12 carbs. So divide 59 by 12 and you get 4.916. She checks her sugar for lunch at about 11:37 (** When the nurse checks her sugar at lunch it is 188. So to figure her correction you have to take her current blood sugar and subtract 130, then divide by 40) So 188 - 130= 58.....divide 58 by 40 and you get 1.45 for correction. Add that to her meal coverage of 4.916 and you get 6.366... Since her sugar was a litte high at lunch I will round that up to 6.5 units of insulin.

Now I have to pack her snack. To avoid having to get a shot at school for snack, Kaci usually takes a FREE snack. This means a food that contains no carbs: pickles, cheese, pepperoni, ham, or sugar free jello. Today I pack pickles. When she takes her blood sugar at 9:55, if it is above 129 she must eat her FREE snack. If it is above 130- she can eat her carb snack and her FREE snack. Today I will pack 3 carbs of crackers...Much more than that will require a shot. For 6 carbs she gets to have 3 Ritz crackers. When she checks her blood sugar today at snack it was 201. She eats the FREE snack.

When she comes home from school she is hungry. We check her blood sugar at 3:00 and it is 110- We pop a bag of popcorn and add a few M&M's for fun! The popcorn is 17 carbs and the M&M's are about 7 ....Add those together and her total carbs for snack are 24. At snack her insulin to carb ratio is 1 unit for every 15 carbs. Her blood sugar was 110, so there is no correction. I divide 24 by 15 and get 1.6. I will round that to 2 units for snack.

I start cooking dinner and Kaci comes to me and says her legs feel shaky. This usally means that her sugar is below 70 and she needs sugar to raise her to a safer level.We check her sugar and it is 64. Guess I should have rounded down the insulin at snack. OOPS! She is excited to get to drink a juice box to raise her sugar to a safer level. It is 7 carbs and should do the trick. We wait 15 minutes and recheck with another finger poke. Her blood sugar went up to 164. That did the trick!

Dinner is ready in the next 20 minutes- so we don't take her sugar again. We just use the last reading. For dinner we are having fettuccine, peas and butter bread. I boil her noodles separate because the box gives me the carbs for 56 grams of uncooked pasta. I weigh them on the food scale and they are 42 carbs. Add the sauce- and I make my best guess and say it is about 8 carbs. Bread with butter is 10 carbs. Peas are about 6 carbs. Add this all together and this meal is 60 carbs. Dinner ratio is 1 unit of insulin for every 10 carbs. So this one is easy....no correction since she was low before dinner, so I divide 60 by 10 and she gets 6 units of insulin. We usually do her shot as soon as she is done eating (just to make sure she eats everything or doesn't want more...since that will change her carbs up or down) but pasta and pizza take longer to digest. So, we wait about 30 or 40 minutes after she finishes to give her the shot.

Getting close to bed and her sugar must be above 120. We check it at 8:00 and it is 110. She needs some carbs to raise her sugar. She has a sugar free ice cream bar that is 13 carbs and 1/2 a cup of milk that is 5. We don't give her a shot for this snack, because we are trying to raise her sugar- but we still have to give her her night shot. It is called Lantus and it is her long lasting shot. It lasts for 24 hours along with her meal coverage shots. She takes 18 units. We check her sugar again at 9, just to make sure it has raised above 120 and discover that even after eating 18 carbs her blood sugar has only raised to 111. Sure that the food will continue to cause a rise in her blood sugar we send her to bed and set the alarm to check her at 2 a.m.

2 a.m. rolls around and the alarm goes off. I check her and she is 88. We have now poked her finger 10 times and she has taken5 shots .With 4 and 1/2 hours more of sleep- I fear if I don't have her eat or drink something she will continue to drop and go below 70 (this is when she needs fast acting sugar) So, I decide to wake her and have her eat 3 vanilla wafers, they are 2 carbs a piece and a 1/2 cup of milk....it is 5 carbs. That is a total of 11 carbs....again with no shot....as I am trying to raise her sugar.

When the alarm goes off at 6 a.m. I rush to her room to wake her for the day - and of course, check her blood sugar. The meter beeps and it is 112......

And the day begins again.....

So, what would I tell people about diabetes that they may not know? Well, I would tell them that you have to have sharp math skills.. I would tell them having a food scale at home is essential. I would tell them I don’t know how people got along without the FREE restaurant App on their phone so that when they go out to eat and be able to look up the number of carbs in a taco at Taco Bell or a bread stick at Olive Garden. (It is always much more than you would guess!)

I would tell them to not take for granted simply pouring their child a bowl of goldfish without having to count out a single serving of 31. –

I would tell them not to take for granted that they can unwrap a banana and hand it to their child without having to put in on a scale and entering the banana code 365 to see how many carbs it has in it.

I would tell them to enjoy every bite without the “numbers” creeping in to take out some of the joy!

Day 4 - of D blogging!

Click here for the Fantasy Diabetes Device - Thursday 5/17 Link List.
Today let’s tackle an idea inspired by Bennet of Your Diabetes May Vary. Tell us what your Fantasy Diabetes Device would be? Think of your dream blood glucose checker, delivery system for insulin or other meds, magic carb counter, etc etc etc. The sky is the limit – what would you love to see?
For me...this one is easy-
A magic pill....perhaps half red and half blue like the one pictured below! (but really it could be any color)  A pill....that would make it all go away. A pill ....that would make it ALL BETTER! That is my Fantasy Diabetes Device!

In case you were wondering.....

YUP! I'm still cute!

Day 3 of D blogging

Click for the One Thing to Improve - Wednesday 5/16 Link List.
Yesterday we gave ourselves and our loved ones a big pat on the back for one thing we are great at. Today let’s look at the flip-side. We probably all have one thing we could try to do better. Why not make today the day we start working on it. No judgments, no scolding, just sharing one small thing we can improve so the DOC can cheer us on!

The one thing I need to improve on is how upset I can get at the high (or low) numbers that show up on the meter.

There are many days I feel guilty.

Every blood sugar reading that is not within “Target Range” is like an arrow to the heart.

I feel responsible for every HIGH and every LOW.

In my mind – I know that diabetes is responsible for all of the numbers- but in my heart- I see it as a reflection of my failure.

It is incredible the amount of guilt I can feel after the final count down of

5, 4, 3, 2, 1 BEEEEEPPPPPPPPPPPP~~331

Or 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEPPPPPP ~~49

Kaci’s dr described it the best when I told her how upset I can get when I see these high (or low) readings on Kaci’s meter.

She said ....

Remember....there are going to be thousands even millions of blood glucose readings in Kaci’s life. There are going to be highs, lows and “goods!” But each number is just ONE- one of MILLIONS in her lifetime.

Sometimes you can’t see the forest for the trees.

Damn trees!